You’ll find a variety of blog posts aimed at parents, speech therapists, and students, with topics ranging from nonspeaking children and getting started with AAC, to how to support speaking children and teaching literacy
Posted in: AAC
How many times have you heard: "They are just stimming on their device.” In this blog post, I’ve teamed up with Laura Hayes (@AACinnovations on Instagram) to take a magnifying glass and zoom in on how AAC learners may “stim” on their devices and how we can utilize this information to better support them.
All children, regardless of their disability, CAN be taught how to read and write. Here are some ideas if you’re not quite sure how to get an AAC user started with literacy.
Utilizing this least-to-most prompting hierarchy (see photo below) helps give children the scaffolded support they need to become more independent and autonomous communicators. Remember: if we are constantly prompting our communicators, then we are teaching them to only communicate when someone tells them to.
If you’ve spent any time here on my website or follow me on social media, then you’ve probably noticed that I love visual resources. Visual supports are imperative for child learning, and there are few visual supports that I love more than a communication board (you can download my FREE Core Communication Board).
As I finally see light peeking out from the end of the tunnel, I've been overwhelmed with emotions and reflection. The lessons of this long, arduous journey have given me even more compassion for the families and students I serve.
“You were a late talker too,” your mom says as she sips her latte. “I wouldn’t worry about it. Look at you. You turned out fine. Just give him time. He’ll talk when he’s good and ready.” Your well intentioned, reassuring mother might be absolutely right. Your child might begin talking (or talking more) any day now. But what if she’s not right? What if speech doesn’t develop like you hoped it would? While you wait to find out, might valuable time be slipping by when your child could be learning tools that could help him to communicate?
We don’t have the capacity to force verbal children to talk… so why, then, would it be acceptable to take a child’s hand and activate their words on their device or tell them what to say in any given situation?
And more importantly... how does requiring a child to say specific words actually translate into autonomous communication? Spolier alert: it doesn’t.
That’s where the “Inspire” piece of this catch phrase comes into play.
It stands for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, and it basically refers to any kind of communication system that helps kids (or anyone, for that matter) express their needs to you if they can’t use verbal speech.
One of the biggest misconceptions I see in my practice is that people think that AAC only refers to sleek gadgets activated by fancy buttons.
In fact, some of the most effective AAC supports I use every day are quite simple, and considered “no tech” or “paper based”.
This is a concern of many parents and teachers who are afraid that AAC will discourage spoken communication. However, there’s absolutely no research proving that kids stop talking when you give them AAC. In fact, I find that once kids start using a device it actually encourages more verbal communication.