By: Stefanie Olson, M.S., CCC-SLP Interview Responses: Catlaina Vrana, PRC-Saltillo Ambassador Imagine sitting in a house with a tin roof, in a rainstorm, and being asked to isolate the sound of a single raindrop. What a challenge that would be! This is the experience some individuals...
By Carrie Elliot, M.A., CCC-SLP My name is Carrie Elliot. I am both an Assistive Technology Specialist and a Speech-Language Pathologist at Seattle Public Schools. I am a cisgender able-bodied white woman and my pronouns are she/her/hers. Power and Privilege Acknowledgement: I recognize my privilege and power as a cisge...
Make Practice Time Fun with Your AAC Learner Score points with the AAC learners in your life with implementation ideas that make practicing with speech-generating devices fun and engaging! Our fan favorite online resources AAC Language Lab® and ChatCorner will help you plan your implementation strategies for success wi...
By Emily Gabrielle, Liberator Ltd Encanto fever has swept our house of late (seriously we’re listening to the soundtrack every day!). We love all the characters – but especially Bruno, the family member no-one talks about due to his misunderstood powers and the perceived havoc they can wreak. As I was writing ...
New from PRC-Saltillo: AAC Group Coaching! What is AAC Group Coaching?AAC Group Coaching is an informal, interactive, fun way to improve your communication partner skills by learning along with other parents of children who use AAC. Your AAC Group Coach will lead your small group (generally consisting of 6 parents) through...
By Jane Odom, M. Ed, PRC-Saltillo, AAC Language Lab Training and Implementation Specialist The AAC Industry is quite small in comparison to other industries. We serve a unique population of clients. When a student is deciding what path to take for their future, I highly doubt, AAC Specialist is even something t...
By Beth Waite-Lafever, MA-CCC/SLP-ATP PRC Training and Implementation Specialist What is the latest fall fashion for trendy school personnel? High waisted pants? Knee-high boots? Nope, it is the traditional school staff lanyard with a twist: Visual supports on your lanyard that promote literacy and...
By Laura Arnold, Speech Language PathoM.logist, M.A., CCC-SLP/L In April of 2012, the National Education Association (NEA) published the results of a study in which they explored parent-teacher communication. The findings showed that nearly one-quarter of parents did not feel like a collaborative partner in school activiti...
By Jane Odom, M.Ed, Director of Implementation Resource, PRC Theater performances are fun to watch and even more fun to participate in. Most students who use AAC never get the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience. They never get to feel the butterflies of nervousness in their stomachs or hear the applau...
By Kathryn Helland, Temple University It has been a blink of an eye. Our participants have gone back home, and it is hard to describe how much I already miss these people. I am sad that more opportunities like ACES don’t exist in their daily lives (hooray, ACES West!). For all the pros and cons of social media, I am gr...
Nicole Wingate, MA CCC-SLP, MSD Bluffton Harrision It was just a few years ago when I found myself feeling hopeless as an SLP. There were students on my caseload with virtually no functional means to communicate. With ever changing technology and the development of AAC apps, I became overwhelmed! Where do I start and what ...
By Jane Odom, M.Ed, Director or Implementation Resources Think about how often a young mother will talk to her infant even though the infant cannot repeat what she says. In this same way, it is important for us to use some techniques to show a child what we expect. First and foremost, it is important that the person tea...
By Jane Odom, M.Ed, Director of Implementation Resources Shout Out It is important to give our AAC device users enough time to practice their vocabulary in a meaningful way. One way to teach core vocabulary with repetition in a group is to do a ‘Shout Out’ activity. In this activity, you will need to create a poste...
_ By Jane Odom, M. Ed, Director of Implementation Resources, PRC_ Today’s blog post is about my journey in the field of AAC. I was fortunate enough to attend Temple University back in the 1980’s. It was then I was introduced to the field of AAC. I attended the ACES program as a grad student where I attended a trai...
By Jane Odom, M.Ed, Director of Implementation Resource, PRC Theater performances are fun to watch and even more fun to participate in. Most students who use AAC never get the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience. They never get to feel the butterflies of nervousness in their stomachs or hear the applau...
By Jane Odom, M.Ed, Director of Implementation Resources It is a known fact that students who write become better readers. Students learn to write when given daily opportunities to see others write. They must also have frequent opportunities to write without standards to make progress in the process of composition. (Muss...
_ By Jane Odom, M. Ed, Director of Implementation Resources_ The vocabulary available to AAC users can have a huge impact – both positive and negative- on their writing. There are three basic categories of vocabulary sets (Musselwhite&Hanser, 2004) Closed Sets consist of a small number of pre-programmed words a...
By Jane Odom, M. Ed, Director of Implementation Resources, PRC Printing materials is sometimes necessary for use in therapy or the classroom. The Language Lab has a variety of games, books and other supports that are there for you to use. Did you know that you do not have to print them with full pages? There are some si...
Karen Krogg, M.S. CCC-SLP Welcome to my AAC blog. Just Plug it in was my first post. Today we will explore the AAC evaluation. While I’m certainly still in the learning process myself, I’ve decided to share my journey with you in the hopes that it will be helpful and make the jump into AAC seem less ov...
By Jane Odom, M.Ed, Director of Implementation Resources, PRC Why? (Musselwhite, 09) Writing involves thinking – we want students to realize this from the beginning. Students need to learn strategies for writing and know when to use them. Students need to be able to plan, write and edit their writing. What Does the...
By Jane Odom, M.Ed, Director of Implementation Resources English is one of the most widely spoken languages on Earth. Whether you are learning English as a second language or learning to speak using an AAC device, the methods are often the same. The AAC Language Lab has recently been honored by being included as a resour...
By Jane Odom, M.Ed, Director of Implementation Resources Are you looking for a way to introduce vocabulary that is more than just drill and practice? Using a simple game like Tic Tac Talk is not only fun and motivating, it is also easy to set up on the fly. Tic Tac Talk can also be scaffolded to accommodate the skills of ...
I feel mad Emoticons are symbols used to convey emotional content. You can use these with your AAC device user to play a simple game that helps them learn to express their feelings with their device. Draw simple faces expressing different emotions (or find some art online) Glue the emoticons onto poker chips or cards...
By Jane Odom, M.Ed, Director or Implementation Resources Think about how often a young mother will talk to her infant even though the infant cannot repeat what she says. In this same way, it is important for us to use some techniques to show a child what we expect. First and foremost, it is important that the person tea...
By Jane Odom, M.Ed, Director of Implementation Resources Shout Out It is important to give our AAC device users enough time to practice their vocabulary in a meaningful way. One way to teach core vocabulary with repetition in a group is to do a ‘Shout Out’ activity. In this activity, you will need to create a poste...
By Jane Odom, M.Ed, Director or Implementation Resources Wordle is a tool for generating “word clouds’ from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts and colors. Plug in your AAC device ...