This week, Rachel interviews Marcella, the mother of an autistic boy, about the journey Marcella went through to give her son access to high-tech AAC. Marcella previously reached out to Rachel for a coaching call because she was not getting a positive response about AAC when meeting with local SLPs. Marcella decided to take Rachel’s AAC Ally course and started supporting her son’s language development on her own! Marcella shares about some of the benefits of high-tech AAC for her son, including his increased vocalizations and more spontaneous communication about things like feelings.
Before the interview, Chris and Rachel chat about making their own GIF using unscreen.com. They go over how to make a GIF, how you can make a library of GIFs, and ways that GIFs can be used to support AAC users.
Key ideas this week:
🔑 When a child says a word on their device that we think wasn’t what they meant (e.g. “I want pasta” for breakfast), we don’t want to say “no, try again”. Hearing “no” constantly can be frustrating and demotivating. Instead, you can recognize the communication attempt and respond to it with something like “Oh, OK, you can have pasta later for dinner, but what should we eat for breakfast?”.
🔑 We need to presume potential for everyone, not just complex communicators! We should presume that we can all become better communication partners for AAC users with enough practice and effort.
🔑 Marcella’s son says a lot more words now to communicate than he did before using AAC, including saying “up” when he wants to be picked up. This is just another example that AAC helps, rather than hurts, language production.
You can find out more about Marcella and her son on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/smilethru_
Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!
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TWT Live: Closing The Gap - Part 3
TWT Live: Closing the Gap - Part 2
TWT Live: Closing The Gap - Part 1
Megan Roberts: Research Supporting Parent-Implemented Interventions
Amanda Soper: AAC Implementation Strategies for People with CVI
Amy Fleischer & Melissa Petersen: Benefits of a Universal Core Board for All Students
Jayme Grant: Effective AAC Assessment, Treatment, and Progress Monitoring - Part 2
Jayme Grant: Using Team-Based Assessments to Determine Long Term AAC Needs - Part 1
Mark Nichols: Supporting AT and Universal Design in Higher Education
Kate McLaughlin - Celebrating Small Successes With Better Progress Measurement
Meryl Schnapp & Mark N. Brown: Becoming a District-Wide AAC Implementation Coach
Heidi Hosick Joyce: Reflective Coaching Strategies for AAC Communication Partners
Beth Poss & Tonya Williams-Walker: Improving Equity for AAC Users
Mike Marotta - Best Built-in Accessibility Features on Devices
Karen Janowski - Strategies to Support Literacy & Inclusivity
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