Tag: AAC
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Learning to Speak AACtion Plan: Week 2
Welcome to week 2 of the Learning to Speak AACtion Plan! If you missed the beginning of this 12 week plan, check out last week’s post for the details! It’s a plan to help the support people in the lives of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) users learn the AAC system and become more comfortable…
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Learning to Speak AACtion Plan: Week 1
“Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life. Tip toe if you must. But take the step.” ~ Naeem Callaway I have an idea, and I’m asking you to be part of it.…
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AAC: Speak For Yourself Selects Acapela Genuine Children Voices for Its Young Users!
AAC specialist Speak for Yourself adds Acapela children voices to its voice portfolio. The AAC application that turns the iPad into a communication device to give a voice to individuals who are not able to speak or are limited in their ability to express themselves verbally, has just enriched its voice offer with Acapela children…
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AAC Modeling Part 2: Layers of Modeling Engagement
Yesterday, I wrote about AAC Modeling and compared it to introducing broccoli to a child. I’ve also written about modeling here and here, if you’d like some additional information. If you are at all involved in the world of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), you probably hear a lot about modeling, also called Aided Language Input…
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AAC Modeling Part 1: A Piece of Cake and a Bite of Broccoli
If you are at all familiar with augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) implementation, you have likely heard of modeling, also referred to as aided language input and aided language stimulation. In my daily conversations, I get the feeling that dedicated teachers, parents, and therapists often have the misconception that they’re not doing enough for their…
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Does (AAC Button) Size Really Matter?
“Those buttons are so small!” In the almost 4 years that the Speak for Yourself Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) app has been on the market, this is the feedback that we receive most frequently. Yes, the buttons in Speak for Yourself are small and you can not change the button size. In case you’re thinking, “Well…
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Speech Segmentation and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
We are often asked about the reason that words are spoken individually in the Speak for Yourself augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app instead of allowing the user to compose their message and then speak the full sentence. The reason it is set up that way is so that the AAC user gets immediate auditory…
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The Ever-Evolving AAC Voice Options
When I was an undergraduate, pursuing my Bachelor’s degree in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, one of the required courses was Speech Science. It was the mid-late 90s and we sat in a small “speech science lab” and shared large desktop computers with “high tech” software. We studied formants and looked at sounds and words…
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Speak for Yourself AAC App Now Has Multi-User Capability!
Version 2.0 of the Speak for Yourself Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) app has just been released…FINALLY! We’ve been working on this update for a long, long time. If you were at the American Speech, Language, and Hearing (ASHA) conference in November of 2014, I may have shown you a test version. Seriously. The irony is, at…
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Say ‘Maybe’ to Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
Last week, my newly 12-year-old “typical” daughter asked to go to the movies with her friends…alone. I pictured the group of giggling 6th graders, dangling between confidence and unspoken anxiety in their independence. I offered to go with them and sit in a different row, but she refused. So, I said the first thing that…