Tag: special education
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Do You See What I See?
Our conversation last week left me unsettled. I know you probably gave it a lot of thought before you approached me. You suggested that I provide augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) consultation in the home because they could probably use the support there. Yes, I would love to, I said. I’ve messaged mom and offered,…
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Emotions Make Memories: The Neurological Evidence for Fun
During the school year, I frantically try to organize my children’s schedules, my work schedule, app updates, conference planning, and keep up with new research articles and social media. I still do all of that in the summer, but it’s a little less intense.One of my goals this summer is to read “for leisure.” As I…
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Stimming on Autism
Sometimes….I “stim.” It’s true. It is interesting and comfortable inside of my own mind, and sometimes I curl up there and block out the rest of the world. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is definitely one of my obsessions. I think about it all the time. Sometimes, when people talk, I listen to their rate…
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Day 6: Voiceless But Still Talking (with AAC) Challenge…The Mini Goes to New York City
We continue to follow the ambitious and curious mom, Mary. She is going voiceless for a week and using her daughter’s back up iPad mini with the Speak for Yourself Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) app to communicate. Today was her sixth day, and here she shares her experiences: “Up and out early today. Dropped…
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Day 5: Voiceless But Still Talking (With AAC) Challenge
Mary, the incredible mom who has been using her daughter’s back up iPad mini with the Speak for Yourself (SfY) Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) app to communicate instead of her voice, shares her experiences of the fifth day of her week long challenge: “Woke up early. Standing at sink drinking a glass of water,…
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Voiceless But Still Talking (with AAC) Challenge Day 3
If you haven’t already heard, October is Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Awareness Month. If you’ve been following along over the past few days, an incredible mother, Mary, is using an iPad mini and the Speak for Yourself app to communicate for the week. It’s the same system that her daughter, Jess , uses. Thank…
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A Favorite Father’s Day Story
As speech language pathologists working with AAC, we are privileged to meet a lot of parents. As part of that privilege, we hear a relatively even number of stories that warm – and stories that break – our hearts. Every Father’s Day, I think of a story that starts with a meeting about 3 1/2 year old…
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A Letter to Students Using AAC: Remember These Five Things
As we prepare for the end of the school year, we are thinking about our students using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) who have brightened our days and challenged us to be better speech-language pathologists. Here are some things we want them to know… To our students who are using AAC, We know you are listening. We want to start by saying thank…