There is a wealth of information and materials for you on our website, so you may be asking yourself, "Where in the world do I start?" No worries, we've got you! This is the first stop in your training! In this unit we will be answering some primary questions to get you started!
Our specialized training hub dedicated to supporting communication success in Early Intervention in the home and our preschool classrooms
AAC Partner Strategy Kits are engaging posters/handouts, descriptions and short videos explaining and modeling techniques for you to use to help your student be willing, and able to communicate using their AAC system!
5 steps to move from training to talking, give you a clear path for you and your student learner. Learning to communicate is a shared journey between the learner and their partners, and that makes sense! Communication is a shared activity between two people. It is the means for us to make connections, meet our needs, engage socially, participate in shared experiences, and bridge the gap between our experiences and sharing these their partners.
Teaching the alphabet and alphabet sounds is something all teachers do, but we need to take a little closer look to consider how we are teaching these concepts to our students with special needs. This instructional activity includes alphabet knowledge, the ability to recognize letter names, sounds and shapes; and phonological awareness, the ability to understand and manipulate individual sounds and phonemes. Alphabetic knowledge is knowing that words are made of letters which stand for speech sounds. Phonological awareness means the student can match the sounds to the letters in words to "decode" what they are seeing into what they are saying (in other words, READING). These two concepts together represent the Alphabetic Principle.
We are NOT the experts, but we know who they are! Please use this page as a reference site to help you locate all of the amazing resources that you have available to you! Please feel free to skip our info and go straight to the experts by STARTING HERE!
Instruction in alphabet and phonological awareness does NOT mean DRILL AND KILL naming of letters. We have decades of research that tells us the best way to teach these skills is through functional, meaningful, IN CONTEXT use of letters and sounds during typical daily, purposeful and MOTIVATING activities. So, how do we do it? Let's explore....
We need to explicitly instruct students in...
...AND the tricky part is that we need to introduce the USE of these skills right at the beginning of our instruction, rather than using rote drill. So rather than that "letter of the day," think organic instruction targeting the letters we encounter (and target) in other meaningful. So we aren't just playing with random letters and words, but using these skills when we are making books, writing lists, creating our Predictable Charts, learning the names of our friends, our favorite things, places and other people.
What letters do we start with, and how long do we teach a letter before moving to the next one? What's wrong with the "letter of the week?"
Research by Jones, Clarke and Reutzel suggests a different approach based on empirical evidence that targets "multiple distributed instructional cycles," meaning the letters are introduced more quickly, and then revisited more frequently. Here's the not-too-scary research article you can download. This downloadable article also gives you an easy to follow Lesson Template for explicit instruction of alphabet letters too!
***You can also read a lot more about this in Comprehensive Literacy for All, Chapter 3, pgs 33-48.
Here are some ideas for targeting Alphabet and Phonological Awareness in more typical activities:
"Emergent literacy begins at birth. It is not restricted by age or disability and develops as a result of opportunity and experience." American Speech and Hearing Association, Literacy in Individuals with Severe Disabilities
"The opportunity to learn to read and write should be afforded to all, regardless of spoken communication ability. The benefits of being able to read and write for individuals with severe disabilities are numerous. Perhaps most importantly, the ability to spell, even at very beginning levels, gives individuals with severe communication impairments the ability to communicate anything they want. In addition, the ability to read and write opens a critical path to the acquisition of, and access to, many forms of knowledge and experience within our contemporary society. From early school experiences through adult employment, literacy skills are needed to maximize participation. Education, self-determination, employment, quality of life, and enjoyment all may hinge on an individual's ability to read and/or to write." American Speech and Hearing Association, Literacy in Individuals with Severe Disabilities
Learning Resources:
Shared Reading is a simple and effective way to improve language and literacy skills in our students.
Predictable chart writing is a system for helping students express themselves in a highly supported manner as they are learning skills they need for conventional writing.
Teaching the alphabet and alphabet sounds is something all teachers do, but we need to take a little closer look to consider how we are teaching these concepts to our students with special needs.
Guided Reading is a term that often describes instructional strategies designed to help students develop active strategies for reading with comprehension.
Self-selected, or independent reading, is a situation the teacher creates which encourages and supports students in participating in reading activities.
We are considering how we teach students to communicate messages, share information, thoughts, feelings and ideas through traditional writing.
We know the Classroom Communication Goals Grid is your GO-TO for IEP development, but did you know this tool also gives you a LOT of the information you need to begin to determine appropriate AAC device options? In this 16 minute video you join us as we are planning for an actual evaluation, choosing the devices and AAC apps we will be taking when we meet our new student!
More information is available here on the use of the Student Communication Goals Grid for IEP development: determining present levels of performance, goal selection and progress monitoring.
Integrating core vocabulary into your daily routine is a perfect start to give students access to "powerful" words for communicating across all of your typical activities and environments!
Accessible schedule displays are visual representations of the major activities of the school day. Much like our own daily calendars, they help students predict upcoming activities and to prepare themselves for their day. Knowing upcoming events, and the events that follow, allows students to tolerate less desired activities by anticipating ones they enjoy!
Choice-making is one of the first communication functions we learn. For students using AAC, we often use choice-making to ensure they are motivated to communicate. There are many different choices students can make throughout the day.
Shared Reading is a simple and effective way to improve language and literacy skills in our students.
The Communication Matrix is a wonderful tool that let's us find out HOW and WHY your emergent communicator communicates!
There is a wealth of information and materials for you on our website, so you may be asking yourself, "Where in the world do I start?" No worries, we've got you! This is the first stop in your training! In this unit we will be answering some primary questions to get you started!
The Classroom Routine Target Planner is designed to help teachers and staff strategically model communication on AAC devices throughout the day. It involves selecting a communication target for each routine in the classroom and assigning adults to model specific words or phrases. By rotating the targets and ensuring consistent modeling during daily activities, teachers can create meaningful and varied opportunities for AAC use, helping students become more familiar with core vocabulary.
5 steps to move from training to talking, give you a clear path for you and your student learner.
Printed Core Boards are tools that we add to the classroom to allow all students access to these POWER WORDS in the classroom.
A token work system is a visual representation of task accomplishment. Students are given a clear visual cue of how much time needs to be spent on the task, how many components of the task need to be accomplished and, how much time or tasks are left before they receive a reward, take a break, or finish an activity.
Predictable chart writing is a system for helping students express themselves in a highly supported manner as they are learning skills they need for conventional writing.
The SETT Framework is a student centered approach to determining appropriate and assistive technology solutions. The SETT Framework was developed by renowned expert in assistive technology and special education, Dr. Joy Zabala. The framework for decision making is in wide public use internationally for teams working to make decisions and find solutions for students needing assistive technology.
The SETT Framework supports teams in systematically considering the student needs, the features of the environment, the tasks the student needs to accomplish, before finally considering the possible tools (solutions) to be trialed.
Interestingly, one of the most effective ways that we can support our students ability to communicate is by monitoring our own communicative behavior! On our website you will find a multitude of partner strategies to encourage our students to communicate. In this very first introduction, we are investigating the most effective strategy in our toolbox, Aided Language Input, or "modeling!"
The Classroom Communication Environment gives us exactly what we need to determine appropriate communication targets that are the MOST meaningful to your students during the day.
In Step One we will be determining which words and messages we need to specifically target for instruction. We often complete the step, not only for targeting specific words and messages, but also when we are first designing the AAC system that our student will be using.
Teaching the alphabet and alphabet sounds is something all teachers do, but we need to take a little closer look to consider how we are teaching these concepts to our students with special needs.
First-Then boards are a very simple form of an activity schedule that are used to help students anticipate the next few moments of their time so that they can complete tasks.
For our students using light tech supports, we need to provide access to specific nouns both individually and in the classroom through communication books, posters, wall displays and classroom sized communication books.
We're all about using a hands-on approach to communication and assistive technology for people who have significant differences in their sensory and motor abilities, as well as those with developmental variations and autism. Our goal is to find innovative ways to connect with and support these individuals in a manner that suits their unique needs. Every Move Counts, Clicks and Chats has an excellent approach to working with students who don't have conventional ways to communicate.
Communication isn't just about meeting your basic wants and needs. It's also about engaging socially, sharing and requesting information, making choices, expressing your feelings, protesting and rejecting, and asking questions.
In this session we are exploring the different reasons we communicate so that we can support ALL of the messages our students need to communicate.
The Student Communication Passport is a tool that serves multiple functions in our project, from lesson planning, monthly theme planning and finally to share information with new partners about our students' communication.
Some tools you can use to plan intentional modeling and instruction for your communication targets!
In Step Two we begin the process of training HOW we say the word or message.
Activity Schedules are a list of words or pictures/symbols used to cue the student to complete the steps of specific activities, or tasks.
Guided Reading is a term that often describes instructional strategies designed to help students develop active strategies for reading with comprehension.
Comprehensive Communication Books, at a minimum, are comprised of fringe vocabulary (noun categories and describing words), core vocabulary (high frequency words, typically verbs, pronouns and a few descriptors) and quick comments. Let's take a look at these light tech communication options!
As we've learned, one of the most effective ways for us to help our students learn to communicate through AAC is for US to communicate in the same method that we expect our students to communicate. If our student is using symbols WE use symbols! In this short training, we are introducing the DTA 18 Quicktalk Book, an easy way for us adults to begin practicing, and modeling talking with symbols!
Step 3 is all about the partner and their modeling of how the word/message is used in the real world. The point of this step as for the student to begin to understand when to use these words and messages and what it looks like when someone communicates using the method that they will ultimately be using themselves.
Self-selected, or independent reading, is a situation the teacher creates which encourages and supports students in participating in reading activities.
When your goal is participation and making sure your student understands the content you are introducing, activity boards may be the perfect solution!
The Student-Classroom Communication Goals Grid-2 is al is a research informed assessment to help you develop your IEPs, giving you a present level of performance, extensive bank of communication and AAC goals, and the ability to show progress over multiple administrations from year to year!
Picture this: a classroom specifically designed to empower AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) users in their communication journey. It's a dynamic space where every detail is meticulously engineered to facilitate effective communication for these individuals!
It’s finally time to begin to offer our students the opportunity to use their AAC system for communication purposes with lots of support as they get started!!
We are considering how we teach students to communicate messages, share information, thoughts, feelings and ideas through traditional writing.
There are a variety of reasons individuals struggle moving from one context to another but most of them can be alleviated by improving the communication supports to make the process more understandable.
Discover the difference between working on and working with an AAC device in this training session. Learn how to move beyond practicing navigation and word-finding to using AAC as a functional communication tool in real-life situations. We’ll explore how to model meaningful communication throughout the day, helping students use their devices for authentic expression and comprehensive communication. Perfect for caregivers and educators seeking to enhance AAC effectiveness in everyday interactions.
The Classroom Communication Checklist is a tool developed to identify communication supports in place in the classroom and to determine potential supports which may be of value to add into the existing program. This planning tool helps teachers & administrators consider a variety of supports to help their students communicate effectively in the classroom.
We have reached the finale! At this stage our students are ready to begin to talk on their own by using their AAC system, speech, sign language, picture symbols and/or communication devices!