Wondering exactly HOW to model AAC for your child?
Are you a parent that has a lot of questions?
Like:
“Do I select every word in a sentence?”
“When do I model?”
” Why is modeling important?”
Here’s a simple, straightforward explanation with demonstrations of how to model AAC. Also see some easy suggestions for modeling during at home activities so you can get started right away.
It doesn’t matter what kind of AAC your child is using, you can use the examples in this video.
If you are an SLP and this would be up helpful for your parents, I would love for you to share this video.
In this video I share 10 ideas for virtual AAC modeling. We are keeping it simple so that no one gets overwhelmed. We want to bring engagement, authentic communication and joy.
We are going to cover:
Using low tech AAC at home,
how to model during teletherapy,
ideas for parents, special educators and speech language pathologists.
This session was an early part of AAC in the Cloud 2020 in response to the changes with COVID19, school closures and teletherapy. FREE Access to resources and links mentioned are here for you at: bit.ly/aacathomeishere.
Thank you to Coughdrop AAC for facilitating this training.Pin
In this video I’ll show you how to use guided access with your students when you’re using an Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) app on an iPad.
As a speech language pathologist (SLP) working with students, you’ll find some of your students will know their way around an iPad. A student might decide he doesn’t want to be in the AAC app any more so he clicks out of it to go exploring. Maybe he’d rather play a game or use the camera app. It’s easy to limit this access using settings that are available on iPads.
I’ll walk you through the steps to set this up on your iPad including using a passcode to limit access to different apps and functions in apps on the iPad. Remember, this isn’t being mean or controlling. It’s all about helping your student be successful with his AAC device. He can use a different iPad to access games and other activities.
The other day someone asked me how I got into AAC.
I have to say, I didn’t always love it like I do now. It was more like a love/hate relationship. Love the possibilities, hate the reality. Okay not hate, that’s harsh.
Either way, AAC has always fascinated me.
But I can tell you, I was not “good” at it when I got started. I did NOT AAC like a Boss-it was more like AAC Like An Indentured Servant. ? I didn’t know what I was doing (and I felt really bad about it).
However, I did know I wanted to help these kids and I needed to up my skill set.
So, I took every online AAC course I could find and started reading articles, blogs and research papers. When I went to ASHA conventions I would soak up all the AAC sessions.
I’d take the ideas to work and give them a try. Some things worked, a lot of things didn’t.
One thing I noticed, again and again, was that I would learn so much in a course I’d get OVERWHELMED with information and not even know where to start.
Fast forward 11 years to 2018. Finally! What I was doing was working. Time to relax right? Haha not me.
I started thinking… “I learned all this good stuff, I can’t just keep it to myself. I don’t want to help just a few kids, I want to help all the kids“.
That’s when the idea for AAC Academy was born. I opened the doors in May 2018 and I was SCARED.
Scared no one would join,
scared people would say who does she think she is,
scared it wouldn’t work.
But…
I squashed the doubts (actually just muffled the noise). Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith.
Now it’s exactly one year later and hundreds of people have been through the door!
I’m just thrilled to share this AAC journey with them and would love to share it with you too!
I’ve used everything I’ve learned to give you an AAC Roadmap to confidence and success. And it’s all in bite-sized, easy to implement pieces.
The joy that comes from helping a child expand her world through communication is priceless!
You and I are in the process of helping our kids shape their one wild and precious life with their communication.
This May I hit the one year mark for meditation. That means I actually showed up every day for ten minutes for me. That’s kind of monumental.
I think I was able to do it because ten minutes isn’t a huge time commitment. Really it’s ten minutes less social media scroll time, which I can certainly spare.
I wish I could say each meditation was perfect, blissful and ohm-inducing, but not so much. There were a few days that I stayed in the zone a little longer than others. But honestly most of the days it’s just like life: scattered, imperfect, and random with moments of clarity and genius.
What I got back from the ten minute a day investment has been really invaluable; little subtle lasting changes in my approach to every day life. For example, I have more patience. I’m not sure how that happened. Maybe it has to do with a better knowledge of time.
I have more pockets of calmness. I think it’s because I am more aware of how busy the mind can be and how random thoughts are always passing through.
I have a better awareness of the ability to change gears and how easy it is. I can remind myself those are just thoughts, they don’t have to be real.
I am more present more often; which makes me feel more grounded in gratitude. By that I mean instead of rushing from experience to experience, I get little reminders to breathe, be in this moment and soak in all the good stuff. And that goes for the bad stuff too. I know it might sound counter intuitive but now when I am in physical pain I let myself really feel it. Instead of panicking, I focus on where the pain is occurring in my body and give it a number on a scale of 1 to 10. I breathe into it. It really works.
Best of all I feel like I have an increased capacity for every day joy. It’s that feeling of being in the right body at the exact right time in your life. Those moments are fleeting but so delicious.
So how did I do it? I used my phone, ear buds, and a meditation app called Headspace.
They pretty much walk you through everything. Selling features for me were: really cool teaching animations, Andy’s cool British accent and it’s all backed by research. Watch Andy’s appearance on Jimmy Fallon here.
I’ve tried other forms of meditation but for some reason this is the right one for me. You can try it for 10 days for free too, that’s how I got started. Click the link here to learn more about Headspace.
Would you like to try Headspace for a whole month for FREE? Just comment below and tell me what qualities you want to cultivate through meditation. I’ll pick a winner on June 30, 2018.
Hey there I’m Anne Page. I help heart centered SLPs and educators put the fun in functional communication. 