Talking With Tech AAC Podcast

This week, Rachel interviews Kelley Coleman, speaker, author, and advocate! Kelley talks about her family’s AAC journey and her role as the mother of Aaron, a complex communicator in the 4th grade who uses AAC to communicate. She shares about her new book, Everything No One Tells You About Parenting a Disabled Child, as well as some of the high- and lowlights of her family’s AAC journey, including when Aaron’s school SLP suggested he go from high-tech AAC to a picture flip book! Before the interview, Rachel shares about turning a client's questions about her microphone into a naturally occurring communication opportunity about podcasting - that also supported his independence! Key ideas this week: 🔑 The goal shouldn’t bet just be communication for an AAC user, it should be autonomous communication. Not every student can communicate independently, but every AAC user can learn to communicate autonomously (e.g. share what they want to say, when they want to say it). Rachel was against the flip book because, among other reasons, Aaron wasn't physically able to use it independently. 🔑 Kelley was told by her school SLP, “The only way Aaron will learn to communicate is if you use this flip book with 100% fidelity.” Kelley had so many responsibilities at the time, she couldn’t be with Aaron at every moment, and it made her feel like she was going to fail before she started. You have to meet parents where they are at and make modeling sustainable - something small every day is better than being so overwhelmed that you don’t even start! 🔑 People who support AAC users should always try and keep an open mind in areas where they are not familiar. Often, when a person can’t do something, it isn’t because they are incapable - it’s because we haven’t supported that skill well enough yet! 🔑 Kelley says, as a parent, you should always be cognizant that the members of your IEP team may be providing services to your child for months (or even years) after that IEP meeting. It doesn't always make sense to yell at someone who is going to be providing services to your child for months (or even years) afterwards. Visit talkingwithtech.org to listen to previous episodes, find new resources, and more! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, Rachel interviews Heidi Rabe, an SLP who specializes in supporting AAC users with complex bodies who use switches and scanning to communicate! Heidi shares a wealth of information about scanning and switches, including how to evaluate if a student needs a switch, working with PT/OT to find the right switch spot, using partner-assisted scanning, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss a question from a listener about a student who is “adding random words” (and how the least dangerous assumption is that it’s purposeful and meaningful, and we should get to the bottom of it)! Key ideas this week: 🔑 When Heidi is considering scanning and switches for a client, she thinks about whether they can reliably select from the size array that they need in order to communicate. Also, are their motor skills reliable? Are they having difficulty selecting symbols, even with a keyguard or touch guide? 🔑 Partner-Assisted Scanning is a scanning strategy where a partner verbally offers choices at a consistent rate, and the AAC user indicates what word they want. PAS allows for scanning without the time constraints that exist when presenting choices on a speech-generating device. There is usually a book that tells the partner what choices to say, and in what order. That way, the partners are consistent every time, which allows the AAC user to anticipate what words are coming. See a video on it here. 🔑 When you are using auditory scanning on a speech-generating device, you want the preview voice to be very different from the speaker voice. Otherwise, communication partners get confused and respond to the wrong voice. Also, ideally you also want the preview voice to be quieter, and to be transmitted through a personal speaker. 🔑 When doing Partner-Assisted Scanning, Heidi gives the option of “None of those” as the last option. Similarly, after they make a selection, you can offer “I have more to say” “That’s all I have to say” and “Oops, that was a mistake” as choices. Visit talkingwithtech.org to listen to previous episodes, find new resources, and more! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, Chris has a discussion with Caitlin Armstrong, an SLP in New Hampshire who contacted Chris asking about writing up an AAC Initiative proposal for her K-5 school district! Chris breaks down how she should approach the mission statement, ideas for making a more persuasive argument, and things to avoid (e.g. too much research up front). Before the interview, Chris and Rachel talk about the AI Reading Coach at coach.microsoft.com. It is similar to the Reading Coach that is part of the Immersive Reader tool embedded in Microsoft Word, and allows people to practice reading with someone analyzing their speech in real time! Key Ideas this week: 🔑 If you are writing an AAC initiative for AAC in your district, start with a mission statement about robust language and what your district believes in. If you start with a statement everyone agrees with and lay out the steps from there, you can get more buy in from the start! 🔑 Chris recommends breaking up AAC implementation into four prongs: Mindset, Training, Coaching, and Tools. 🔱 Mindset - The mindset we need to have is everyone can learn language, and if we give them the right tools and time, they will learn it. 🔱 Training - If training is going to happen, there may not be enough time in the instructional day to add on additional time for staff training. There might need to be substitutes or other resources included to help staff attend the training. 🔱 Coaching - Once you have given your trainings, you need to follow up with more direct coaching on how to provide the services. Admins don’t always think of coaching as separate from training, but the distinction is essential. Coaching can be as brief as a few minutes to reflect after a lesson if you are already in the classroom. 🔱 Tools - You can include a proposal for high tech robust AAC, with an alternate proposal for light tech (e.g. core boards) supports and/or a mix of the two. Ideally, you would have high-tech devices for teachers and staff as well as students who need AAC. 🔑 You can include some links to research about AAC in your proposal, and you want to have that information your back pocket, but you don’t want to go too heavy with research up front. Focus more of your time first on, “We know this is good for kids, you can be assured there is thought behind this and it won’t just be thrown in room, and there will be training and coaching for the team.” Visit talkingwithtech.org to listen to previous episodes, find new resources, and more! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, Rachel and Chris continue their discussion about the highlights and takeaways from ATIA 2024! They share some of their favorite presentations and poster sessions from Lauren Enders, Brenda Del Monte, Bruce Alter, Tina & Mateo Moreno, Karanveer Singh, EdTech, and more! Key Ideas this Week: 🔑 The Joy Zabala Fellowship is an organization that supports early career professionals working with students with disabilities by connecting them with a seasoned mentor. The mentee and mentor work together to strengthen the skills of the mentee and, afterwards, to share what they learned with the larger stakeholder community. 🔑 At a session on AI, Chris asked Bruce Alter if we should still be teaching students to code or if we should only be teaching them to use AI to write the code for them. Bruce replied that “not an either/or question, it’s an ‘and’ question.” Students need to learn to code, and also to effectively use AI to write code. A student can’t understand what code the AI has given them or correct bugs if they have no idea how to code themselves. 🔑 EdTech is a session where people ask questions and then the group splits up into different parts of the room to have breakout discussions on some of the topics posed. This year, Rachel really enjoyed discussing supporting creativity in education. Rachel utilizes a lot of creative arts in her therapy activities. It’s nice, because the client is motivated to be creative and the family gets to see what they made afterwards. 🔑 One theme at ATIA this year was the Specific Language System First Approach, which was created by Chris himself! Chris has recently created an online class about the specific language system first approach - learn more here! Visit talkingwithtech.org to listen to previous episodes, find new resources, and more! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we share Part 1 of Chris and Rachel’s recap of their recent trip to ATIA 2024! Chris and Rachel discuss a recent change to ATIA’s venue, share resources and takeaways from the conference, talk about what they covered in their own sessions, and more! Key Ideas this week: 🔑 A lot of discussion at ATIA was about “Assistive Technology Myths and Facts” from the Office of Special Education Programs and the National Educational Technology Plan for 2024. They could be helpful as tools to demonstrate what you are sharing about AAC is supported by the federal government. 🔑 At his presentation, Lance McLemore shared about fear and anxiety using his device with unfamiliar people. For an AAC User, they don’t always know if the other person will do things like provide sufficient wait time. If you support an AAC User, be cognizant that an unfamiliar communication partner could be a possible source of stress. 🔑 Chris got to connect with Amanda Hartman, who is the author of two children’s books about AAC, “AAC Rhyme Time” and “I Talk in Different Ways”. It could be used, for example, to introduce a classroom to AAC, build phonological awareness, or support literacy! 🔑 One thing to look into if you work with students - are the accessibility settings enabled or disabled by default on student computers and devices? Many students need things like text-to-speech, but enabling it requires several hurdles through the IT department (or they are totally locked out). Visit talkingwithtech.org to listen to previous episodes, find new resources, and more! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we share our interview with Mercy Wolverton! Mercy is a student at George Mason University who learned how to use her 3D printer in high school during a senior project seeking to solve real world problems! Mercy shares some of the websites and resources that she used to learn how to print in 3D, and how you can get started as quickly and inexpensively as possible! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel briefly tease takeaways from their time at ATIA, and talk about a recent email from Brian Whitmer about a google form about the state of AAC in 2024. Key Ideas this Week: 🔑 Mercy says, when you are learning 3D printing, don’t be afraid of mistakes! It can take several tries to figure out how to make something with a 3D printer, and approaching these mistakes with a growth mindset can help us think of it as a learning opportunity! 🔑 There are 3D printers that are available to use for free at universities, schools, and libraries. If there is someone there who knows how to use the printer, they may be really helpful troubleshooting problems using it. 🔑 Mercy created a website for the work she has done at mercywolverton.com. On her site, Mercy shares about her coding and 3D printing projects and some of her interests. Chris shares why he loves that idea, and why more people should create a website to showcase their interests and projects. Links from the Episode 3D Printing Resources: Thingiverse (thingiverse.com), Tech Owl (techowlpa.org/3d-printing-at), & Makers Making Change (www.makersmakingchange.com) Brian Whitmer on TWT discussing Open AAC: https://www.talkingwithtech.org/episodes/brian-whitmer Open AAC’s State of AAC survey, collecting feedback on the state of AAC over the last year

Trigger Warning: This week’s banter includes some descriptions of trauma. If you would prefer to only listen to this week’s interview, please skip ahead to 27:19. This week, Chris interviews Aaron Marsters, an Assistive Technology Instructional Systems Specialist for Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA)! Aaron shares about his role supporting the assistive technology needs of students on military bases across Europe, in his case, particularly in Germany. He shares ideas about AI and AAC, ways they collaborate to share implementation across Europe, and how they have adopted the Specific Language System First approach on bases across Europe! Before the interview, Rachel tells a heartbreaking story about one of her clients who is currently in a child psychiatric ward. Her client is an AAC User, and Rachel shares about how the child has been mistreated despite the family’s best efforts to help. Chris and Rachel share their collective worry for Rachel’s client and their desire for his treatment to improve. Key Ideas this Week: 🔑 We need to look at how we can better educate staff at medical facilities where people can be detained, like psychiatric wards, on how to work with people with complex communication needs and how to better support the needs of autistic people. We need to have an approach of curiosity instead of fear when someone is a multi-modal communicator, especially if they have a history of aggressive or self-injurious behavior. 🔑 When a complex communicator arrives within Europe’s DoDEA schools on military bases, Aaron makes sure that there are licenses of LAMP:WFL and multiple licenses of AAC Language Lab for each student. Then, the AT and school teams look at what stage learner the AAC user is and they go over activities and lessons the school can use to support that student’s AAC and language development. 🔑 If Aaron’s AT team tries something for one school, they take what worked and share it out with everyone else within the DoDEA European schools. There is a central website where best practices and implementation strategies are shared for every European DoDEA school! Visit talkingwithtech.org to listen to previous episodes, find new resources, and more! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we share TWT's 300th Episode/1 Million Downloads Celebration! The whole TWT team (Rachel, Chris, Luke Padgett, Michaela Ball, and Monica Halchishick) gathered virtually with some of the coolest people we know (i.e. listeners and previous guests) to chat with us about AAC as we celebrate our our recent 1 millionth download! The TWT team and listeners share memories of making the podcast, stories of how the podcast has influenced their life, favorite strategies, possible future episode topics, and more!

This week, we hear Chris’s interview with Meredith Hankins, Morgan Payne, and Susan Lee! Morgan is the mother of an 11 year old girl, Sophie, with Cerebral Palsy who uses AAC. Susan has a daughter, Alyssa, with Rett Syndrome who also uses AAC. Meredith is an AAC Specialist with United Ability in Alabama who works with their daughters and helped to bring them together in new ways! These three share about how the idea for a “Girl Talk” group came up organically in community-based therapy and eventually grew to become a weekend camp at Dolphin Island Sea Lab organized by Susan! Before the interview, Rachel and Chris answer a Patreon user’s question about creating a “best buddies” club for general education and special education peers at a high school site! They discuss the importance of setting up an authentic peer interaction, ideas for fun activities that all the students can enjoy, making the project student led, and more! Key Ideas this week: 🔑 Students will often communicate differently with peers compared to staff and teachers. Family and therapists don’t always think about the impact a peer communication partner can have on an AAC User’s motivation to communicate and have fun! 🔑 Morgen and Susan say, if you want to find opportunities for your child like communication camps, check with therapists, doctors at children hospitals, and parents of children with similar needs to help expand your network and find new opportunities. 🔑 Susan took all she has learned as a teacher and mother and helped to create Camp Speak, www.campspeak.org, an overnight camp in Georgia for AAC users 5-18! Visit talkingwithtech.org to listen to previous episodes, find new AAC resources, and more! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

Kim Zajac is an SLP and audiologist is a Communication Specialist in Norton Public Schools in Massachusetts, working with grades 6-12. Kim is also an associated professor at Emerson and is a member of the board of MassCUE, the Massachusetts chapter of ISTE. Kim shares some of her strategies for making teaching and therapy sessions more inclusive, interactive, and engaging for all students! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss some takeaways from ASHA 2023, including increased discussions about MTSS in school districts. Rachel shares about a session by Tiffanie Joseph (nigh.functioning.autism) that was a highlight, as well as some of her takeaways from that session! Key ideas this week: 🔑 Kim takes a student-driven approach that addresses the student’s goals, but in a more experiential way, such as creating a board game with a group to work on things like grammar and higher order thinking. 🔑 Students often are more motivated to work in class when they have an authentic problem to solve, and it often helps students to reflect on themselves and their future in ways they would not with a more abstract question. 🔑 Kim uses self assessment rubrics to help students keep track of the goals they are working on. Sometimes, when they have the skill mastered, Kim will add a group mate for the student to track as well. She will also use rubrics to grade the projects the students create. Links from this week's episode: MassCue - masscue.org Vocaroo - https://vocaroo.com/ Adobe Firefly - https://www.adobe.com/products/firefly.html MidJourney - https://www.midjourneyai.ai/ BlueWIllow - https://www.bluewillow.ai/ Dall-E 2: https://openai.com/dall-e-2 Gimkit - gimkit.com Kahoot - kahoot.com Innovator’s Compass - innovatorscompass.org Mary Howard: ChatGPT Guide for Educators - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200832186-the-chatgpt-guide-for-educators Donnie Pearce: Tips for Integrating AI in the Classroom - https://www.amazon.com/50-Strategies-Integrating-into-Classroom/dp/B0C5G74W4N

This week, Chris interviews Emma Fischer, a special education teacher in Culpeper County, Virginia who supports students in an adapted curriculum program. She enjoys supporting her student’s use of robust AAC, and she wanted to ask Chris about next steps in moving to a career in assistive technology, including possible Master’s Degree options and possible job roles! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel share an incredible Q&A session with a special guest who has a lot to say about on putting together a good presentation on coaching and AAC! Key Ideas This Week: 🔑 If you want to transition into an assistive technology role, you may want to consider moving to another area of the country if a job opens up. Typically, there is limited turnover in most AT roles, and it is possible you could go get a Master’s Degree in Assistive Technology and not have a position open in your area. 🔑 Consider Educational Technology as an alternative to assistive technology. There are more Ed Tech jobs than assistive technology jobs overall, and as an educational technology coach you can support all students, including students who have learning needs but are not in special education. 🔑 School administrators can have a really big impact with students, especially if you come from a place of knowledge about AAC and inclusion. Many people say the issue with their admin is their admin’s mindset, not an issue related to mine. Having an admin that understands disability advocacy could be really good. Big trade off is you don’t get to work directly with students as much with. 🔑 There is an artificial line with assistive technology and educational technology where someone has to be in special education to get assistive technology in many cases. As an educational technology coach, you can work with all the students, including people in special education and students who have unidentified learning problems. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, Chris and Rachel interview Otto Lana (@otto_types), an autistic advocate who uses multiple modalities, including AAC, to communicate. Otto is also an intern at Kindred Communication (gokindred.com), which specializes in providing speech, language, and AAC coaching services. Otto shares about his AAC journey, why he believes literacy and typing skills need to be more emphasized for AAC users, his preference for positive instead of neutral or negative terms (i.e. nonspeaking) to refer to people with complex communication needs, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel banter (in the same room!) about how they try to keep an open mind when dealing with information that doesn’t agree with what they have heard before, and how that approach helps them stay current with many of the changes in the field over the years. Key ideas this week: 🔑 If a person requires a wheelchair, are they called non walking? If a person has prosthetics, are they called non legged? Otto prefers “individuals with complex communication needs” or “multi-modality communicators.” Otto says the prefix “non” is negative. He wants to focus on positive or neutral terms, because “using deficit terms is derogatory and degrading.” 🔑 Otto believes that AAC systems that do not include a keyboard are “electronic PECS” because they are typically used to request and the words are predetermined by the adults in the room. 🔑 Otto says “Communication is a basic human right, and freedom of expression is a First Amendment right, but teaching civil rights or constitutional rights to special ed students doesn’t happen. If it did, there would be a whole new level of protesting” about how these students are treated. 🔑 Otto says to AAC users everywhere, “Don’t give up, it is hard work. Find friends who also use AAC. Be patient, be positive, trust in the process - you can do it!” Links from this week’s episode: Otto’s website - ottosmottos.com Kindred Communication - gokindred.com Recent article about Otto: https://canvasrebel.com/meet-otto-lana/

This week, we share Chris and Rachel’s interview with Rémi Morin, father of a daughter who uses AAC user full time, a daughter who uses AAC part time, and a daughter who does not use AAC. He shares some of his many insights gained as the parent of an AAC user, including how he came across AAC as an option of this daughters, and, when he couldn’t find a Canadian French version of LAMP Words for Life, he created his own! Before the interview, Chris shares about a recent experience he had as moderator for a panel of students to talk about their disabilities for the State Educational Technology Director’s Association, including the standing ovation at the end for the students! Sometimes, Rémi’s daughter who uses AAC full time needs a lot of modeling of a word before she will use it, and she often needs to see it in multiple contexts. Rémi says he must be “tenacious” when teaching her words. Key ideas this week: 🔑 If you go out in the world looking for a language resource and you can’t find it, that is a sign that you could potentially make that resource to help yourself and, in the future, share it with everyone else who may need the same resource. 🔑 They will be rolling out Rémi’s French translation of LAMP to everyone in French Canada, with a possible rollout to other countries in the future! 🔑 Rémi’s perfect AAC software would be web based, and would work with all the Android and iOS devices they use in the home, including phones. 🔑 When we say someone’s “AAC system”, that should be the sum of the different means of communication for a person, not just one AAC app. A person’s system could include multiple high tech apps, low tech solutions like core boards, pen and paper, and more! Link’s from this week’s episode: CAST.org - the group that came up with universal design for learning and, more recently, worked with Chris to create his student-led panel. PRC Article on Rémi’s Canadian French LAMP Words for Life Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we share Chris’s interview with Emily Macklin, Neha Sharma, Amber Skerry, three SLPs working with the deafblind population at Perkins School for the Blind! They share a wealth of information about working with deafblind students, including how sensory impairment influences their incidental learning, the importance of trial and error in teaching language, the different ways deafblind students use AAC, and more! Before the episode, Rachel shares about a client who uses Read & Write for Chrome. Some school team members felt assistive technology was a “crutch”. until Rachel and the client made a story together using the Read & Write that convinced them was an important tool! Key ideas this week: 🔑 Deafblindness doesn’t mean completely deaf and blind - it usually involves varying degrees of loss in both senses. 🔑 Teachers of deaf blind children design learning experiences to teach students about things on a deeper, more experiential level, such as teaching about apples by climbing an apple tree, cutting an apple, and planting the seeds. 🔑 You don’t want to be a “fairly godmother” for a deafblind student, where objects appear and disappear as you give them items and take them away. There needs to be a connection for the student between the object, where you get the item, and where you put it when done, e.g. a “finished” bucket. 🔑 Some deafblind students use a ProxTalker midtech device that allows a user to place any photo, symbol, or object on a sound tag card. Users place the sound tag card on any one of the buttons and push to trigger voice output! Links from this episode: Project Core - 3D Symbols https://www.project-core.com/3d-symbols/ Tactile Connections: Symbols for Communication https://www.aph.org/product/tactile-connections-symbols-for-communication/ Tactile Symbol Library: https://www.tsbvi.edu/campus-resources/accessibility/tactile-symbols-library DeafBlind International: https://www.deafblindinternational.org/ Active Learning Space: https://activelearningspace.org/ Guest Email addresses: [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]

This week, we share Part 2 of Chris’s interview with McKinzee Steve, Danielle (Dani) Welge, and Kendra Everette, three members of the AAC Team for a large school district in Texas! In the second half of this interview, they talk about interactive trainings they have created for their district; ideas for getting admin support for AAC programs, and their new project, a series of tier 2 supports for their self-contained early childhood special ed classrooms that includes AAC apps and iPads for every student and teacher! Before the interview, Chris shares a fantastic AI tool that will determine what the overall consensus view on a particular research question - consensus.app. It’s an AI search engine for research that allows you to ask a question and it will provide the academic field’s consensus siting research on that topic. This can be great resource for AAC myth busting! Key ideas this week: 🔑 If you are creating an AAC newsletter, consider turning it into a blog post! This can make looking at previous newsletters more interesting, and is also a great way to catalog previous articles in a searchable way! 🔑 The Texas AAC team has “collaboration tickets” for their SLPs where they go out to campuses and help the SLPs there build their skills. Their focus is on empowering the SLP to implement while the AAC team acts in a supportive role. 🔑 Even though are AAC apps and iPads for every student in their self-contained early childhood classrooms, if a student looks like they are utilizing the AAC supports more often, that is a flag for the teacher and SLP to consider sending the student home with a dedicated device. Links from this episode: Consensus.app, an AI search engine for research that provides the academic research consensus on a question in understandable language. Continuum of Language Expression (COLE), a systematic tool for educators to assess language development that Chris helped develop! bit.ly/colegooglesheets Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we share Part 1 of Chris’s interview with McKinzee Steve, Danielle (Dani) Welge, and Kendra Everette, three members of the AAC Team for a large school district in Texas! In this half of the interview, McKinzee, Dani, and Kendra share about two projects they have been working on lately: 1:1 caregiver training sessions for parents and caregivers (with the help of grad students), and an "AAC Book Club" literacy enrichment program for AAC users! Before the interview, Rachel shares with Chris about one of her recent success stories with a client! Rachel talks this student's profile, and how he started making significant gains once he moved to a “core word of the month”. In this strategy, it that starts with explicit instruction about that month’s word, followed by lots of modeling from communication partners throughout the month! Key ideas this week: 🔑 If an emergent AAC user is not making progress despite lots of high-quality modeling from communication partners, ask yourself - is there a need for more explicit instruction, (e.g., teaching what the words mean)? Sometimes a student immersed in AAC will pick up how to use a device right away, while other students may require exposure for longer periods combined with explicit instruction. 🔑 Part of the services that McKinzee, Dani, and Kendra provide to parents and caregivers includes 1:1 training sessions with the help of local grad students over Zoom. Caregivers get six weeks of training with the grad students (with supervision). Afterward, parents and caregivers reported feeling more confident and capable of supporting their student’s use of the AAC device. 🔑 Another service McKinzee, Dani, and Kendra provide is an AAC Book Club. They have created "bins" that can be checked out by SLPs for six weeks that correspond to a particular book and include a variety of materials and activities that are extensions of the book. These lessons are based on the PRC Literacy Planner series. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, Rachel interviews Emily Taylor (@emily.the.speechie)! Emily is a speech-language pathologist who supports AAC users in New Zealand and Fiji. Emily shares about Fiji, a country that has limited access to AAC support, and why she was inspired to help AAC users there. Then, Rachel shares some great social media tips to help Emily promote her upcoming AAC resources! Before the interview, Chris shares a heartwarming story about setting up an experience for a kindergarten class to use iPads and learn about AAC. In addition, Rachel shares about using an AI background tool (Skybox by Block Labs) to help create a story for one of her students! Key ideas this week: 🔑 Many of the families Emily worked with in Fiji had limited financial resources, and she found it more effective to primarily focus on light tech AAC. Light tech AAC won’t break, doesn’t need electricity, is inexpensive, and (relatively) easy to produce, which were often important considerations for the families Emily was supporting. 🔑 Emily found that primary school in Fiji was very heavy on rote memorization. When students had difficulty with sitting and learning in that way, they were sent to the special school. Families of students at the special school were really excited when she told them that their child could grow up, work, and be a positive member of the village. 🔑 When evaluating your social media presence, understanding who your followers are (and who you want them to be) is really important, as well as being able to pivot if you find out that you have a different follower group than previously thought. 🔑 When you’re choosing which social media platform to post on most, choose the one that you know the best and already use, if possible. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

Join Chris and Rachel for an Interactive Pre-Conference Session at ATIA 2024! This week, we share Chris’s interview with April Wallace & Christina Stader! They are school-based SLPs and AAC Specialists with Aiken County Public Schools who are considering moving their district to a Specific Language System First Approach (SLSFA). They discuss the merit of pilot programs, whether starting with just preschool, research that supports the principles of the SLFSA, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss a listener question about a high school student only hovers over words and refuses to touch the device after using it to communicate for multiple years. Chris and Rachel share some strategies for teaching him it’s OK to touch the device, and how, in their experience, it may stem from a compliance-based element creating anxiety about choosing the “right” word. Key ideas this week: 🔑 If you want to roll out a new program like SLFSA in your district, consider starting in a few classrooms first as a pilot. Then, you can measure their improvement to demonstrate your success to the rest of the district. 🔑 In Chris’s district, they give teachers 6 coaching sessions that records teachers and measures how much modeling happens. Teachers watch the videos and reflect on how they could do better, and the AAC team uses this data to measure success. 🔑 If you are moving to a SLSFA, there will be some students who received good implementation on a different system; often, these students should remain on those systems. If there wasn’t much success and/or implementation on the previous AAC app, it might be worth trying out the new AAC app. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we share part 2 of Chris and Rachel’s interview with Dr. Barry Prizant! Dr. Prizant shares more about his thinking on the term "neurodivergent" and some of his experiences working on his podcast (uniquelyhuman.com) with an autistic adult co-host. Dr. Prizant also shares some of his perspectives on Spelling to Communicate, including why he believes it is an authentic communication method for some individuals. Key Ideas this Week: 🔑 When considering whether the term “neurodivergent” is an accurate way to describe a person, we need to be cognizant of asking people how they identify with those terms. It is often better if we let people decide for themselves how we talk about them. 🔑 Some autistic people have said that the way an autistic person talks and acts is part of autistic culture, and should not be seen as a deficiency or rudeness. 🔑 Dr. Prizant believes that Spelling to Communicate is authentic communication for some individuals and a real phenomenon. He shares why he believes ASHA’s position statement against Spelling to Communicate is incorrect, and why Spelling to Communicate should not be looped in with Rapid Prompting Method. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we share an amazing interview with Dr. Barry Prizant! Dr. Prizant is well-known for his work related to autism and echolalia, including research that was heavily cited by Marge Blanc and the Natural Language Acquisition framework behind gestalt language processing. Dr. Prizant discusses how he came to learn about echolalia and the confluence of research that suggested that echolalia had a communicative function (which he studied during his doctoral research). He also shares about the research behind gestalt language processing, how we can tell if someone has a gestalt or an analytical language learning bias, the true meaning of evidence-based practice, and more! Key Ideas this Week: 🔑 We can learn about someone’s gestalt vs analytic language learning bias by looking at their reaction to modeling - what are they picking up on? Good language modeling, in the context of every day activities, can include combining words into utterances as well as functional gestalt phrases - it doesn’t have to be just "gestalt" or "analytical". 🔑 Some autistic people have not only intact, but exceptional memories. If you approach language from the perspective of “I have a great memory but don’t have the ability to construct generative language easily” then you would presumably learn to speak by listening to people and memorizing exactly what they are saying. 🔑 Some people with echolalia faithfully reproduce foreign accents and sounds in their environment. It goes beyond verbal speech - some people are echolalic in sign language and some people with echopraxia copy people’s actions. 🔑 When we are trying something that is an emerging practice, we can try it with kids and see how it works (provided it doesn’t cause harm). Sources of evidence include clinical experience and expertise as well as research. In many cases, it is difficult to apply what we know from studying a small group of people (e.g. 30) to the larger population, especially when talking about something that is unique to each person, like autism. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we share Rachel’s interview with "The Trauma-Informed SLP", Kimberly Neely! Kim and Rachel have a fascinating discussion about some of the neurological and physiological changes caused by traumatic experiences. They also cover the difference between repeated vs chronic trauma, why some people with chronic trauma have trouble with interoception (i.e.. identifying how they feel), the importance of feeling safe, and more! Before the interview, Rachel shares about deciding to create some new materials about self advocacy, including social stories that discuss body parts using core language. She also relates this week’s interview to a previous episode with Chloe Rothschild about interoception and autism! Key Ideas this Week: 🔑 Trauma is a physiological shift that occurs in someone that changes how they perceive the world and how they function. The things that heal trauma are the things that promote resiliency: a sense of safety; having a space to feel whatever emotions you are feeling; processing your emotions; and connecting those feelings back to your body. 🔑 Resilient people, communities, and families have a process they go through when there is loss, grief, or adversity - they usually gather to comfort each other and allow a safe place for everyone to feel what they feel. 🔑 Chronic trauma comes from being “saturated” in an unsafe, traumatic environment. This type of trauma wears down resiliency the most. 🔑 Alexithymia is a general deficit of interception, i.e. the inability to recognize their own emotions and the emotions in others. People with alexithymia might be able to notice their body feels a certain way, but they typically relate those feelings to things like hunger or fatigue rather than being caused by an emotion. Links from this episode: The Trauma Informed SLP Podcast The Trauma-Informed SLP website Chloe Rothschild TWT Episode Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we share Chris’s interview with Barbara Gruber and Ashley Grady! Barb is the Assistant Director for Education for the National Air & Space Museum, and Ashley is the Senior Program Manager for Access Smithsonian (access.si.edu), the accessibility office for all 21 Smithsonian museums. Barb and Ashley discuss their work in the area of inclusion, the ways the Smithsonian is incorporating feedback from the disability community, free leveled teacher resources from the National Air & Space Museum, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel finish up chatting about Chris’s recent visit to the International Society of Technology and Education (ISTE) conference. Chris talks about Jordyn Zimmerman’s presentation with Apple, shares the only AAC-focused vendor at ISTE 2023, and challenges everyone to learn about new resources and ideas by attending conferences like ISTE and following Ed Tech specialists on social media. Key Ideas This Week: 🔑 Twenty-one percent of people with disabilities have employment. This is an increase from 2008, but not enough - we need to continue to support more pathways to employment for people with disabilities! 🔑 Access Smithsonian brings in “user experts” who are members of different communities, including communities in the disability space, who are paid to share their feedback about current, and future, exhibits and learning materials. 🔑 The My Flight, My Space portal can be used to access content from the National Air & Space Museum that can be filtered and adjusted for things like reading level, length, and topics. This helps to make their digital experience more accessible and interesting to visitors. https://nasm.infiniteach.com/ 🔑 The National Air & Space museum has a Learning Resource page for teachers that is aligned to standards and put into categories to search things like grade level and age. https://airandspace.si.edu/learn/learning-resources Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, Chris interviews Tiffanie Zaugg, a PhD Graduate student and former AAC Coordinator for a school district in Iowa. Tiffanie shares about the “AAC Facilitator’s Guide” that she created in her former school district, a staff resource they could go to with descriptions of many of the concepts she was frequently describing to SLPs and teachers on a regular basis, e.g. core vocabulary, modeling, importance of having a light backup. Tiffanie shares about making this handbook, the SMART Partner strategy, her current work teaching pre-service teachers, and more! Before the interview, Chris shares some ISTE takeaways with Rachel, including seeing more sessions where inclusion was embedded in the learning, going to an AI “Demo Slam” (i.e. demonstrations of tools), and a session about using role playing games (e.g., Dungeons & Dragons) to develop story telling skills! Key ideas this week: 🔑 In a table top role playing game, the players must describe what they want to do, and the Dungeon Master has to describe what happens as a result. This activity works on a student’s narrative skills, imagination, descriptive skills, and problem solving - all in a format that is highly motivating for learners! 🔑 In her AAC Facilitators Guide, Tiffanie included the “SMART Partner Strategy,” which stands for: Stop interruptions; Model; Avoid asking excessive questions; be Responsive; & wait Time. 🔑 When teaching descriptive teaching, consider having students describe a common object (e.g. strawberries) in an AI text-to-picture generator and seeing if the AI makes a picture of that item! 🔑 Tiffanie’s AAC Facilitator’s Guide includes a Communication Partner Work book with a gesture dictionary. This gesture dictionary is a space to note the meaning of any gestures that are unique to that student that will travel with them as they progress in their education. Links from this Episode: D&D In Schools: Communal Storytelling in Classrooms by Matthew Winters and Dan Ryder - https://www.teacherwinters.net/istelive-2023/dndinclassrooms Rewordify.com - Simplifies difficult English and more. TextCompactor.com - Free online automatic text summarization. Skybox by Blockade Labs: Free background/scene generator. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we share Rachel’s interview with one of her clients, Ashley Waterman! Ashley is the parent of three boys, including her youngest, Liam, an AAC user who has a rare genetic disorder, Cohen syndrome. Ashley is passionate about connecting families with children with special needs to essential resources, and is a board member of the Cohen Syndrome Association. Ashley shares about the struggle to get Liam diagnosed, Liam’s amazing progress using AAC, ways they have incorporated modeling into the home routine, and more! Before the interview, Rachel and Chris connect with Rachel's Office & Digital Media Manager, Monica Halschishick! Rachel and Monica discuss how they came to work together, how Monica decided to go to grad school for Speech-Language Pathology, and some tips and tricks for improving digital marketing! Key ideas this week: 🔑 There are times where Liam requests things he can’t have, and Ashley makes sure to communicate to Liam that what he wants isn’t available. We can’t always give a child what they want, but it goes a long way for us to hear them and acknowledge what they are saying, even if the answer is “no”. 🔑 Liam likes to explore his devices sometimes, like pushing “g” and “o” because he likes circles. Sometimes people will say that an AAC user is “stimming” when a child explores a device and will try and stop it, but allowing AAC users to explore their device honors their communication and supports the visual lexicon. 🔑 Asking permission before we take a device away from an AAC user is really important, even when modeling. While it isn’t always possible to do, having a second device for modeling in the home for the family gives the AAC user more personal autonomy over their AAC device. 🔑 Many children have anxiety in some speaking situations - for kids with disabilities, a lack of communication may be misunderstood as a lack of ability, when in fact they are just nervous. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we present part 2 of Chris’s interview with Judith Schoonover, an occupational therapist who, along with Chris, was a founding member of the Louden County School District AT Team. This week, Judith talks about the role of the occupational therapist (OT) in the AAC device selection process, the importance of collaboration between team members during that process, and more! Before the interview, Chris shares about doing an AAC training for bus drivers in his school district, and how the word “salad” created an “aha” moment for the group! Chris also discusses doing teacher trainings during the extended school year, including some teachers who thought they knew AAC better than they actually did. Key ideas this week: 🔑 OT’s can be helpful with the assessment process by helping figure out things like motor access, as well as the ability of the student to directly select icons comfortably and successfully. 🔑 Some OTs want to jump directly from “this student has difficulty with direct selection of icons on an AAC device” to “this student needs an eye gaze device” without taking the time to understand what is causing the problems with direct selection. 🔑 Standardized testing doesn’t give the whole picture for OTs or SLPs. There are uses for standardized testing, but it is more important that we presume potential and take the time to better understand a student’s strengths and weaknesses. Links: WATI Assistive Technology Consideration to Assessment - https://www.wati.org/free-publications/assistive-technology-consideration-to-assessment/ Communication Bill of Rights - https://www.asha.org/njc/communication-bill-of-rights/ Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, Chris interviews Judith Schoonover, an occupational therapist who, along with Chris, was a founding member of the Loudoun County School District Assistive Technology Team. She shares about the importance of focusing on the specific needs of a student during assessment, not just their label; the consistent move of technology from special education to general education, her history as an AT “maker”, ideas for supporting maker groups in your area, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel catch up about Rachel’s work during the summer with clients doing “intensives.”! Intensives in Rachel’s practice involve having the entire communication parter team, along with the AAC user, attend three 90 minute sessions per week for two weeks. This is followed by three more sessions with just communication partners to train them further on how to be an effective communication partner using the information learned the previous two weeks. Rachel also discusses her new literacy intensive, and the positive results she has been getting from them as well. Key Ideas This Week: 🔑 When people request assistive technology using broad terms (“What app is good for Down Syndrome?”), we should guide them towards figuring out the task that needs to be done and then help them feature match for those specific needs. 🔑 There is always a move for assistive technology to become more widely adopted in general education; for example, computers were initially only given to students in special education, while now many districts have 1:1 computer initiatives. When supporting kids in special education who use a particular AT tool, try and consider if the tool is something that would be of benefit to kids in general education as well. 🔑 Judith likes quick AT solutions using Therese Willkomm’s “make in a minute” strategy, which capitalizes on the momentum we feel when we first start a project. She advocates for using notepads, squeeze balls, pool noodles, and more to quickly create helpful AT solutions. That way, the maker builds confidence in their skills and the district builds capacity. Watch more at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNpOeH4jnC4 🔑 Judith works part time on the Assistive Technology Outcomes & Benefits journal, ATIA’s open-access, online, annual publication of peer-reviewed papers. Sign up for this free journal at https://www.atia.org/home/at-resources/atob/ Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

In this “Recast” episode of Talking with Tech, we share a remastered episode that was previously aired on the podcast. This episode, Chris Bugaj, Rachel Madel, and Lucas Stuber have a roundtable discussion about the key components of aided language stimulation, i.e. modeling. This means that the the communication partner uses the same communication system as the AAC user to model communication exchanges. Key ideas this week: 🔑 AAC is a visual language, and we can’t expect an AAC user to understand when and how to use AAC if they can’t watch someone else use it first. As Rachel says, “You want to create an AAC world, and go live in it.” 🔑 Research indicates that aided-language stimulation helps an AAC user to increase the length of their utterances, improve their vocabulary, and increase their use of grammatical endings. Samuel C. Sennott, Janice C. Light, and David McNaughton -102 Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities 41(2) 🔑 Just like when we talk to babies without expecting them to talk back, we need to provide AAC users with a lot of modeling opportunities without expecting a response. Even if we think an AAC user isn’t listening to us, we should continue to model to them without expectation. 🔑 Descriptive teaching of AAC is a strategy where the communication partner teaches concepts behind context-specific fringe words using high frequency core words. For example, rather than teaching an AAC user about photosynthesis using lots of scientific words, you can use core words to teach the concept (e.g., “The sun goes on the plant and the plant makes food.”) Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

In this “Recast” episode of Talking with Tech, we share a remastered episode that was previously aired on the podcast. This episode includes Chris Bugaj’s interview with Chris Klein, a full time AAC user, disability advocate, and mentor. They discuss Chris Klein’s presentation at ATIA about motor planning and the “external lexicon” of AAC users. Before the interview, Chris Bugaj, Rachel Madel, and Lucas Steuber discuss some of their thoughts about motor planning and what they have seen in their practice that supports the need for motor planning in robust AAC systems. Key ideas this episode: 🔑 Chris Klein advocates for the largest vocabulary possible at the start to begin developing a motor plan with their AAC as soon as possible. It is important to consider a user’s motor plan long term. If you give them 8 buttons to start, you will need to keep expanding the page, which changes the motor plan around. It’s better to start AAC users on a larger grid size at the start so we aren’t constantly changing the buttons around. 🔑 Chris Klein shares that people who use AAC have both an internal lexicon (words in their head) and an external lexicon (whatever AAC device a user has in front of them). An AAC user’s layout must be well thought out in advance, because if there is no motor plan and looking for a button takes too long, the aac user may forget what they wanted to say or will otherwise limit their utterances. This could potentially slow down language development overall. 🔑 For the most part, Chris Klein believes that goals for AAC users are set too low. The goal should be learning to use language spontaneously, not just communicating basic needs and wants. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

In this “Recast” episode of Talking with Tech, we share a remastered episode that was previously aired on the podcast. This episode includes Chris Bugaj’s interview with Shaun Pearson and Chris Chichoskikelly about the AAC Agreements, a set of “better” practices around AAC that were crowd sourced from stakeholders in the area of AAC at the ATIA conference in 2016 and 2018. You can learn more about the AAC Agreements here! Before the interview, Chris Bugaj, Rachel Madel, and Lucas Steuber discuss some of the key beliefs that they have around AAC and how they try and follow these guidelines within their own practices. During the interview, Chris, Chris, and Shaun discuss the following "AAC Agreements": 1. The student should have access to their communication system even while engaging in academic or leisure activities. 2. Everyone is a multi-modal communicator. A communication system should include multiple modalities. 3. There should always be a light tech option as part of an AAC system. 4. Motor planning is an important consideration of an organizational structure of an AAC system. 5. The communication system should allow for multiple pragmatic functions. 6. Core vocabulary should be taught. 7. Modeling (aided language stimulation) all day, every day is desired in AAC, with no requirement of a response. 8. Modeling should allow for growth in the individual's communication. 9. Modeling should be used to facilitate growth in communication. 10. Accept any mode of communication as valid, as long as your communication partner understands what it means. Don't require individuals to repeat themselves in another modality. Do model the response in the modality you are trying to teach. 11. The AAC system should always be immediately accessible to the user. 12. The AAC system should never be removed for disciplinary reasons. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

In this “Recast” episode of Talking with Tech, we share a remastered episode that was previously aired on the podcast. This episode is a “roundtable” discussion between previous co-host Lucas Steuber, Christopher Bugaj, and Rachel Madel. They discuss core words, a relatively small set of high-frequency words, often between 100-300, which make up 80% of what we say every day. Teaching core words to AAC users can give the biggest “bang for your buck” compared to teaching many nouns. Key ideas this week: 🔑 Core words are versatile and can be used to express a wide range of ideas, needs, and wants. Users can combine core words in different ways to create diverse sentences and convey complex messages. 🔑 By focusing on core words, AAC users have the opportunity to learn critical grammar and syntax, including prepositions and pronouns, which can help facilitate overall language development. Nouns are often heavily taught but only make up 20% of what we say. 🔑 Core words are not tied to specific contexts or activities, unlike fringe vocabulary, which includes more specialized or topic-specific words. As a result, core words are useful across different situations and environments, enhancing the user's ability to communicate effectively in various settings. 🔑 There are “personal” core words that are fringe words normally, but may be a core word for that user. For example, the name of the family dog might be a word that one particular AAC user would use frequently. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, Chris and Rachel interview Jordyn Zimmerman, an autistic nonspeaking adult who was featured in the documentary “This is Not About Me.” This is Not About Me covers Jordyn’s journey trying to be included in school and to get access to robust AAC. Jordyn shares about the challenges with an education system that can segregate disabled students without giving them equal opportunities, the problems with “gatekeepers” withholding robust AAC from students, the impact of limiting beliefs, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel connect with Michaela Ball, the Audio Engineer of Talking with Tech. Michaela shares about how she got connected with the podcast and why she reached out to help several years ago. Chris, Rachel, and Michaela discuss some of their thoughts about Jordan Zimmerman’s documentary, This is Not About Me https://thisisnotaboutme.film/ and talk about the importance of giving AAC users the time they need to finish communicating. Chris and Rachel challenge listeners to wait for Jordyn to respond in this episode rather than fast forwarding as a way to practice giving an AAC user the wait time they need. Key Ideas this Week: 🔑 Jordyn shares that, in the education system, when students have disabilities, they are put on a path of segregation rather than being given the tools they need to communicate. This is especially true if the student does not use speech to communicate. Once segregated, the opportunities for students within the school and broader community are often limited. 🔑 There remains a big issue with with schools and professionals “gatekeeping,” i.e., requiring that a person meet certain criteria before being given robust AAC. Often, this includes a requirement that a person shows “communicative intent” before they are given robust AAC. Jordyn notes that, as a student, she was asked to demonstrate communicative intent without being given meaningful access to AAC or training on how to use it. For Jordyn, her school believed she would never meaningfully communicate because she had “challenging” behaviors after years without access to communication. 🔑 Jordyn says that she learned a lot of language as a child from listening to her older brother, her parents, and Sesame Street, as well as living in a print-rich environment. Jordyn was learning about language from her home environment long before she had access to robust AAC. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, Rachel and Chris interview Rebecca Gettings, a parent of an AAC user in Arizona. Her son, Carter, has complex communication needs and uses eye tracking. Rachel shares about her journey from learning about AAC to supporting Carter’s literacy, as well as some of her AAC and inclusion advocacy in Yuma, Arizona. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss some ways that Rachel has used AI in her practice, including using the Canva AI image creator to create visuals and characters for an original story. Rachel also shares about a client family that has negative feelings about AI, and her realization that she may need to have more conversations with families before using AI in therapy. Chris notes that AI is not “binary” - its not all bad or all good. Key ideas this week: 🔑 When Rachel is using Chat GPT in therapy and gets an answer that is difficult for her client to understand, Rachel will model writing “Can you simplify that” into to help them get an easier to understand response. 🔑 Turnover has been a big problem for Rebecca and Carter - she frequently teaches Carter’s teachers and SLPs to be good communication partners, only for them to be replaced. When an AAC user’s family learns how to use AAC and become good communication partners, it establishes a consistent source of knowledge and expertise that won’t change as often. 🔑 Rebecca says that the main advice she would give to parents is to “get started learning as soon as possible,” even if it seems overwhelming at first. “Once you understand AAC,” she says, “its super easy, but it’s about making that jump.” 🔑 If you are training parents, don’t worry about training them on things they can search on YouTube, like how to add or remove a button. Focus on getting them comfortable with modeling and identifying activities in their daily routine that are starting points for implementation. Link from this week’s episode: SSA’s Spotlight on ABLE Tax Free Savings Accounts for Disabled Individuals: https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/spotlights/spot-able.html Inspire HI Project - https://www.facebook.com/InspireHIproject/ Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we share Chris’s interview with Sydney Elcan Birchfield, an OT Assistant working in the schools and a graduate student in Assistive Technology at George Mason University! Sydney interviews Chris about his career and approach to assistive technology, including what Chris’s focus on inclusive design, including more AT in the IEP, the need for AT considerations vs AT assessments, free AT professional learning resources, and more! Before the interview, Rachel and Chris discuss one of Rachel’s clients who, prior to working with Rachel, was not making much progress using his AAC device. Rachel shares that, when an AAC user comes to her who hasn’t made progress, their system is often not set up for success - too few buttons, scrolling home page, etc. Rachel recommended a new AAC layout for her client with more language, but everyone in this client’s family was worried about moving to the new layout. They started with progressive vocabulary masking some words, and after 7 months, he is using the full layout successfully! Key Ideas This Week: 🔑 Considerations are better than “assessment” because the time it takes to do an assessment can become a barrier - a team approach can be faster and more thorough. 🔑 The word “trialing” can be misleading when it comes to AT/AAC, because it sounds like a scientific trial. However, scientific trials control for all the variables before measuring change, but we can’t control for a large number of variables when exposing a student to different AT/AAC options. Even the choice of which option to put in front of a student first can change the user’s responsiveness to each option. 🔑 Inviting students into the considerations/assessment process helps us know what is motivating for them and if there are any roadblocks to AT (e.g. the student thinks using word prediction makes them look different) that can be discussed ahead of time. 🔑 We should remove the word “assistive” from assistive technology and just say “inclusive technology” or even just “technology”. It should be something that isn’t just for people with disabilities and special education, but technology can be used to redesign the experience for every student. Resources From This Episode: QIAT Listserv - https://qiat.org/qiat-list/ #ATchat Wedesdays at 8pm Eastern on Twitter - To follow the discussion, search “#ATchat” on Twitter, and to participate, include #ATchat in your tweet.

This week, we share Chris’s coaching call with Sarah Seiger! Sarah is an SLP at a nonpublic/nonprofit school in Cleveland, OH that supports students with complex needs from multiple local school districts. Sarah is trying to develop more processes for her school’s efforts to get more students AAC, including questions about trialing, collaboration with teachers, modeling, and more! Before the interview, Rachel and Chris have a lively chat about Rachel’s social media following, and why Rachel’s analytics indicate that posts supporting literacy for AAC users often do not get as much engagement as posts that don’t talk about literacy. Chris notes that literacy may be something that not every SLP thinks of as “their job”, and maybe Rachel should consider combining literacy with other concepts to bring more people in. Key ideas this week: 🔑 During AAC selection, we want to consider motor planning for every student we are assessing. There is no AAC user, regardless of their familiarity with AAC, that is going to perform better with the same word in different locations all across the device. 🔑 Selecting an AAC device for a student that matches what their peers are using in the same classroom/school is not something that should be avoided as a general rule - it’s OK to consider the environment that a device will be used in. That shouldn’t be the only consideration, but it can be an important one. 🔑 While it may feel respectful to put different AAC devices in front of a potential user to finding out what they “gravitate” toward when we are “trialing” AAC systems. However, it is difficult to know why an AAC user appears more interested in one app than the others - it may be the first one they saw, might have a picture that caught their eye, might be impacted by how tired the student is, etc. Instead, we can figure out what system we believe will work, based on the available factors, and choose that to start implementing right away. 🔑 If you are trying to advocate for a position related to AAC within your organization, consider highlighting something measurable, like modeling, and advocating for an AAC coaching role to make those improvements. You can also look at descriptive teaching and least-to-most prompting for other measurables. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we share another episode of Small Talks, where we share small interviews with previous guests. This week, we share Small Talks with Darla Ashton, Hank Poore, Sean Sweeney, Shelley Anderson, and Tami Altschuler! Before the interviews, Chris and Rachel talk about the CRAAP test. This test provides a list of questions to ask yourself when deciding whether or not a source is reliable and credible enough. CRAAP stands for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose. Small Talks this week: First, Darla Ashton shares about creating visual schedules with resources like Lesson Pix and the Choiceworks App (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/choiceworks/id486210964). Chris notes that we can also consider “amorphous” visual schedules, a type of schedule where the pieces are dynamic and move around as necessary if there need to be changes to he schedule. These can help kids who are learning to be more flexible thinkers. Second, Hank Poore and Chris discuss the pros and cons of turning off the feature where a word is played aloud when each button is touched. Chris talks about that Bruce Baker advising him to have the word read after each time a button is pressed; this can help keep communication partners engaged by giving them a auditory prompt to keep waiting for the message, but it likely comes down to personal preference. Third, Sean Sweeney talks about JamBoard and a recent experience he had adapting a role playing game for play in et students to help participate in a shared space, more than google slides. Found a free RPG called Movie Night. Having the students design characters and use JamBoard for everyone’s character. Also uses slides on JamBoard to explain the game in a way that is easier to understand. Kind of like a virtual white board. Julia Dweck has links to a bunch of jam boards at https://linktr.ee/GiftedTawk Fourth, Shelley Anderson shares her strategy of working with a student’s preferred toy/instrument to elicit more language production. Shelley takes a gathering drum and a wooden frog that makes a croaking sound and teaches language and prepositions to a student who loves the frog (e.g. “The frog is under the drum”). Finally, Tami Altschuler wishes that there could be more care and communication between school-based and hospital-based SLPs before surgeries occur. If an AAC user is going to stay in the hospital, Tami would love for SLPs to contact her for better transferring care between the hospital and the school setting. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we present Part 2 of Chris interview with Samantha Hagness and Becky Woolley, two AT/AAC Specialists from the Mesa Public Schools, as they continue to explore integrating Grid for Education into classrooms along with TouchChat. In this episode, Chris inquires more about Samantha and Becky’s plans for modeling on TouchChat while Grid for Education is being used, as well as ideas for integrating video into communication partner coaching, benefits of prerecording trainings, and more! Before the interview, Rachel and Chris have another in-person chat about a client of Rachel’s that was making limited progress with his accuracy on his AAC device, even though the client used sign language. When an AAC user is making limited progress with accuracy despite using symbolic language, Rachel always considers the possibility that cortical visual impairment is impacting accuracy. Rachel notes that the client was recently diagnosed with CVI which she hopes will help the team utilize more CVI strategies. Chris wonders if we can make those high contrast symbols the default, and if that would potentially help AAC users with undiagnosed CVI have more success. Key ideas this week: 🔑 The core boards that Samatha and Becky created for their district have a picture of TouchChat 60 on the front (with a couple of navigation buttons swapped out), an alphabet with numbers and academic vocabulary on the back, and a flippable personal fringe section! 🔑 One thing Chris found helpful when videotaping communication partners during modeling was having them count the total AAC models, then comparing that with the number of verbal instructions given. Giving communicatione partners evidence of their growing skills provides communication partners with a feeling of confidence. 🔑 One big benefit of creating asynchronous training materials (e.g. recorded videos) is you can have your paraprofessionals go over the training more easily. It is often difficult to get all paraprofessionals on a campus into a single training; giving paraprofessionals access to video training allows them to watch when it is a good time for their schedule. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, Chris interviews Samantha Hagness and Becky Woolley, two AT/AAC Specialists from the Mesa Public Schools. They chat about some of their successes and setbacks with using TouchChat as their Tier 1 approach under the Specific Language System First approach and some ideas they had to integrate Grid 3 into their classrooms along with TouchChat. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel chat - in person again - about some recent webinars they did with school districts to help them improve their AAC implementation. They discuss some of the highlights, including helping staff change their mindset about how much they know about AAC and some of the second-guessing that people do when they are being coached - there may be some level of worry that they will be judged harshly by the coach or other staff. Rachel and Chris encourage coaches to reassure communication partners that they have the knowledge and skills they need to be successful! Key ideas this week: 🔑 Samantha and Becky believe that implementation is falling apart when teachers need to go to an extra step to add to what the teacher is doing, rather than having AAC already incorporated into a teacher’s instructional flow. 🔑 With Grid 3/Grid for Education, you can display Internet information on the main screen 2/3 of the screen while having core words surround the main screen everyone is looking at. Samantha and Becky want to give teachers the ability to project this int he classroom to make AAC modeling easier and more streamlined. 🔑 Chris likes coming up with new ways to model AAC in classrooms, but he suggests doing a pilot with a few schools rather than rolling it out to everyone right away. This allows time to build “champions” who can tell or show others about some of the successes in the classroom. 🔑 Chris wants to make sure that the motor plan that is on the AAC user’s device is supported - if the teacher can’t always model on the AAC user’s specific device during instruction, that is OK, but you might consider having paraprofessionals simultaneously modeling on that AAC user’s device within the classroom environment. Links from this Week’s Episode: Up Goer Six - free web tool where you an type in a sentence, it provides the sentence in color codes based on the frequency of the word. https://splasho.com/upgoer6/ Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we present Rachel’s interview with Alyssa Hillary Zisk and Lily Konyn, two autistic part-time AAC users who are members of the AAC Research Team at AssistiveWare. Alyssa and Lily discuss Gestalt Language Processing, including research into using immediate and delayed echolalia for communicative purposes and why research suggests someone being a “gestalt language processor” may be more of a spectrum and less binary. They also share about things that make modeling less effective, including talking while modeling, doing “+1 modeling”, and doing “key word” modeling. Before the interview, Chris does a banter with Rachel - in a car, in person! They talk about a co-worker of Chris who recently did a successful AAC awareness training for a Kindergarten class! Chris shares some of the positive feedback, and encourages educators to try and emulate the idea in their own school! Key ideas this week: 🔑 Programming in phrases that we think might be helpful is not “adding a gestalt” to the device, it’s just adding a useful phrase. Gestalts have an established emotional connection to the person who is learning language; a phrase doesn’t become a gestalt just because a therapist or parent thinks it would be useful. 🔑 Alyssa says that there is not a lot of research specifically referencing Gestalt Language Processing, but there is relevant research about delayed and immediate echolalia being used for communication purposes. Alyssa also mentions first hand accounts from autistic people who first used echolalia to communicate, as well as “remixed echolalia”, i.e., taking a script and moving or changing a part of it, which is very is similar to the idea of “mitigated gestalts” in gestalt language processing. 🔑 Alyssa and Lily are not supporters of “+1 modeling”, where the communication partner models one word longer than the AAC user uses. Alyssa and Lily think this may cause an AAC user to become stuck only using one button because they only see two word utterances modeled. We model full sentences to children, not just sentences one word longer than they are saying. 🔑 Similarly, Alyssa and Lily suggest that communication partners should refrain from saying words as they they are inputting them into the AAC device - it can create competing auditory channels, which is difficult for anyone with auditory processing challenges. 🔑 Alyssa and Lily are also not supporters of “key word modeling”, where the communication partner models one or two key words as they are talking. One word is faster to model than the entire sentence, but when the AAC user tries to communicate themselves, they are going to find out it is a lot more difficult than pressing one or two words. Alyssa and Lily believe this could cause the AAC user to stop trusting their communication partner or decide that they are inherently bad at AAC. Links from this week's episode: AAC for Speaking Autistic Adults by Alyssa Hillary Zisk: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/AUT.2018.0007 How to Talk about AAC Users (According to Them) by Alyssa Hillary Zisk and Lily Konyn: https://www.assistiveware.com/blog/how-to-talk-about-aac Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we share Chris’s interview with Darla Ashton, an Assistive technology Coordinator, Instructional Specialist, and BCBA with Carmel Clay Schools in Indiana! Darla and Chris discuss topics in AAC related to the question, “What do you know now that you didn’t know 10 years ago?” Darla discusses her district’s journey to determine what AAC program to use, Darla’s move away from the “expert model” of AAC assessment, creating an AAC professional learning group in her district, how more BCBAs should collaborate with the team to support AAC, and more! Before the interview, Chris, Melissa, and Tucker Bugaj gather to discuss AAC use on the popular Star Wars series, “The Mandalorian”. They discuss how characters tried to say “Baby Yoda” wasn’t ready for AAC, and how Baby Yoda (aka Grogu) protested, pressing “no, no, no, no” and refusing to give up his AAC. Key Ideas this Week: 🔑 One important shift over the last 10 years for Darla is shifting to giving the teacher a tool to teach language without putting pressure on the student to use the device - an AAC user doesn’t have to “prove” anything for us to provide them AAC. 🔑 Darla believes the most important thing for an AAC user’s success isn’t necessarily the app we choose, but the confidence level of the people who are going to be communicating with the student (e.g. staff, teachers, parents, SLPs). 🔑 In Darla’s district, some classes will have several AAC users who all use the same AAC app. Darla will frequently provide the same AAC app to a new AAC user joining that class. However, there are some circumstances where Darla will not provide the same AAC app to a student, such as when a sibling has a different AAC system at home and the parents would like to model using that app. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we share an amazing interview with Nanny Aut! Nanny Aut is an amazing autistic blogger and advocate who created Autistic Village, a group of blogs with contributions from autistic people around the world. Nanny Aut shares about their experience being diagnosed with autism as an adult, being told autistic people “can’t be teachers” (as they were training to be a teacher), how we can better support neurodiverse students in the schools, and so much more! Before the interview, Sarah Gregory and Ashley Larisey join Rachel for a lively discussion of the meaning of phrases commonly used in education like “life skills” and “functional skills”. They note that, if a teacher says a student needs more “functional” skills/academics/language, is that just another way of saying they are giving up on academics? If not, what are they saying then? They discuss how terms like “functional” are often too vague, and ways we can be more specific when we share those ideas. Key ideas this week: 🔑 When we say “life skills” or “functional skills”, are we really thinking about what skills we want for a person, or are we thinking about what is important to a person? We should always do our best to connect our goals for a person with their personal interests and desires. If something is not intrinsically motivating, a person is often less likely to learn the skill and/or generalize it. 🔑 Nanny Aut uses the Emergency Chat app when they get overwhelmed and verbal speech becomes difficult or impossible. They share about a time in the hospital when they needed their phone to communicate, and how frustrated it make them feel when their phone was taken away as punishment. 🔑 When your autistic child says “no” verbally or nonverbally, they are probably telling you “no” for a reason. They may not understand exactly why they feel a certain way, but that doesn’t mean their feelings are invalid. Telling an autistic child “just ignore it”, “it’s not that bad”, or “no one else is having a problem,” can be frustrating and, in some cases, even traumatic. Links this week: Inside-Aut.com, Nanny Aut’s space for parents to learn about autism, including their 6 week SPEED for Needs course. Autistic-Village.com a group of blogs by autistic people from around the world Nanny Aut's free online seminar : 5 Keys to Understanding Autism Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, Chris and Rachel get the opportunity to interview the amazing LJ Seiff! LJ is a 14 year old boy with cerebral palsy and cortical visual impairment, which impact his ability to speak intelligibly. LJ shares about his AAC journey and some of the things that he wishes were done in the classroom more, like giving him more wait time to respond or asking multiple choice questions, since an AAC user can respond with a single press of “a” “b” or “c”. Before the interview, Chris, Tucker, and Melissa Bugaj have a family discussion of Tucker’s recent playing in the pep band for the Special Olympics at a local school. Tucker chats about what interested him in being a part of the pep band, and shares a sweet story of helping a boy join into a group picture by giving him a chance to use a sousaphone. Key ideas this week: 🔑One of LJ’s biggest frustrations in the classroom is when teachers don’t think about incorporating or using his device in the classroom setting. He also gets frustrated when staff and teachers do not give him the wait time that is written in his IEP. 🔑LJ doesn’t enjoy when people talk bout him right in front of him as if he wasn’t there. People will also touch his device without permission, which LJ says makes him feel powerless because he can’t say “no” when people don’t ask. 🔑A lot of times there’s focus on literacy, but not as much focus on the needs for students who can do more advanced math. LJ had a lot of words that he needed for his math classes that were not available on his device and that he had add himself. Links from this week Equatio - Digital equation editor that can work with speech to text or text to speech. https://www.texthelp.com/products/equatio/ Blog post by LJ about his AAC journey: https://lessonsfromthebigtoe.com/2021/06/24/lj-seiffs-aac-journey/ Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we share Part 2 of Chris’s conversation with Kristina Edie (SLP), Erica Sauer (Director of Special Programs), Joy Mockbee (OT), and Bernadette Wiley (PT/AAC) with Hancock County Schools in West Virginia. They continue to talk with Chris about the Specific Language System First approach and how it might work for their district, including how to choose the “tier 1/2” device that you give every AAC user. Before the interview, Rachel shares about working with a new client who has had some difficulty with implementation over the last 5 years with other therapists. Her client’s school-based SLP recently recommended that the AAC User should go to a paper based book to communicate. The SLP said Rachel’s client wasn’t using the device “functionally” because he sometimes hit different buttons and treated the device like a “toy”. When Rachel got a chance to work with the student, she was blown away by all of the ways that this AAC User can communicate, and Rachel was frustrated that he was being denied robust AAC when the problem is poor implementation. Key Ideas This Week: 🔑 The Hancock team asks Chris about choosing an AAC device for the district that uses Symbol Stix, like TouchChat or Proloquo2Go, because they often use those symbols in class as part of Unique Learning Systems. Chris notes that, in his experience, if we are good at modeling and descriptive teaching, then we can teach any robust system to AAC Users, regardless of how familiar they already are with the pictures. 🔑 One benefit of learning how to model really well on one AAC system is you are able to learn your next AAC system faster, because you already understand the key functions of AAC software in general. 🔑 Chris shares that, with AAC, you need to hit the “sweet spot” that includes an appropriate AAC tool, training for the circle of support on modeling/descriptive teaching, and hands on coaching on how to model effectively. Links from this Episode: Continuum of Language Expression (http://bit.ly/colegooglesheets & http://bit.ly/lcpscolepiktochart) Chris and Rachel discuss the Continuum of Language Expression (COLE) during the banter of this episode of Talking with Tech: https://www.talkingwithtech.org/episodes/julie-freed

This week, we share Part 1 of Chris’s conversation with Kristina Edie (SLP), Erica Sauer (Director of Special Programs), Joy Mockbee (OT), and Bernadette Wiley (PT/AAC) with Hancock County Schools in West Virginia. They talk about the AAC journey their district has gone on that led them to asking Chris to help them understand the Specific Language System First approach and how it might work for them. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel talk about an email that Rachel sent to her email list about using slang with AAC that was offensive to a reader for cultural reasons. Rachel shares about that learning moment, and how it has informed her approach to slang, including being more mindful about taking with families and peers about the slang she wants to add onto a device. Key ideas this week: 🔑 There is a rationale and reasoning behind the pictures on LAMP Words for Life, and often the picture relates to teaching the concept, like a picture of a dog for “come” or a bridge with a cloud over it for prepositions. It may not always make sense at first, but there is always a thought out reason for the picture, and at the end of the day the student will learn the motor plan regardless of the picture. 🔑 Chris has seen a trend of students wanting to move from LAMP Words for Life to TouchChat in secondary school because they want something that is more text based. Chris shares some have said more text based AAC looks "more mature." Chris points out that adults use images like emojis and gifs all the time, and there should be nothing inherently more “adult” about using text vs using images. 🔑 Slang isn’t as simple as the popular words or phrases that we hear being used on TikTok. These are words that have history and uses that are cultural, regional, and generational in nature. As therapists, we need to be seeking information by initiating conversations with families and peers about the kinds of slang we’re programming into devices. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

In this episode of Talking with Tech, Chris interviews Bruce Alter, a pediatric Physical Therapist and AT Consultant with the Tigard-Tualatin School District in Oregon. Bruce has a long history working with technology, including as a user; he was an early adopter of assistive technology in school to support his challenges with dyslexia. Bruce and Chris’s discussion focuses on artificial intelligince (AI) like Open AI's Chat GPT, including some of the uses it can have in the schools and some applications for AAC users in general. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel get together with Rachel's twin Matt Madel to talk about Rachel and his connection as twins and some of the ways that he uses Chat GPT in his own work, including quickly creating code in Python. Key ideas this week: 🔑 ChatGPT is a language model developed by OpenAI that is designed to generate human-like text responses to natural language inputs. It can do more than just answer informational questions - it can write unique code, create formulas for Excel, respond at a particular Lexile level or grade, and more! 🔑 Bruce emphasizes that ChatGPT does not answer questions the same way that a human being does. ChatGPT is known to have "hallucinations" that sound convincing but are factually incorrect. We should teach students that they need to fact check what ChatGPT says to ensure it is correct! 🔑 Should school districts block or ban something that will be available to society, like chat GPT, or do they have a duty to help students figure out how to help students use it? You have to balance students getting their own skills at writing while also teaching them how to utilize tools like GPT to improve their learning. Links from this week’s episode: Cult of Pedagogy Podcast: How to Use ChatGPT as an Example Machine https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/chatgpt-example-machine/ Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, Rachel and Chris interview Noah Callan, a 25-year-old disability and inclusion advocate who is a full-time AAC user. Noah is also the AAC & Technology Coordinator at Kids+ in Australia. Noah shares about his AAC journey, including some of the changes he has made over the years, such as going from switch access scanning to using an eye gaze camera with Gridpad 12 . Noah also shares some challenging and rewarding experiences he recently had with able-bodied people, including a worker at a bank who refused to talk to him and assumed that he was not intelligent because he is nonspeaking. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel reflect on how much gestalt language processing (GLP) was a topic of discussion at this year’s ATIA. They note that it continues to be important to ask the right questions and keep an open mind about something you are learning about, while also noting that we need to maintain appropriate skepticism. They also note that the strategy of adding a script to a device could be considered “key vocabulary”. Key ideas this week: 🔑 If you are a family member, friend, or therapist of an AAC user, try and set a time with the AAC user to have a chat with the device each day. That way, the AAC user feels more comfortable starting their own conversations down the road. 🔑 Noah really likes his current AAC setup on a Gridpad 12 by SmartBox with an eye gaze camera. He likes the Gridpad because: it has a long battery life (10 hours with eye gaze), he likes that the design is not too big or small, and it has an option for a 2nd screen to display what he types. One good feature of the 2nd screen is, while Noah is writing his message, three dots display to help others wait while Noah composes his message. 🔑 Noah says: “Don’t underestimate what an AAC user can do. Give them all the time to deliver their message, because, what is the rush? There is absolutely no rush. Sometimes, people assume that, because I have a physical disability and am nonverbal, I can’t do things like ordinary people do. Before you judge a disabled person, you might want to take the time to get to know them and see what they are able to do. You might be surprised and also find a new friend!” Links this week: Noah’s Linktree has links to the programs he is involved in and work he has done, including Kids+ and Get Skilled Access: https://linktr.ee/noahcallan Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week on Talking with Tech, Chris and Rachel discuss some of their takeaways from the Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2023. For those not familiar, ATIA holds a conference in Florida each year that focuses on assistive technology. Chris has attended and presented at ATIA for years, and Rachel has presented each of the last two years. Chris and Rachel touch on many of the topics they talked about with AAC users, including compensation for AAC Ambassadors, the need for more AAC users in AAC companies, ways that artificial intelligence can impact AAC, and more! Key ideas this week: 🔑 We wouldn’t have a women’s rights group run by men, but most, if not all, AAC companies do not have an AAC user in an executive-type position in the company. The position that AAC users often fill is an “Ambassador” at conferences, which often pays very little. Chris and Rachel wonder if we can’t do a better job of compensating AAC users equitably for their involvement. 🔑 An AAC user at ATIA brought up that there aren’t always voice options for men, women, teens, children, and people who speak different dialects (e.g. African-American). Chris will start weighting voice options more when considering which AAC app to recommend. 🔑 When we are sharing or presenting, it is important to attribute ideas and images to the person who created them. Attribution allows people to find out about other content creators within the community. If you aren't sure who created something you want to share or use, try to a bit of research into who created it. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Links from this Episode: Futurepedia.io - Contains a large database of AI tools that is updated daily SLPs as AAC Gatekeepers by Jordyn Zimmerman

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! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, Rachel interviews Dr. Theresa Bartolotta, an SLP who is a parent to Lisa, a young girl with Rett syndrome. Dr. Bartolotta is co-author of the recently published Rett Syndrome Communication Guidelines and serves as consultant on communication to the International Rett Syndrome Foundation (ISRF). Dr. Bartolotta shares about putting together the Rett Syndrome Communication Guidelines, her journey as a parent of a child with Rett, and the IRSF’s mission to spread the word about Rett to more SLPs, teachers, and families. Before the interview, Rachel and Chris chat about Chris’s GIPHY.com channel, using GIFs to do a deep dive into a client’s specific interests, putting together your own collection of GIFs to use in therapy, and more! Key ideas this week: 🔑 Rett Syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by an X-linked genetic mutation that affects multiple systems. Communication is usually affected, and people with Rett are typically nonspeaking. 🔑 People with Rhett syndrome often have difficulty regulating their bodies, and go in and out of being overstimulated and understimulated. The Rett Syndrome Communication Guide includes information on how to recognize when someone with Rett is overstimulated (or understimulated), and how to get them back to a regulated state. 🔑 It was important for Dr. Bartolotta to put together the Rett Communication Guidelines, because Rett is such a low-incidence disorder. An SLP working in the schools, for example, might only come across Rett once or twice in an entire career. By providing more information in one place, it can help bridge the knowledge gap for people new to treating Rett. Links this week: Chris’s GIF channel on GIPHY: https://giphy.com/channel/christopherbugaj Rett Syndrome Communication Guidelines https://www.rettsyndrome.org/communication-guidelines/ International Rett Syndrome Foundation rettsyndrome.org. Free professional development webinar series about Rett by the IRSF: https://www.rettsyndrome.org/for-communication-professionals/ Safe Harbor: A Podcast for Parents of Children with Disabilities: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1909282 Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, Rachel has a coaching call with Sarah Lockhart, an SLP and host of the SLP Happy Hour podcast! They discuss a case study of a 5 year old nonspeaking boy who uses an AAC device to communicate. Sarah and Rachel discuss concerns that he is “stuck at requesting”, since he typically only makes requests during therapy. Rachel shares how we can lean into those requests and elicit communication using those high-interest topics. Before the interview, Chris shares with Rachel about his recent trip to Disneyland and some of the thoughts he had during the trip, including: the fact that he didn’t see any people using AAC in 5 days at a busy park; seeing a knit cap someone wore that said “I have autism, please be patient”; and the need to program phrases an AAC user might want to say in public, like “Go Bills”, into their devices. Key ideas this week: 🔑 If you are trying to introduce commenting, you can set up a carrier phrase like “Its a train!” “Its a train!” “Its a _______” to help set up the expectation rather than just showing a picture of a train. The emphasis and routine can help students become more spontaneous and independent. 🔑 Some people with autism can get really anxious and want to know what is coming next. It can create peaks and valleys in their emotional experience - a visual schedule can help with that. To follow their lead during therapy and not be too rigid, you can include more general things on the schedule, like “read a book or new game”, to allow for adjustments during the session. 🔑 There is a lot of work to be done with coaching communication partners, and it can feel overwhelming. Instead of thinking about everything that needs to be try, try and focus teaching a communication partner to do one thing, and do it well. That can sometimes feel more doable for the both the clinician and the communication partner. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, Chris and Rachel forgo the normal interview format to discuss some of the many thoughts that Chris put together during his recent trip to Disney World, including the need for training Disney Castmembers about ablest language, the need for sensory safe experiences on loud rides, using google images to translate foreign languages, and more! 🔑 Chris discusses the “spoon theory” from a blog post by Christine Miserandino, including the idea that some people don’t have unlimited energy for medical reasons and have to make choices about what they do next. For some of our students, timing matters when it comes to therapy; Rachel wishes that she didn’t have to wait until after school when students are tired to do her therapy. 🔑 When Chris got a tour of Disney World, he asked the tour guide if she had training about language to use related to people with disabilities. The tour guide said they were trained about gender and cultural differences, but they were not trained in how to speak about people with disabilities. 🔑 Chris noticed that there were not always closed captions on videos when standing in line at Disney, and he wonders if it would be helpful for Disney to put together an accessibility team to evaluate how to make the park more fully inclusive. Links from this Episode Dan Pink’s book, When - https://www.danpink.com/books/when/ Christine Miserandino’s Spoon Theory blog - https://butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/ Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!