Talking With Tech AAC Podcast

This week, Rachel interviews Jenifer Eaton & Marya Hoff, two BCBAs who own Rooted in Play, an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) practice in Orange County, California. Rachel shares about her experiences working with Jenifer and Marya to support one of her students, and why Rachel felt Jenifer and Marya were great examples of ABA and and SLP working together effectively to support language development and spontaneous utterance generation. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel talk about their upcoming pre-conference at ATIA (find out more at) and some of the things that Chris is excited for at this year’s ATIA conference, including a discussion of the recent merger between Don Johnson, maker of Co-Writer, and Texthelp, maker if Read & Write. Learn more here. Key ideas this week: 🔑 Rachel will often work with Behavior Interventionists who say “I’m just following the program I was given. I was told to target this in a specific way.” Rachel encourages these BIs to look at some less structured moments where there is not a program going that can be used for language development. Jenifer notes that BCBAs should ask their BIs to collaborate with the SLP as much as possible. This can help the BI feel more comfortable collaborating with the SLP. 🔑 In Jenifer and Marya’s opinion, the “least-to-most” hierarchy of prompting is compatible with ABA therapy. If we over prompt, the student will just wait for us to tell them what to say. You want to meet the learner where they are at - certain students may need more prompting at first - but you want to fade those prompts as soon as possible. 🔑 When you give kids more wait time and they are doing something engaging, often you will get lots of spontaneous and silly language without any prompting at all. You don’t have to require, demand, or expect a particular response. We can just be present. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, we present Part 2 of Chris’s interview with Kara Cotter, a school-based AAC/AT Specialist who contacted Chris to ask about improving buy in, moving to the coaching model, making AAC more inclusive, and more! Before the interview, Chris shares a Patreon subscriber’s questions about: 1) feeling “imposter syndrome” as a new AAC Specialist; 2) discussing the features of different AAC apps in a resource consideration meeting; and 3) how long to “trial” AAC systems to determine what system is best for the student. Key ideas this week: 🔑 When you get a new AAC referral, you can provide a self-paced training module (e.g. google drive folder) and then jump into coaching with them after they have completed the initial training materials. This may help break up the coaching on your schedule, as some will finish faster than others. 🔑 How long should we trial AAC apps to determine best fit? There are a lot of factors- if we go through a good SETT based process and the team decides on a tool, it is probably a good choice long term. It is unclear about the benefit (other than for insurance paperwork) of trialing multiple different systems with the student, as we have little control over many variables, and the best software long term may not be what the student is able to learn the fastest in a couple of weeks. 🔑 During a resource consideration guide meeting, using an outside AAC feature “wheel” or chart can be very helpful. Call Scotland has a feature matching wheel that can give an overview of different AAC features. https://www.callscotland.org.uk/blog/updated-aac-ipad-app-wheel-available-now/ Angela Moorad also has a “Free and Affordable Symbol-Based AAC apps” resource that has lots of feature matching information. https://bit.ly/free-aac-apps-for-ios Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Chris has a discussion with AT Specialist Kara Cotter! Kara asked Chris about her current efforts to get greater buy-in from teachers, ideas for moving to a coaching model in her district, and strategies for training teachers and students. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel kick off the new year with a discussion a group they are thankful for in the new year - the Talking with Tech fans! The support of the community has been huge to helping our podcast continue! Chris also talks about a few specific fans who approached him at presentations and why he appreciated those interactions, and how he was recently reminded that not everyone is in the “AAC bubble” and knows what AAC is. Key ideas this week: 🔑 When teachers and/or staff ask for help with AAC, consider providing them with a professional development experience (e.g. email with short videos explaining key concepts, how-to’s, etc) to empower them before getting involved. 🔑 If you have a folder on a shared drive with videos or documents for AAC training, try and make it as easy as possible to follow, e.g. have a “Read Me” file at the top with a guide on how to go through the training. 🔑 In some states, it is possible to submit teacher trainings for professional development credit - consider this as an option, if applicable, to help motivate teachers to attend the trainings. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Rachel interviews Ashley Larisey, a school-based SLP working in the high school setting and an adjunct faculty member at St. Xavier University. Ashley describes some of her strategies for motivating older students in therapy, why she prefers “age-respectful” instead of “age-appropriate” materials, considerations for older students who are just being introduced to AAC, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel chat about Rachel’s recent experience diving with sharks in Hawaii with One Ocean (oneoceandiving.com), as well as a fun discussion of 2021’s top episodes and why those episodes might be the most popular. Key ideas this week: 🔑 it’s not too late to start AAC when a student is in high school. There is no age limit to starting AAC - we’ve never “missed the boat”. Let’s also make sure they have robust systems and are developing literacy. 🔑 Activities using sites like Canva that let you design an image can be very age-respectful. It has lots of stock pictures of teenagers. You can have students describe the pictures they like and help them create one big image with the pictures they chose embedded in it. 🔑 When choosing books with with repetitive lines, you are not going to read “Brown Bear, Brown Bear,” but you can make your own book on sites like Tarheelreader.org . You can embed more personal interests into the books to make them very personalized. We can make it respectful and also meaningful. 🔑 If you need to tell someone else that their materials are not age-respectful, you can do so in a more respectful way by asking questions like, “do you think he would respond better to materials with teens?” rather than something like “that’s not age-appropriate." Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes

This week, Rachel and Chris discuss their recent trip to ASHA 2021 and some of their favorite takeaways that they will be using in their own practice, including why its better to present on a fewer number of tools with more information on how to use them, why you have to be both interesting and informative when presenting, how to make sessions more engaging so people will show up, and more! Sessions Discussed this Week: Shaun Sweeney - Play on Words: Thoughtful Uses of “Game-Based” Apps and Resources in Language-Based Interventions. Sean discussed excellent tools and strategies related to technology and shared engaging stories about his clinical practice. Often, it’s better to present on fewer tools but do a deeper dive into how to use the tools you presented on than to have a list of tools you touch on for a few minutes. Chris Wenger, AKA The Speech Dude. Accelerate Progress for Students on IEPs with Cutting-Edge Tech Tools to Support Social Learning Challenges. Lean into things that are difficult. When there is a difficult IEP, don’t shy away from that. Take a growth mindset. How are we delivering content in an engaging way? Rachel Dorsey, Hillary Crow, and Carolyn Gaddy - Neurodiversity as a Cultural Competency: Three Autistic SLPs Walk into an ASHA Convention. Super powerful session that really got Rachel thinking about what she is doing her own practice to embrace neurodiversity, including the language she uses when writing goals and when talking about Autism. Jesse Ginsburg and Jake Greenspan - Effective Floortime Strategies for Increasing Attention & Engagement in ASD. One question to ask yourself when giving a task to a student - Who is doing the thinking - are they doing the thinking or are you? When you are directing the experience, it’s probably you. Christina Royster, Jill D’Braunstein, Alma Partida - Integrating Diverse and Inclusive AAC. While they have added more diverse options for AAC systems, companies need to be making it easier for us to change symbols and dialects for the whole system at once. Meredith Gohsman and Rachel Johnson - AAC Camp for Linguistic & Social Competencies: Child, Caregiver, and Student Outcomes. Research showed that after 9 sessions of AAC Camp, there was no change in the students receiving language instruction or the parents participating in sessions. The only change they saw was int he growth of the students who put the camp together. They thought they needed more time - either do the activities all year round, or hold multiple camps year after year. Links: Rachel and Chris have an upcoming pre-conference session at ATIA 2022 on Jan 26th from 8 am to 4 pm! Designing and Delivering Empowering Experiences to Teach language Using AAC! ATIA Pre Conference - Jan 26 from 8 to 4. Learn more at https://www.atia.org/atia-2022-pre-conference-seminars/#AAC2 Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Rachel interviews Rachel Dorsey, the amazing "Autistic SLP" who runs a private practice and teaches courses on Neurodiversity and Goal Writing. Rachel shares her perspective on neurodiversity, how to help shift the perspectives of others to better affirm neurodiversity, the importance of co-regulation for Autistic people, and more! Before the interview, Rachel and Chris sit down with Melissa Bugaj and Sara Gregory to have a quick roundtable banter about gestalt language processing (e.g. scripting) vs analytical language processing, and ways that all people may use both methods to learn language. Key ideas this week: 🔑 A “neurodiversty affirming approach to Autism” involves respecting everyones differences and seeing people through their strengths and not just their deficits. It Includes listening to people from that community to learn from them how to improve your affirming practices. 🔑 What can we do to help shift people’s perspective to better support neurodiversity? Rachel Dorsey says help these people to ask “why”. Why is this happening? Why are they being disruptive? Why did they go from not being able to do a skill to doing it? Is it environment? Then, shift what you do next time in response to what you learn. 🔑 "Co-regulating" can happen in therapy when both therapist and the student (or client) help each other regulate. This will look different for different people. Does the Autistic person like to be left alone to do their own thing? Do they enjoy physical presence, or do they want space? Co-regulation helps to build trust and rapport and may help improve progress in therapy down the road. Use the code MADEL30 to get $30 off Rachel Dorsey’s course on Goal Writing for Autistic Students at Dorseyslp.com/courses

This week, Chris chats with Michaela Ball, TWT’s Audio Engineer & SLP Grad Student, about getting a certification in Assistive Technology while she finishes her Master’s degree. They have a lively discussion about why Chris thinks that the time and money spent on AT certification could be better spent on other kinds of professional development. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss a recent experience Chris had in a classroom of young students playing Minecraft, including using Immersive Reader to read text in the game and learning about coding while playing Minecraft. Key Ideas This Week: 🔑 In many parts of the US, there are lots of SLP jobs available without needing a specific certification to get the job. AT jobs may or may not be more competitive depending on the area you work in. 🔑 People who choose to get certification have good reasons to do so, but getting a certification can be a large expenditure of time and money that could be spent more effectively in other ways. 🔑 RESNA certification could be useful in situations where professional competence is called into question or to improve your resume when looking for AT jobs. Chris has heard from RESNA-certified colleagues that their certification was not very useful in improving their day-to-day work as an AT professional. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, we share five brief “small talks”, or short interviews, with Mark Brown, Meryl Schnapp, Jennifer Edge Savage, Kim Albrecht, & Colleen Warn! Before the interviews, Chris and Rachel have an amazing discussion about targeting spontaneous language when people do not communicate much without a prompt or model. For example, you can help parents and teachers realize how much (or little) their child/student communicates spontaneously by having them track it during the day. Making sure to give appropriate wait time and finding something that is motivating are also essential to encouraging independent initiation. Small Talks This Episode: 🗣️Mark Brown discusses 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, and how we can better support them through AAC during early language development. With 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, language is delayed and there can be cognition deficits. There can also be VP insufficiency which creates hypernasal resonance and impacts articulation and intelligibility. AAC can be used as an interim support before they are more intelligible. 🗣️Meryl Schnapp shares about using 3d printed tactile core symbols, and her efforts to create large classroom sized core board with tactile symbols that are always put in a consistent location, because it would be frustrating to dig through a basket of objects every time you wanted to say a word. 🗣️Jennifer Edge Savage talks about starting AAC Town Halls during the pandemic while working for northeast PRC-Saltillo. They had a lot of SLPs sharing resources with each other about things that were new or different during remote learning, like AAC tele-assessment. 🗣️Kim Albrecht talks about making her home the local “grand central station” for the neighborhood kids, which is really good exposure for her daughter Miranda. 🗣️Coleen Warn discusses working to create asynchronous learning experiences for people. They developed a bunch of screencasts that are only about 2-5 minutes long that cover different aspects of different AAC tools to encourage people to learn more about their devices. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week on TWT, we are excited to present Rachel’s interview with the amazing Alexandria Zachos! Alexandria is an SLP, educator, and private practice owner who specializes in treating delayed echolalia (aka scripting) and using the Naturalistic Language Acquisition framework to move from echolalia to self-generated language. Alexandria has a wealth of information to share about gestalt language (learning language in chunks or scripts), how we can teach language to gestalt learners, and how to determine if someone is a Gestalt Language Processor. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel share about a recent presentation at Closing the Gap, and their plans for a similar pre-conference session at ATIA on January 26th from 8 am to 4 pm. They discuss some of the plans they have to make the sessions fun and share some of what they have learned about putting together a meaningful presentation. Key ideas this week: 🔑 There are two ways that people learn language - Gestalt Language Processors, who learn in chunks or scripts, versus Analytical Language Processors who learn one word, then learn to put two together, and so on. 🔑 Some GLP communicate with single words, but they can’t combine words together to make longer sentences. Others use longer scripts to communicate that are taken from things like favorite media. Other GLP sound unintelligible for a few syllables then say clear word - the unilntellgible sounds and the word together make up the gestalt. 🔑 Understand what stage of echolalia the child is at: Echolalia - full scripts. Can be delayed (scripts are used long after the initial stimulus). Mix and match - moving around partial scripts or taking parts of scripts. Magic stage - starts to understand that words are units - singling out words and understanding they can stand alone. Beginning grammar and novel original language. Help them get as many gestalts as possible in Stage 1, then they can break them down in Stage 2 and get the to Stage 3 where they can single the words out. Find out more about Alexandria’s work at www.meaningfulspeech.com or on Instagram @meaningfulspeech Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Rachel interviews Cindy Gelormini, parent of an autistic person and author of a series of children’s books about autism called "Robbie's World and his Spectrum of Adventures". Previously, Cindy built a following on YouTube making videos about her son and their life together. Cindy shares about her son’s journey as a communicator, and some of the challenges he faced not having a method of communication beyond PECS and gesture. Tragically, her son passed away, and Cindy discusses why she wanted to write and illustrate a series of books to carry on Robbie's memory and to help others understand autism a little bit better. Before the interview, Rachel and Chris discuss their upcoming presentation on Coaching at ASHA 2021! They will be presenting together on November 19th, from 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm. Chris will also be presenting on gaming and communication on Saturday, 11/20 at 9:30 am, and presenting on robots and communication on 11/20 at 4:30 pm! Key ideas this week: 🔑 Without a good foundation of communication, people can become much more frustrated and there can be more behaviors. In some cases, this frustration and stress may lead to other health problems. 🔑 If seizures are happening to a client or someone in your family, start tracking what happens before the seizure, what happens after the seizure, and what it looked like. This information can be very helpful down the road. 🔑 For some people, AAC is important because they know what they want to say, but the right words aren’t being articulated. For example, Rachel shares about a client that answered every preposition question with the verbal answer “under” but, when given an AAC device, was able to select the correct answer every time, indicating he knew the correct preposition even if he couldn’t say it. Links: Cindy's YouTube Page (includes episodes of her podcast and videos of Robbie): Robbie and Me: Autism Reality Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Chris interviews Lory Chrane, an AAC Specialist and Professor at Abelene Christian University. Chris and Lory talk about how Lory has tried to improve pre-service teaching by involving as much experiential learning as possible, especially in the area of AAC instruction. Lory also describes a mission trip to Uganda to work with Hope Speaks, a nonprofit that supports people who have communication challenges and SLPs in Uganda. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel connect to talk about slang and AAC, including the slang word “poggers" that Chris learned from his kids. Chris notes how putting the current slang on AAC devices can make help users talk the way their peers do and make using the device more motivating. Key ideas this week: 🔑 Teaching students how to problem solve and meet challenges head on when dealing with AAC can really help students not be afraid of AAC in practice. 🔑 It’s important to teach students that a lot of work with AAC is teaching language concepts to AAC Users who have difficulty with vocabulary. A much smaller part of working with AAC involves programming or more technical work. 🔑 Lory is working with ACU on a project to support greater inclusion of AAC users into faith-based activities. This includes teaching church leaders to use the Symbol-It software to provide symbols along with text for greater visual support. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! To learn more about Hope Speaks, go to joinhopespeaks.org

This week, the TWT team presents Part 2 of Chris and Rachel’s coaching call with Anya Ashouri, an SLP and AT Specialist for a Non-Public School. In this half of the coaching call, Chris, Rachel, and Anya discuss how to decide what the next AT strategy to work on with students will be, the benefits of providing visual supports to everyone all over the school, how to monitor the quality of implementation in the classroom, and how to get students more excited about the writing and editing process. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss a question from Luke about supporting AAC users who primarily use text to communicate (rather than symbols). Rachel touches on how to model AAC using text, when a typing-only system (e.g. Proloquo4Text) would be more appropriate than symbols + text, and how to encourage modeling AAC for a family when parents understand the child’s speech but it is difficult for others to understand. 🔑 When you are assessing a child with complex communication needs who has strengths in the area of writing, look at the complexity of the AAC user’s utterances - if there is low MLU and simplistic sentences, consider including symbols along with the keyboard to support language growth and modeling. 🔑 If a child wants to type messages more than use symbols, but they still have growth to make in learning vocabulary, consider a hybrid like TouchChat with WordPower80 that includes a keyboard and symbols. That will allow you to teach new vocabulary while using a keyboard at the same time. 🔑 When you are considering what kinds of supports you want to target on in the area of AT, consider the strategies that will make the biggest difference, and not just the tools that are needed. For example, making “modeling” a targeted strategy rather than making “high tech AAC” a target allows you to implement a strategy that can be used by all students, not just AAC users. To listen to last week’s episode, visit talkingwithtech.org/episodes/anya-ashouri Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, the TWT team interviews Anya Ashouri, an SLP and AT Specialist for a Non-Public School who had questions about identifying students in her school who are complex communicators but were not given AAC to communicate. Anya describes how she came to learn that her school needed more robust AT, the steps she took to train herself on AAC and AT, and asks Chris and Rachel for advice on getting admin and parent buy-in for robust AAC. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel talk about a journal article from May 2020, called “The Effects of Telepractice to Support Family Members in Modeling a Speech-Generating Device in the Home”. The article resonated with Chris and Rachel because they both had always felt that coaching family members through tele practice can lead to greater success than direct therapy alone. Key ideas this week: 🔑 If we are building from the ground up, we should tell people what AAC is and why its important. It’s easy to overwhelm people with jargoin if they are not familiar with AAC. 🔑 Many people thing about the SETT framework to select the AT tool, but that is only one part of it. As you are having this discussion, discuss what kind of outcome you want? What else needs to change in the environment? Do we need to change the tasks? 🔑 When you visit a classroom, be conscious of how you can help all the kids, not just one student. Helping teachers with ways they can promote language development for all students is a good way to build rapport and buy-in. Links: “The Effects of Telepractice to Support Family Members in Modeling a Speech-Generating Device in the Home”. by Sarah Douglas, Elizabeth Biggs, Hedda Meadan, and Atikah Bagawan https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2021_AJSLP-20-00230 Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! To listen to this episode, search "Talking with Tech" in your podcast player of choice or go to www.talkingwithtech.org/episodes/anya-ashouri

This week, Rachel interviews Anu Garla, a mother of Oliver, a boy with autism and cortical visual impairment who uses AAC to communicate. Anu describes her journey getting a diagnosis, how she started working with Rachel, why coaching with Rachel really jump started progress for her son, and advice that she has for other parents who are starting on an AAC journey (e.g. little “homework” assignments for parents can help). Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss a recent presentation that Rachel did that she almost missed due to clerical error from one of her staff, and how she adjusted to the situation and made the presentation work. They also discuss how they decide how much to charge (or if to charge) for doing presentations, and have advice for people wanting to do more presentations. Key Ideas This Week: 🔑 Oliver didn't really make a lot of progress until they started working more closely with Rachel during the pandemic. There was an intensive intervention with Rachel and Oliver that led to the discovery that the team needed to give more time for Oliver to initiate. 🔑 Sometimes, intervention in the home environment is more “quality than quantity”. If you have short, high quality interactions and connections with your child, they are still making progress. It doesn’t need to be hours of intense “drill and kill”, it can be based on brief, quality interactions throughout the day. 🔑 Its important to listen to families as much as other professionals on the team of an AAC user. Parents usually know their child better than anyone! 🔑 Before we decide if a child can or cannot do something, we need to make sure motivation is there. Motivation is a current that flows through everything we do as educators and therapists. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Link from this episode: Comprehensive Literacy for All by Karen Erickson and David Koppenhaver: https://www.amazon.com/Comprehensive-Literacy-All-Significant-Disabilities/dp/1598576577 Anu's Facebook & Instagram: @oliphantabulousstormilicious

This week, Chris interviews the incredible India Ochs! India is a brilliant social justice advocate, lawyer, educator, and board member for USSAAC and ISSAC who is also a lifelong AAC user. India describes her incredible journey with AAC, how she has used her many skills to advocate for social justice, why she volunteers so much of her time to the disabled community, and what she sees are the impacts of systemic racism on the field AAC (e.g. lack of vocabulary words to talk about racism). Before the interview, Chris and Rachel respond to several comments from listeners about their recent banter about PECS. Some listeners said PECS works for them while robust AAC doesn’t work for them. Chris and Rachel note that, if robust AAC hasn’t worked, maybe the implementation hasn’t been done in a systematic way. They also respond to the idea that PECS is a necessary stepping stone to robust AAC, and provide some strategies for demonstrating early success with robust AAC when it doesn’t look like AAC is “working” yet. Key ideas this week: 🔑 While the systematic nature of PECS implementation can encourage some people who would like a step-by-step guide, in some cases it causes students to “stall out” at a particular stage because they are required to demonstrate certain skills before moving on the next skill. 🔑 A simple paper and pen can be the most effective form of AAC for some literate AAC users. 🔑 It is difficult to find symbols for words like racism, anti-racism, African-American, Black person, hispanic, Martin Luther King, Jr on many AAC devices. Developers need to bring in experts on Black history and anti-racism to tell us what vocabulary we need to add to our devices. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! To listen to this episode, search "Talking with Tech" in your podcast player of choice or go to www.talkingwithtech.org/episodes/india-ochs Links from the episode: AAC Speaker Connection: https://speaker.ussaac.org/ Silent Auction benefiting USSAAC that ends October 15th: https://www.silentauctionpro.com/bidonlinegrid.php?groupId=1860 or email [email protected] India's Blog: https://intrepidoaks.com/ Xceptional AAC Leaders Book with Chapter by India

This week, Rachel interviews SLP and AAC Facilitator Laura Hayes! Laura recently did a presentation on AAC in the Cloud on AAC “stimming” and how we can best support AAC users who choose to press a button or series of buttons repeatedly. Laura shares that, If a person using AAC is “stimming”, ask yourself “how can I shape what we are doing” (e.g. teach a lesson on the word they are pressing) rather than just trying to extinguish the behavior. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss a listener question, who asked for ideas on how to become a better communicator and presenter in a conference setting. Chris and Rachel share lots of tips on presenting to others, including the importance of making it interactive, asking reflective questions to the audience, showing vs telling, and why often less is more. Key ideas this week: 🔑 “Stimming” means different things to different people in the context of AAC devices. Laura found this behavior had 4 main purposes: babbling/exploration; exploratory perseveration; self regulation through audio/visual/tactile components, and/or scripting/echolalia. 🔑 If a person who uses AAC is disrupting a classroom because they are pressing buttons on their device while others are talking, teach the student to turn on “whisper mode” to make the device quieter. 🔑 According to Alexandria Zachos of meaningfulspeech.com, as many as 75% of autistic individuals are gestalt language processors, i.e., they process chunks of language without distinction between individual words. You can reach Laura on Instagram @aac_innovations or via email at [email protected]. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, we hear from Part 3 of TWT Live - Closing the Gap 2020. This week’s portion of TWT Live has lots of helpful ideas for communication with families, coaching, motivating students, advocating for high-tech AAC with clinicians who always start with PECS, and more! Before the interview, Chris shares about his recent experience as “Shadow the Labrador”, a mascot at a local school. He and Rachel discuss why we need to be the zaniest person in the room sometimes to get people motivated to talk. They also discuss a situation Chris was in recently where he wasn’t sure if he should ask for compensation for consulting with a company about their newest new technology tool. Rachel gives Chris some tips about asking for compensation and strategies she uses in negotiations. If you would like to listen to Part 2 of this presentation, you can listen at talkingwithtech.org/episodes/twt-live-ctg-2 Key ideas this week: 🔑 If you have limited enthusiasm in your district for AAC, try finding teachers and/or staff who are excited about using technology in their curriculum and start working with them first. 🔑 What motivates a person can change over time. Periodically, do a preference assessment with your students to maximize motivation. 🔑 Have students give you directions on what to do (e.g. drink water) using their device - a lot of times, students are told what to do all day, and turning the tables can be motivating Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! To listen to this episode, search "Talking with Tech" in your podcast player of choice or go to www.talkingwithtech.org/episodes/twt-live-ctg-3

This week, the TWT team presents part 2 of Talking with Tech Live: Closing the Gap! This week, Rachel and Chris discuss several topics with the audience, including personal core /key vocabulary, the importance of literacy, and overcoming barriers to high-tech AAC in school districts. If you would like to listen to Part 1 of this presentation, you can listen at talkingwithtech.org/episodes/twt-live-ctg-1 Before Part 2, Rachel and Chris discuss PECS in greater detail, including why motor planning is so important when comparing PECS to other AAC options, the consensus among experts that Chris and Rachel trust about PECS vs. more robust AAC, and why choosing robust AAC has the least chance of harming the client. Key ideas this week: 🔑 Without the benefit of a motor plan, using PECS to communicate can be more fatiguing than using more robust AAC. For some of Rachel’s clients, making limited progress on PECS made the family resistant to other AAC options later on. 🔑 When making a difficult decision between strategies as clinicians (e.g. PECS vs robust AAC for a client with some verbal skills), we should choose the intervention with the lowest chance of doing harm. If we assume the client will will need AAC in some form forever, the time spent teaching PECS could have been better spent learning motor plans on a robust AAC device. 🔑 If we are trying to help teachers and admins embrace robust AAC, you can point to the abuse and neglect statistics for people with disabilities. Teaching language through robust communication systems gives students a better tool to future abuse and neglect in the future. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, we share Chris and Rachel’s presentation from last year’s Closing the Gap called “Brainstorming Solutions to Real-Life AAC Questions”. During this week’s Part 1 episode, Chris and Rachel share about evaluating evidence-based practices, when to consider “verbal” clients for AAC, how to determine when someone is ready for AAC, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss ABA therapy and why working with ABA therapists can be very helpful in some cases, but difficult in others. Rachel shares about working with an ABA team that refuses to follow suggestions about working with her client’s AAC device, and how that has impacted her client’s progress using AAC. Chris also shares his three questions that he asks himself before employing a strategy like AAC: Is it research based? What are professionals saying? What are the people who are using the strategy saying worked for them? Chris notes that, in particular, the last question can be very important. Chris wonders whether the people who are getting ABA are saying “thank you” afterwards for the intervention. Key ideas this week: 🔑 Consider AAC when someone has a high level of scripted phrases - AAC can be a great way to build novel generative language skills. Build vocabulary skills with more abstract language concepts. 🔑 Just because someone has speech some of the time doesn’t mean they have speech all of the time. AAC can be a great backup for people who have inconsistent difficulty with expressive language. 🔑 There are no prerequisites for high-tech AAC - people learn to use AAC when they are given the time and the oppertunity to learn it. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Rachel interviews Megan Roberts, an Associate Professor and SLP at Northwestern University. Megan started the Early Intervention Research Group, where she researches early parent-implemented interventions for children with hearing loss, autism, and developmental language disorders. Megan has lots to share about her research behind parent-implemented interventions, early behaviors that are a predictors of autism, and how to approach conversations with parents about their child's possible autistic-like behaviors. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss a listener’s email about a difficult situation with an administrator. When the listener requested a high-tech AAC device for a minimally-verbal student, her school administrator told her she needed to give him low-tech AAC, because there was no way to get the student high-tech AAC. Rachel and Chris talk about how this administrator was stepping out of their role, and how Rachel and Chris would approach the situation to push back against this. Key ideas this week: 🔑 Megan’s most robust predictor of autism in her assessments have been the presence of contact gestures, e.g., the person uses another person’s body part as a tool. 🔑 When we notice possible signs of autism in a young child and want to discuss this with parents, focus on identifying the behaviors that might interfere with learning rather than the “autism” label. Then, you can “wonder” about those behaviors with the parent, how they might impact the student, and how these maladaptive behaviors might be suppressed via intervention. 🔑 Girls with autism can present very differently than boys with autism early in their development - we need more research to better define what the differences are. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Rachel interviews Amanda Soper, AT Specialist, SLP, and Professor at Gallaudet University. She supports, among others, people with cortical visual impairment (CVI) who also use AAC. Amanda shares from her experiences working with CVI, including: how she teaches vocabulary, the importance of reducing visual complexity in the environment, talking through navigation, and the three main red flags for CVI: You notice there is something not quite right about a child’s functional vision. There is nothing structurally wrong with their eye, but they are having vision problems. There is a medical history of neurological conditions, such as a lack of oxygen to the brain, or chromosomal disorders. 10 visual behaviors that characterize a person with CVI’s vision, including: need for movement, color preference, visual field deficits, absence of visually-guided reach, and difficulty with visual complexity. Learn more about Amanda’s strategies at http://www.aacreatively.com/. You can email her at [email protected] Key ideas this week: 🔑 Pull students out of class when introducing a new device or a new overlay, because the complexity of the class environment can make it more difficult to understand the new symbols. 🔑 When using AAC with someone who has CVI, you can talk through the navigation when you are introducing new vocabulary to help them track and follow. (“press the red apple, then the blue man”) 🔑 Try and teach AAC vocabulary to a person with CVI in context, like working on “fork” during eating time. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Chris interviews school-based AT Specialists Amy Fleischer and Melissa Petersen! Amy and Melissa share lessons they have learned about putting universal supports in place, including universal core boards in Melissa’s district. They discuss many of the reasons why Melissa wanted to put a universal core board in place, how her district decided on what words to include, and the improvements she has seen in overall AAC implementation since that time. You can view the website she made for her district here. Before the interview, Rachel and Chris discuss a recent trip Chris took to visit his cousins and all of the visiting with his family. Chris shares about tempting his young relatives with fun games, and then waiting for them to come over on their own, and relates that to motivating AAC users with a “tempt and pause”. Key ideas this week: 🔑 When Melissa made a low-tech support universal, teachers who were previously afraid of technology said they felt more confident with the core board. This helped them to focus more on modeling and descriptive teaching, and less on the technology. 🔑 Putting the district logo on their universal core board helped Melissa to get buy in from some teachers and staff - they said it make the board look more “official”. 🔑 If we want communication partners to take on extra responsibility via coaching, it helps to give them resources they can pick up and run with. A great way to do this is with a low-tech board, because we are giving them something inexpensive they can go out today and start using with students. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, we share Part 2 of Chris’s interview with Jayme Grant. Jayme is an Educational Technology and Assistive Technology Specialist in Beaufort, South Carolina who wanted to interview Chris about AAC and Assistive Technology. In Part 2, Chris and Jayme discuss obtaining funding for AAC and AT, shifting away from a direct therapy model for AAC users, monitoring progress, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel finish up answering some questions from one of our Patreon users about changing the mindset of AAC communication partners. In this listener’s school district, classroom staff appear more interested in AAC assessment than AAC implementation. Rachel and Chris share why it can be helpful to break coaching sessions up into smaller “bites” and how to reduce the negative impact of staff turnover on AAC users by coaching family members as well as school staff. Key ideas this week: 🔑 School should be an opportunity to get kids excited about things they never would have been excited about in the first place. SLPs can benefit from fun activities in therapy, because we can get students to talk more about things they are interested in. 🔑 Mindset is the most important first step in a successful implementation. Many people who work with people with disabilities start with a mindset that a student must prove they can use AAC before we give them AAC and help them learn to use it. We must help them see the AAC user’s potential before we move on to assessment or implementation. 🔑 When measuring progress of AAC users, don’t measure how much he or she uses the AAC tool, measure whether or not the desired outcome was achieved. It is difficult to say if the AAC tool we provided is the total reason someone is communicating more, or if it is a combination of factors. By measuring the outcome, you don’t have to worry how much the AAC device was the cause. Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! To listen to this episode, search "Talking with Tech" in your podcast player of choice or go to www.talkingwithtech.org/episodes/jayme-grant-2

This week, we share Part 1 of Chris’s interview with Jayme Grant. Jayme is an Educational Technology and Assistive Technology Specialist in Beaufort, South Carolina who wanted to interview Chris. The resulting interview is packed with useful tips and ideas for improving AAC assessment and implementation! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss more questions from a Patreon user about how to change the mindset and culture surrounding AAC in her district. Rachel and Chris talk about coaching teachers to use core words to describe fringe words, why we shouldn’t create temporary pages for specific activities or academic topics, and more! Key ideas this week: 🔑 Rather than add academic vocabulary to a device that will only be used for a particular lesson or unit, try coaching the team to describe academic words using core words. This helps teach core words and doesn’t create temporary folders and additional fringe vocabulary words, which can interfere with motor planning. 🔑 Technology is a tool, not a quick fix. Make sure the team understands that giving a device to someone is only the beginning. Parents sometimes demand a device without understanding the work that goes along with teaching how to use this tool. 🔑 During assessment, consider having a team member, such as a teacher, describe what they want a potential AAC user to be able to do with the device long term. Even better, consider collaborating with a variety of communication partners to determine AAC needs. Collaboration amongst the team on assessment can help avoid disagreements later about the decisions that were made about device selection and implementation. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Chris interviews his long-time colleague, Mark Nichols, an AAC/AT Specialist who is the Senior Director of Universal Design and Accessible Technologies at Virginia Tech. Chris and Mark talk about the differences and similarities between higher education and K-12 for universal design and AT, the types of technologies that are often very useful in higher education, how to determine how much a university supports inclusion and assistive technology, and more! Before the interview, Chris shares memories and thoughts about the late, great Joy Zabala with his wife, Melissa Bugaj. They talk about the importance of Joy’s SETT framework, the impact Joy had on AT, and Melissa and Chris’s personal relationship with Joy and how she influenced their personal life. Key ideas this week: 🔑 You can set up software to identify how inclusive your materials are. Software like Grackle for Google Docs (grackledocs.com) will scan a document to determine if there are accessibility issues (e.g. a pdf image that does not support text to speech) before the document is posted. 🔑 Accessibility and universal design are not just for a select set of people with disabilities - many times, typically developing students will benefit from making materials more accessible. Also, making the solution universal students don’t have to ask for the tool to have it available. 🔑 Consider making a training video for staff that outlines all the ways that universal design and accessibility can make a big difference for students and then gives training on how to use the technology services currently available to make more accessible materials. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Rachel interviews “The AAC Coach” Kate McLaughlin! Kate and Rachel discuss resetting our expectations surrounding what progress looks like for AAC users, the importance of layering small AAC habits over time to get big results, how to create more effective goals for AAC users, and more! This episode is packed with lots of practical ideas and tips – you won’t want to miss it! Before the interview, Rachel and Chris talk about Rachel’s recent Hawaii vacation and respond to an email sent in by a Patreon subscriber. This subscriber is looking for help being more effective, because she feels like she is stuck having the same conversations and coaching the same strategies over and over again. Key ideas this week: 🔑 Don’t focus so much on the device that we lose sight of meaningful progress. If the goal for an AAC user is successful communication and as much autonomy as possible, we should celebrate any steps toward autonomous communication, regardless of whether the device was used or not. The focus should be on building connections with others and not on a particular modality. 🔑 Many AAC users make slow gains. If we switch the AAC program and symbols prematurely due to “lack of progress” then the AAC user may never make significant gains. Celebrate the small wins and try and measure progress in a way that shows meaningful growth. 🔑 Layering small AAC habits over time can lead to big changes. When a family starts with an AAC system, they can take time to get comfortable – e.g. start with carrying the device around everywhere. We want to build fluency and naturalness using the system and not let the device disrupt connection between the communication partners. 🔑 When writing goals, we should write them so we can track progress in a meaningful way. Communication should be for real reasons. There is a lot of pressure on therapists to write goals that are easily tracked in contrived communication settings. Instead, write goals that look at the AAC user’s participation in shared activities - also consider different settings and/or different people. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Chris interviews Meryl Schnapp & Mark N. Brown, AAC Implementation Coaches with Chicago Public Schools. They discuss how the position of AAC Coach was created in their district, why it is so helpful having coaching as a separate position in a school district, what they have learned from instructional coaching research, and more! Before the interview, Chris talks with Rachel about participating in the recent Greatest International Scavenger Hunt (GISH) mini-hunt. Chris shares some of the unique activities Chris and his family did on their GISH hunt. Chris and Rachel discuss ways that these types of scavenger hunts could be used to make AAC coaching more fun for AAC users and communication partners. Key ideas this week include: 🔑 AT Specialists and AAC Coaches have different roles in Chicago Public Schools. The AT Specialists engage in device selection and training, and after the training the AAC Coaches collaborate with staff to implement the device effectively in the classroom. 🔑 In the education field, instructional coaching is a well established form of professional development with a large evidence base. Mark and Meryl were exposed to literature from researchers like Jim Knight and Michael Bungay Stanier to help develop Chicago Public School's current approach. 🔑 In Chicago Public Schools, students aren't the only ones who have goals! Some teachers and SLPs have self-created goals to help improve their skills supporting AAC users. 🧑💻👨‍🏫 Meryl Schnapp and Mark N. Brown have a FREE AAC in the Cloud presentation about AAC coaching on June 24th at 6:00 pm EST . 🧑💻👨‍🏫 Chris also has a presentation at AAC in the Cloud on June 24th at 2 pm EST - its about interactive choose your own adventure games! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Chris interviews Heidi Hosick Joyce, an SLP and specialist in both AAC and Autism Spectrum Disorders. Heidi and Chris discuss some of the differences between coaching in sports and coaching AAC communication partners, including "reflective coaching" - helping someone to change what they are doing at the level they are capable of. They talk about the importance of building a positive relationship, giving positive reinforcement, and using "I wonder" phrases to encourage self-reflection amongst communication partners. Heiti also discusses PACT, a “low dose” therapy method that includes therapists using video to coach care givers how to support their autistic child’s social communication at home and in the community. Find out more here. Heidi also shares about her survey for SLPs who support AAC users - learn more at redcap.link/AACtraining Before the interview, Chris discusses his upcoming session for Closing the Gap with Shaun Pearson and Katie Robertson called "Voice and Choice -- Learning Made Fun Through Interactive Choose Your Own Adventure Games". This session will focus on all the ways that generative language and core words can be encouraged playing "choose your own adventure" games. Rachel shares a strategy for logging an AAC user's spontaneous language - you can use a virtual assistant (e.g. Alexa, Google Home) to create a communication log all day long whenever communication occurs. Key ideas this week include: 🔑 Help communication partners to reflect on what they did when working with the student - there is a temptation to focus only on what the student is doing. 🔑 One reason "consulting" doesn't work is because you don't always have the context to totally understand something you witness. Feedback based on incomplete information can cause interpersonal problems and lead to incorrect advice. 🔑 Use videos. When something is going well, you can send to parents. Then your example can act as a training model for them (e.g. longer wait time). 🔑 We can better move the needle towards AAC proficiency if the family and school staff understand where an AAC user's language level is at, meet them there, and push them to improve to the next level. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Chris interviews Tonya Williams-Walker and Beth Poss about improving equity for AAC users. Tonya is an Instructional Specialist, AAC Specialist, AAC professor, and SLP. Beth is an author, SLP, AAC Specialist, and Director of Educational Programs for LessonPix. Beth, Toyna, and Chris discuss the meaning of equity, how equity is different from equality, ways that we can improve equity for AAC users, and how they have adjusted their own practices to confront biases surrounding people with complex communication needs. Before the interview, Rachel and Chris discuss some of Rachel's concerns with the amount of time that some SLPs are prioritizing working on verbal speech when they work with young children with limited speech skills. Rachel is working with 8 and 9 year olds who have only worked on verbal speech for 5 or 6 years. Ethically, its an SLPs responsibility to build the foundation for language development, and if verbal speech isn't working, SLPs need to either introduce AAC or refer out to an AAC specialist who will. Key ideas this week: 🔑 When looking at whether a young child (e.g. 3 years old) is a good candidate for AAC, look at imitation and approximation skills. If those skills aren't there, we should have the conversation with the family about language development and giving their child "visual supports" or robust AAC to build comprehension and alleviate frustration. 🔑 Listen to all the ways that AAC users are communicating with us about their systems, what is important to them instead of imposing on them what we think is best. To listen better, Tonya asks AAC users and families "What do you need in order to feel successful?" and then "How can I help?". 🔑 "Equity" is not the same thing as "equality". Equity can mean supporting people who have been disenfranchised more than others so they can get to a place where they have the same access, power, and opportunities as everyone else. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! To listen to this episode, search "Talking with Tech" in your podcast player of choice or go to www.talkingwithtech.org/episodes/poss-and-williams-walker

This week's interview is with Chris's long-time friend and fellow assistive technology specialist, Mike Marotta. Mike is a specialist in inclusive design, and he joins Chris to discuss how accessibility features for common devices like iPhones, iPads, Chromebooks, and Android phones can be used to meet assistive technology needs. They talk about which features they like the most, adding captions, universal logins for accessibility, how to decide on which tools to offer people, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss ways that accessibility has been improved in the past year despite the pandemic, including Instagram adding automatic closed captioning for videos. Rachel discusses reaching out to technology companies for help with an accessibility issue, such as when she asked makers of the Word Wizard app to add high contrast. Key ideas this week: Many "accessibility" features on our devices are not just for people with access problems (e.g. vision problems). Features like text to speech are helpful for many people - it can help everyone proofread their writing, for example. Captions are a great way to promote literacy and draw learners in. You can even mute the TV audio to require learners to read to follow the story. We don't want to overwhelm people with too many assistive technology tools. Work with the learner's team to dig into what the real issues are and then decide on one or two tools that will address those issues. You can always add more tools later as they become more proficient.

This week, Chris interviews Karen Janowski! Karen is an inclusive technology and assistive technology specialist who is also co-author of Chris’s new book, Inclusive 365. In the interview, they discuss some of the many ways that we can support literacy for all and make classrooms more accessible to all students (e.g. audio supports, digital texts that can be read aloud, etc). Before the interview, Chris shares about a former student he has worked with who is moving to a new situation that does not support robust AAC. Chris discusses why this was such a disappointment, and how this experience motivates him to better support the students that he works with now. Rachel talks about the difficulty of supporting students who don’t make progress and/or have AAC taken away from them. Key ideas this week: 🔑 General education teachers should choose inclusive instructional methods and ways for learners to demonstrate what they know, even if those students are in special ed. 🔑 Student-selected books for reading and self-selected topics for writing are very compelling for learners. Choice can really drive the love of learning. Writing for an authentic purpose (e.g. having learners write a letter asking for support for a cause that is important to them) can be very effective as well. 🔑 Worksheets are a classic example of an instructional output method that is limiting for many students. Worksheets are OK as an option, but we don’t want to require everyone to use them. For example, you could also choose an input option that allows dictation, keyboards, spell check, etc. 🔑 Start your thinking and planning with each learner's strengths in mind. Figure out what learners are best at and what they love to plan activities that are more motivating. Resources Book Creator - bookcreator.com Seesaw - web.seesaw.me Inclusive 365 book site: inclusive365.com

This week, Rachel has an informative and engaging interview with author, YouTuber, dog trainer, and part time AAC user Brittany Dube! Brittany shares about why she is a part-time AAC user, how parents and others can better support part-time AAC users, and how we can show AAC users the respect they deserve in conversation. Before the interview, Rachel shares a fascinating story about one of her clients who has improved his verbal speech by watching others model AAC, even when the client doesn’t use AAC himself. Its a great reminder that AAC is an excellent tool for teaching language even when it isn’t used by the client to expressively communicate. Rachel also shares the disappointing decision by the school team not to support AAC for this client because the client is “already verbal.” Key ideas this week: 🔑 All forms of communication should be given equal respect by parents. Parents understand that one-size-fits-all doesn’t work in education and healthcare, but when it comes to communication some only want to pursue verbal speech. 🔑 We don’t have a right to speak for someone just because they use AAC - we need to remember to give AAC users whatever time it takes to speak for themselves. 🔑 Brittany finds using AAC is most useful when she is in an overwhelming situation, like when a doctor is asking her how she feels. Using a device gives her more time to process than she would get using verbal speech alone. 🔑 It’s always important to remember a lack of verbal speech doesn’t mean that the person doesn’t understand - people who use AAC are often intelligent and aware of their surroundings. You can learn more more about Brittany on Instagram and YouTube!

This week, Chris interviews Colleen Warn, Director of the Center for Assistive Technology for the NYC Department of Education. Chris and Colleen discuss how we can make assistive technology more equitable, especially for racially/culturally diverse students and students with a lower socio-economic status (SES). They talk about how their Center for Assistive Technology has pushed to teach teachers and staff about AAC, how they have changed the referral process to be more equitable, and how they seek to empower service providers across NYC. Colleen also shares about supporting her child, who has complex communication needs, and how her family has learned more about AAC. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel talk about their upcoming preconference seminar, “Designing and Delivering Empowering Experiences to Teach Language Using AAC” and their excitement to be able to connect with learners in a more intimate and collaborative environment. Learn more at bit.ly/designaac Key ideas this week: 🔑 One important consideration when looking at equity in assistive technology is the speed in which a school or district gets an AAC device when they need one. Make sure everyone gets a device at the same speed, regardless of SES. 🔑 If one district or school is sending in many more referrals than other districts, look at the makeup of the students who are not getting referred for AAC and their service providers. Are there cultural or SES barriers to implementing AAC? 🔑 When a related service provider (e.g. SLP) sends a referral to do an AT assessment, consider coaching that person how to do the assessment itself. This will improve their skills and may improve their ability to refer the correct students with AT needs in the future. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, we present part 2 of Chris’s interview with Amy Fleischer and Corinne Nelson! Amy and Corinne continue with their questions about changing their district to a “specific language system first” model of device selection, and how it can be adapted to best fit the needs of their school district. They also discuss whether PECS should be a prerequisite for getting a device, ideas for rolling out training on modeling, and more! Before the interview, Rachel discusses a recent conversation she had with a mother of a person with complex communication needs. This person doesn’t have access to a robust AAC system and was initially given only a switch to communicate with - even though she has no access issues. Rachel questions why so many children she hears about with complex communication needs are being given a switch when no access issues are present. Rachel feels many of her clients have been held back due to myths, such as “an AAC user must show cause and effect with a switch before they can use high-tech AAC.” Key ideas this week: 🔑 If you are concerned with hesitancy with changing how device selection occurs in your district, you can use a collaborative approach to select the device for a few students, then down the road you can look back and have everyone decide what is best. 🔑 To be more collaborative with device selection, you can take a facilitative, coaching approach to the meeting (e.g. teachers, related service providers). Then, in the meeting, try and fill out a grid or chart that looks at the communication needs of the student and the needs of the circle of support. Focus on long term growth, not just what would be easiest to learn in the short term. If you try device selection with a more collaborative approach, then down the road you can look back and have everyone decide on what worked best. 🔑You can pick one strategy or process to teach modeling, like SMORRES, and adopt it across the district. You can implement this modeling strategy more quickly than moving to a specific language system first model that would take a longer amount of time. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Amy Fleischer & Corinne Nelson talk with Chris about moving their school district to a Specific Language System First” approach to AAC device selection. There is currently no set standard in Amy and Corinne's district for device selection, and many students go get an outside AAC evaluation before getting a device. There are many different AAC apps being used at different sites for a variety of reasons, and this has led to disagreements about which app to use, confusion about the device selection process, and inconsistent device implementation across their district. Before the interview, Chris shares some good news he’s heard about his two latest books with ISTE - The New Assistive Tech & Inclusive Learning 365. Rachel talks about adding early intervention content to her AAC Ally course. They both talk about dealing with “imposter syndrome”, especially when charging money for something you have created. 🔑 Under the “system first” approach, most students who need AAC across the district get one robust AAC system. When students have needs that are not met by that particular AAC system, then a different system is selected. You don’t force a particular system on anyone, but you look at it first. 🔑 One benefit of a “system first” approach is better implementation in many cases. If the school team knows one system better, they can usually teach students how to use that system better. 🔑 Trialing multiple AAC systems during device selection, even if you trial for a few weeks, may not be the best way to choose one system over another. Often, implementation of each system isn’t very robust and the student isn’t trained extensively on each device. It is difficult to learn much about how proficient a student will get in one system over another in a couple of weeks. 🔑 You can take a phased approach to implementing a “systems first” device selection process. All the new students get one AAC system (unless there are good reasons to choose another) and every student who has already made progress with a different system keeps the one they are already using. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Chris interviews Kim Albrecht, host of the LOMAH podcast and mother of two teenage daughters, one of whom is a minimally-verbal AAC user with autism. Kim shares about how her family came to embrace AAC for her daughter, the importance of siblings and peers modeling AAC, the idea behind the LOMAH podcast, her upcoming podcast series on literacy instruction for people with disabilities, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel share an excellent idea from TWT listener and Patreon member, Bill Wallace. He suggested using a “sabotage series” -putting desirable items and undesirable items in a bag, then taking them out one by one and talking about them. This can a fun way of reinforcing the concept of both "yes" and “no”. Rachel and Chris also discuss finding the middle ground between following the child’s lead and setting up certain situations (e.g., communication temptations) to practice particular vocabulary words and concepts. Key ideas this week: 🔑 Treat AAC vocabulary on a well-designed AAC device like a sudoku puzzle - if you get stuck and/or don’t like where a word was placed, consider that you just haven’t figured out why it was placed there and don't jump to the conclusion it was put there randomly or by mistake. 🔑 It took Kim time to embrace using the AAC device all the time at home. If she could do it again, she would have started using the device and modeling AAC at home right away. 🔑 One reason it’s so important to train families about AAC is they are often the most consistent factor in the student’s life over time. Given the many SLPs, teachers, and aides that work with a student during their education (with varying degrees of experience with AAC), training the family will often lead to better and more consistent AAC implementation in the long term.

This week, we hear from Chris's interview with Mary Van Donsel & Anne Kuhlmeier, Speech-Language Pathologists and educators who have put on a successful AAC camp for many years. Mary and Anne talk about how they got started with AAC camps, how they train families and campers, the specialists they get involved, and how they train the counselors to support the campers during the week. Mary and Anne also discuss what keeps everyone focused and moving along, how they avoid camper burn out, and how they have pivoted to a virtual model during the pandemic. Before the interview, Chris shares how teaching his son to drive reminded him of AAC implementation - you have to learn a motor plan, you have to establish good habits early, and you need coaching from another driver. Rachel discusses how she has moved to providing families with a “package” of services with an emphasis on implementation and ongoing coaching. Her client’s families often need periodic coaching sessions to use the system in a way that is more motivating and will better translate to autonomous communication. Key ideas this week: 🔑 Educating families during the camp is extremely important - you don’t want it to just be a fun week for campers, you want improvements in AAC use to continue after the camp is over. 🔑 To get started planning a new camp, you need to think about where you are going to hold the camp - a school, university, or a private space. You need someone on the team who is involved with the location (e.g. a university faculty member). 🔑 If you want to start a camp, find benefactors and partners who will help support your dream. You can enlist people from state AT projects, contact AT lending libraries to provide devices, have non-profit organizations to provide funding, etc. 🔑 When planning an AAC camp, consider possible medical issues, feeding difficulties, and similar needs of the campers. You can get someone who is trained to help manage toileting, feeding, medication, etc, such as a nurse practitioner. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week’s interview is part 2 of the coaching call with Nikki Stempien! Nikki is an SLP in the schools who was looking for guidance on AAC implementation for a student with autism and complex communication needs, including how to increase buy-in for high-tech AAC and strategies for coaching communication partners! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel talk about the concept of “education before restriction” where people suggest locking students out of areas of their AAC device rather than teaching AAC users not to do the undesired behavior. There are a lot of teaching opportunities that are squandered if we jump to the “quick fix” of locking the student in or out rather than teaching why they shouldn’t do it. We can lead with strategies like social stories, explaining how it makes others feel, reinforce positive behaviors, and more before moving to restricting. Key ideas this week: 🔑 Record your work with the student (programming, modeling, etc) and share brief clips to train parents and staff. Then you can save the clips and use them to train SLPs, staff, and more when there is change to personnel. You can ask partners to share videos with you as well so you can all collaborate together. 🔑 If there is a plateau in progress with the device, look at the implementation and at the communication partners - don’t just try and replace the AAC app with a different one. Follow the motivation - are they motivated to use the device? 🔑 Involve the paraprofessionals as much as possible in implementation, meetings, and more. For example, even if aides can’t attend the IEP meeting, you can solicit input to share with parents. 🔑 If you are interested in connecting with other AAC specialists, you can reach out to device reps to help you find people in your area who also work with AAC. You can also reach out on social media (like the TWT Facebook group) to set up a regular meet up on Zoom to do a book/podcast study, etc. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Chris and Rachel have a coaching call with Nikki Stempien, an SLP in the schools who is looking for help supporting AAC for a student with autism and complex communication needs. This child previously had high-tech AAC but there wasn’t much implementation and the device was abandoned. Her primary form of communication now currently gestures and a basic picture-based system. Nikki is looking for guidance on with how to create buy-in for the high tech AAC device, how to go about selection, how to motivate the student and the family to use the device, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss attributing ideas that are not our own in presentations, on social media, etc. They discuss why it is so important to give credit to a person when you use a specific idea of theirs. In particular, citing gives people a place to learn more about a topic and spreads good research. They talk about some of the attribution “grey areas”, like sharing ideas that are commonly talked about by a lot of people (e.g. “coaching”) and why that isn’t the same as using a specific idea from a specific person. They discuss how attribution can be more difficult on social media, because people don’t always think about citing sources like they would if they were presenting. Key ideas this week: 🔑 We can only anticipate so much of what a student wants to say. If we don’t give a system that supports literacy, we don’t give them the tools that support independent, autonomous communication. 🔑 In some cases, approaching a stakeholder who is already working with a low-tech AAC approach (e.g. pictures) and suggesting high-tech AAC can cause some hesitancy. Adopting a patient attitude that seeks to “add on” to their approach rather than “replacing” it can be helpful in getting their buy in. 🔑 If you have successful engagement using an activity or toy in the therapy room, consider how to transition that success to the classroom (e.g. use the same preferred toy to elicit “go” in class as well as in the therapy room) to help demonstrate success to the classroom team. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Chris interviews Jennifer Edge Savage about using AAC with Alexa and other voice assistants! Jennifer is an occupational therapist by training who is currently a consultant with Saltillo and teacher in the area of assistive technology and AAC. She covers some of the many ways that voice assistants can be used by AAC users independently using their AAC device, including purchasing items, playing TV/music, making calls, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel ask the question “What do attendees really want when they go to a video or in-person conference?” They explore whether people want to just listen to someone talk for an hour passively, or whether they want to be more engaged. When so much information can be found on Google, YouTube, podcasts, etc, shouldn’t we make being together in person something different? Chris and Rachel talk about ways that they engage participants in their webinars, like asking questions, getting feedback, and doing “hands on” activities when possible. Key ideas this week: 🔑 Putting programmed phrases and specific words to engage in activities on a voice assistant (e.g. a person’s favorite music or TV show) can make using the device more effective and efficient. 🔑 Some words need to be pronounced correctly for the voice assistant to work - the AAC device will need to be adjusted to pronounce these correctly (e.g., Al Pacino). 🔑 You can help students learn language with a voice assistant using Amazon Skill Blueprints to create your own customized “skills”. This lets anyone set up what Alexa will say if particular inputs are received. You could work on core words, social dialogue, etc with less pressure on the AAC user to perform. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Rachel interviews Alissa DeSousa, a mom of a child with Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) who started a YouTube channel for kids like her son. Alissa shares about her journey getting a diagnosis for her son, how they came to better understand CVI, why she started a YouTube channel for people with CVI, and discusses resources that support literacy and visual discrimination for people with CVI, like the book “Little Bear Sees”. Before the interview, Rachel talks about her “Takeover” of Andi Putt’s (@mrsspeechiep) Instagram page. Andi was talking a lot about AAC and doing an entire series on AAC and autism. During the takeover, Rachel got a ton of questions about requiring prerequisite skills before giving AAC. There were a lot people on Instragram who told Rachel there should be prerequisites for AAC, e.g., AAC users must have to have joint attention, visual discrimination skills, early language, etc before getting a device. Rachel disagrees with this mindset, and Rachel wonders where it come from. She proposes that it may come from an expectation an child will use a device immediately upon being introduced to it. She notes that taking longer to learn a device doesn’t mean they have the “wrong” AAC system. We need to provide support to communication partners and encourage modeling, not blame the student’s lack of skills. Key ideas this week include: 🔑 Alissa shares the analogy of CVI being somewhat like looking though a kaleidoscope - you can “see” the image, but it is jumbled and the brain has a difficult time putting it together. 🔑 It can be very isolating having a child with special needs - there are so many appointments and things that you need to do, you end up missing out on a lot of things. Connecting with other parents of kids with special needs can really help parents feel more connected. 🔑 Alissa found out that kids with CVI do better with reduced visual clutter, technology with backlights (like an iPad or a TV), and black backgrounds. These preferences gave Alissa the idea that videos especially for kids with CVI could be very helpful. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Chris sits down with Julia James to talk about ideas for improving online instruction for students in special education. Julia supports online students as part of a special ed support team for her school district, and she called Chris to ask his thoughts on improving online education with technology. Before the interview, Chris talks with Rachel about the film Crip Camp. Campers who went to this camp after Woodstock went on to be leaders in the civil rights movement for people with disabilities. Chris talks about how he was inspired by what people did for others in this film, and how it motivates him to continue to support people with disabilities. Rachel talks about Camp ALEC, a camp where they teach literacy and AAC. After filming at Camp ALEC, Rachel’s friend Chris Stout was inspired to pursue a feature length film about AAC. Films like this can showcase how AAC is successful in helping people, which can then get more people on board with AAC. A lot of people don’t know what AAC is and haven’t seen it implemented successfully. Key ideas this week include: 🔑 Making technological supports, like text to speech, available to everyone and not just one group of students allows students to help each other and allows special ed students to “fit in” with everyone else when they are using those tools. 🔑 Make sure that special education has a voice at the table in the selection phase for technology tools. Not every tool has the same level of accessibility options (e.g. some “locked” textbooks can’t be read by text-to-speech). Grackle is an accessibility checker that checks to make sure accessibility tools work with a particular file or document. 🔑 We really need to be educating parents and not just providing direct minutes to the students. If we can help parents become better at supporting the students, the students can have more learning opportunities overall and better accountability from parents. 🔑 Choice, engagement, and variety are really important with online learning. For example, engaging kids with different games and using a variety of activities. We want to provide structure - let students know what to expect when they show up to your virtual classroom with schedules, timers, etc. Give students choices and then reflect on that, even when things don’t work out like you planned or the students pick the wrong thing. 🔑 Kids missed social connections the most during online learning. Providing that virtually can be really rewarding for students. For example, you can let kids have some time to talk in a breakout room as a reward for getting through a lesson. Connections with others can be just as important for learning as the content itself. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, we interview AAC user, USSAAC Membership Committee member, artist, and TWT superfan Chris Sawka! Chris provides great insights into some of the challenges and victories he has had as a full-time AAC user, how he socializes with other AAC users, playing sports on a paraolympic team, and more! Before the interview, Chris talks about the ATIA presentation by Kevin Williams, who won the Prentke AAC Distinguished Lecturer award. Chris notes that Kevin said he continues to use multiple AAC tools to communicate depending upon what is right for that moment. Chris and Rachel discuss how the communication “system” for most people today, whether or not they use verbal speech, is made up of a complex web of tools (e.g. text, video, email) that evolve over time. Key ideas this week: 🔑 Communication partners need to make AAC fun and not give up if the user doesn’t like AAC at first. Talk to them with the device, use it during activities like dinner, and pass the device around to have everyone use it. 🔑 People in public often don’t realize how smart Chris Sawka is. People talk with Chris in a loud voice even though Chris can hear perfectly well, and they talk to him like a child, even though he is an adult. 🔑 Chris Sawka doesn’t like it when people talk to his parents or his aide rather than him directly. Chris wants to reply himself and doesn’t appreciate when people talk about him like he isn’t there. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, TWT presents Rachel’s interview with Lydia Dawley, the CEO of the Click, Speak, Connect, and co-creator of the NadPen, an amazing stylus device that is easy to grip and use, especially for people with motor challenges. Lydia has mixed cerebral palsy and is a fantastic AAC user - you won’t want to miss her perspective on involving AAC users in decisions, choosing AAC vocabulary, incorporating peers as communication partners, and more! Before the interview, Rachel and Chris discuss Rachel’s recent “intensive” 2-week coaching & therapy experience with an AAC user and his circle of support. Rachel shares why this intensive approach can be so effective, and some techniques she uses, including using video to document pogress, coaching every other service provider possible, and keeping the excitement and energy that is created during the 2 weeks going into the future. Chris and Rachel also reflect on how aspects of this intensive approach could be applied to working in the schools. Key ideas this week: 🔑 Involve the AAC users as much as possible with the decision making process, including vocabulary selection. AAC users may want to use slang their peers are using and not just use adult-like vocabulary. 🔑 The most frustrating thing for Lydia is when people don’t wait long enough for her to communicate herself effectively in conversations. 🔑 Incorporate siblings and peers as much as possible to make using the device more fun. To learn more about Lydia, go clickspeakconnect.com. Also, check out Lydia's Kickstarter (bit.ly/nadpenkickstarter) campaign to help get the NadPen into production! Lydia came up with the NAD Pen because it is thicker and easier for for her to hold, her hand is more secure, it has a wrist strap, and the tip won’t break off like other styluses when she uses it. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

In part II of their AAC After Work presentation, Rachel and Chris do a deeper dive into storytelling with digital tools, aka digital storytelling. They go over all the different ways that digital tools can support storytelling and how we can use storytelling as a way to stimulate communication, support literacy, and teach core words! They also discuss “pre-story brainstorming” where you discuss the setting, characters, and problem/solution with an AAC user before you begin to create the story. Before part 2, Chris shares about an eye gaze user who he was asked to help support as part of a school team. Previously, the parent was programming a unique page of vocabulary for every story the AAC user was going to read so the user could participate by answering questions. There was also a limited number of icons on each page of the user's screen. Chris shares about how he worked with the family to increase the number of symbols/vocabulary on the screen after they discovered the student was able to target icons really well. He then discusses changes they made to the implantation strategy (e.g. descriptive teaching) so the student didn’t need a newly programmed vocabulary page all the time . Key digital tools discussed this week: 🔑 http://www.mystoryapp.org - allows students to create stories with pictures, stickers, describing words, and more. 🔑 Character generators (heroforge.com, peanutizeme.com, bitmoji.com) let you make a visual representation of a character, including things like what the character looks like, their emotions, outfit, pose, etc. You can then take a screenshot of the character and put that into a storytelling app. 🔑 storyboardthat.com - allows you to create comic-like storyboards. 🔑 picmonkey.com - drag words, icons, and more on top of digital images. 🔑 thinglink.com - create a story around a single image by adding hyperlinks to the image. 🔑 Edpuzzle.com - search for any youtube video and it allows you to add prompts/questions. Send videos to families for carry over practice - you can tell the family what to model as they are watching the video. 🔑 Loom.com - screen record or take a video of yourself that you can share with others, including ideas and feedback for communication partners. Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, we present the first half of Chris and Rachel’s previous webinar from the AAC after Work conference that focused on digital storytelling. This week’s portion provides an overview of AAC strategies, including expansion, core/fringe/personal core words, “stimming” on devices, using apps to support language, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel talk about how to deal with the awkwardness of taking a coaching approach with fellow clinicians who need help with AAC. Often, people expect a consulting approach where the “expert” solves their problem, but we know that a coaching approach utilizing reflective questions can help people come to conclusions on their own and they can have their own revelations. When other clinicians are asking for help, that can be really vulnerable and being asked questions might not be what they expect. We all need to remember to have a growth mindset - its more important to be able to learn new information and to know how to go and get it than it is to know every answer already. Key ideas this week: 🔑 Expansion is all about taking language an AAC user has communicated and going up one more step. When teaching a child how to walk up the stairs, you don’t yell down at them from the top, you are next to them and showing them what is coming next. Similarly, with language, we want to meet an AAC user where they are at and go to the next level. For example, if they say “on” we can expand that and say “turn on” back to them. 🔑 Treat multiple button presses on a device ( aka “stimming”) with a “yes, and” approach like actors do in an improv comedy act. Interpret the button presses as something they meant to say on the device and expand upon that with them whenever possible. 🔑 When using apps to support language, co-view the app together rather than just putting the app in front of the AAC user. Have them communicate what they want to see happen in the app to promote more communication, e.g., “what clothes do you want me to put on this character?”. ATIA - AT Connected will take place this year Jan 25-28th and Feb 1-4th. There will be more than 150 courses covering AAC, Assistive Technology, Education, and more. Registrations options include full conference, single strand, one day, and even a free option! Go to atia.org/talkingwithtech and enter registration code ATIAVISION21 for 20% off of the full registration! Also, don’t forget to check out Rachel & Chris virtual seminar at ATIA on Jan 30th and Feb 6th at bit.ly/TWTATIA21 Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, we share Part 2 of the TWT Live from the Access to Education Conference with Chris and Rachel! In this TWT Live, there are lots of useful tips and tricks, including ideas for motivating communication partners to model AAC! Before the live session, Chris shares about working with a computer science supervisor in his school district to combine AAC with computer science in the classroom. Chris describes how they trained the instructional facilitators who work with teachers to teach core words and block coding together. Chris and Rachel discuss the importance of enthusiasm and why projects like this are so important to fuel you to move forward! Key ideas this week: 🔑 When trying to motivate teachers and staff to model more often, ask reflective questions and get insights into the struggles that she or he experiences with the AAC user. This can build rapport and lead to the brainstorming of ideas that have a better chance of being implemented. 🔑 Even if a student has moved from primarily being an AAC user to being more verbal, don’t take the device away from him or her automatically (if they still want to use it). That student can be a great peer communicator for other AAC users, and they may want to use AAC instead of verbal speech in some situations. 🔑 Don’t always assume that a student is “stimming” on a device when they’re pushing buttons seemingly at random. Sometimes there is communicative intent that we do not yet understand. If the student has true stim-like behaviors on a device, we can try and shope it to be more functional. We can also tell a social story to help them see how the stimming makes others feel. ATIA - AT Connected will take place this year Jan 25-28th and Feb 1-4th. There will be more than 150 courses covering AAC, Assistive Technology, Education, and more. Registrations options include full conference, single strand, one day, and even a free option! Go to atia.org/talkingwithtech and enter registration code ATIAVISION21 for 20% off of the full registration! Also, don’t forget to check out Rachel & Chris virtual seminar at ATIA on Jan 30th and Feb 6th at bit.ly/TWTATIA21 Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, we present part 1 of TWT Live: Access to Education Conference 2020! Before the TWT Live session, Chris and Rachel briefly discuss the importance of using captions, both as a tool to learn to read and to support people who are hard of hearing. There are many small tweaks we can make to make things more inclusive, such as enabling a feature on iPhones that allows captions to be turned on automatically when they are available. Key ideas shared this week: 🔑 If you start with PECS, are you considering what that person will use as an adult? PECS often isn’t a good long-term robust solution compared to something like a high-tech AAC device. Its OK to use many different kinds of AAC but you want a primary method of communication that is robust and can grow with the user. 🔑 Virtual learning is a great opportunity to coach family members and communication partners. Service providers can change every year but the family will often be a consistent source of communication and support for the user over the years. 🔑 Look beyond your own discipline for professional development. There are trainings (e.g. cognitive coaching, difficult conversations) that apply to working with AAC but are not listed under the umbrella of education, speech pathology, or AAC. ATIA - AT Connected will take place this year Jan 25-28th and Feb 1-4th. There will be more than 150 courses covering AAC, Assistive Technology, Education, and more. Registrations options include full conference, single strand, one day, and even a free option! Go to atia.org/talkingwithtech and enter registration code ATIAVISION21 for 20% off of the full registration! Also, don’t forget to check out Rachel & Chris virtual seminar at ATIA on Jan 30th and Feb 6th at bit.ly/TWTATIA21 Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech! Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Chris and Rachel review highlights of the Talking with Tech podcast during 2020. They talk about which countries listened the most to the podcast, the ways the podcast grew in 2020, and a breakdown of the most downloaded episodes of the year and of all time!

This week, we continue with part 2 of Chris and Rachel’s coaching call with TWT’s Audio Engineer & SLP grad student, Michaela Ball! Michaela continues to discuss her severely apraxic student who is a multi-modal communicator with Rachel and Chris. They continue to explore the importance of picking a larger iPad when possible, ways to promote direct selection skills, choosing motivating vocabulary to start with, and how to train staff and communication partners. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss the “Pygmalion effect” and the ways that belief in someone can promote greater performance from that person. This includes the Rosenthal experiments in mice, in which mice who were labeled “intelligent” actually performed better. Experiments with students also indicate that belief in the student promotes better performance on average. This supports the idea that “presuming potential” can actually improve the performance of those we work with. Key ideas this week: 🔑 Visual supports help all students, especially early learners, Consider a classroom approach to aided language input so that everyone gets more practice with core words and how to use them. 🔑 Consider putting core words into other places like the playground. For example, you can laminate key rings or core boards and place them on the playground for any kid to use and engage with. 🔑 If teaching action words like “go”, instead of having adults model demands on the AAC user with that word, try having the AAC user make demands of others in a fun way, like in “red light, green light”. 🔑 When an AAC user communicates in multiple modalities, whenever possible, avoid “double demands” by communication partners, e.g. saying it verbally and then on the device. It is better to accept what they said and model without expectation. To get 20% off registration for the virtual conference ATIA 2021, go to ATIA.org/talkingwithtech and enter code ATIA21VISION (in all caps). Chris and Rachel will teach virtual seminar Jan 30th and February 6th - check it out at bit.ly/twtatia2021!