This week, we present Part 2 of Chris’s conversation with Kim Hurley and Jessica Conrad about the Specific Language System First Approach! Kim Hurley is an SLP and AAC Specialist who is considering moving her district to the Specific Language System First Approach. Jessica Conrad is an SLP and AAC Specialist who works for the Indiana PATINS project supporting AAC users and their circle of support. In Part 2, Chris, Kim, and Jessica continue to breakdown some of Kim and Jessica’s concerns with implementing the Specific Language System Approach, including failing to notice when a student needs a more individualized AAC system (i.e. a “Tier 3” AAC student), as well as and the need to include families in the process of selecting the “Tier 1/2” AAC system.

Before the interview, Chris and Rachel chat about Rachel’s recent visit to a Jack Johnson concert in Hawaii and the importance of Jack’s music to Rachel when she was battling seasonal depression (i.e., Seasonal Affective Disorder) as a young woman.

Key ideas this week:

🔑 One concern Kim had was that the “best” AAC system for younger students might not be as useful for middle or high school students. Chris pointed out that there are robust language systems, like TouchChat, that are appropriate for children all the way through adulthood, and that is something we can consider when selecting our Tier 1 system.

🔑 The earlier you can involve parents in the process of selecting AAC for their student, the better. This can mean involvement with overall selection of the Tier 1 AAC system, as well as involvement with the considerations meeting you hold to determine if the student should be given AAC.

🔑 If you make sure administrators, teachers, aides, and families are involved with the selection of your Tier 1 AAC system, then there will be better buy-in overall. Plus, it will help retain knowledge about the process and the Tier 1 AAC decision, even if the AAC Specialist (or another trained team member) leaves the district.

Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

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

This week, we present Part 1 of Chris’s conversation with Kim Hurley and Jessica Conrad about the Specific Language System First Approach! Kim Hurley is an SLP and AAC Specialist who is considering moving her district to the Specific Language System First Approach. Jessica Conrad is an SLP and AAC Specialist who works for the Indiana PATINS project supporting AAC users and their circle of support. Chris, Kim, and Jessica explore some of Kim and Jessica’s concerns with moving towards a Specific Language System First Approach, and how those problems can be minimized or avoided.

Before the interview, Chris and Rachel chat about a recent visit to Arizona to teach a course on AAC and some of Chris’s previous encounters with Indiana’s PATINS project.

Key ideas this week:

🔑 One way to think about the Specific Language System First Approach is through Multi-Tiered Systems of Support. A Tier 1 support (i.e., support for almost everyone) would be the Specific Language System you give to almost everyone (e.g. a particular AAC app), while Tier 3 (individual support) would be for students that need a greater level of individual consideration for AAC (e.g. a student with CVI). 

🔑 If you use the Specific Language System First Approach, it is important to remember that there will always be students who need individualized consideration (e.g. students with access issues). One idea is to train team members on the kinds of students that may not be well suited for Tier 1 and what to do if you think a Tier 3 support is needed.

🔑 When choosing the system that will become the Tier 1 support for most students, you can invite admins, teachers, and parents to participate in the discussion about the needs of students and some of the features that would be needed for students to be successful, as well as how those needs are met by particular AAC systems. This can help increase buy-in and lead to better understanding of the needs of teachers and students.

Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

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

This week, we share Part 2 of Rachel's interview with Vicki Haddix and Janine Peca! Vicki Haddix is an AAC Specialist and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Memphis who teaches their course on AAC for the Communication Sciences and Disorders program. Janine Peca is an autistic adult who recently went through Memphis’s CSD program and is now an SLP. Janice shares about a recent presentation she made about neuroaffirming practices, including a fascinating portion on what it feels like to be overstimulated. Vicki shares about how she improved her class design by giving choices to students whenever possible. 

Before the interview, Rachel and Chris talk about Rachel’s recent two-week vacation to Spain and France and Chris’s Roadtrip to ISTE! Rachel and Chris discuss using Google Translate to translate between languages in real time, scanning pictures for text translation and text to speech, the Wonderfully Inclusive Scavenger Hunt at ISTE, and more!

Key ideas this week:

🔑 Supporting sensory needs can be very motivating for AAC users, but are not always considered when deciding on motivating language for emergent communicators. Janine shares about the sensory strategy communication board she made for herself for when she feels overstimulated and has difficulty formulating language.

🔑 Labeling certain behaviors as a “meltdown” or “tantrum” carry the implicit meaning that it is done for attention. When an autistic person reacts to overstimulation with a particular behavior, we should consider that this behavior may be physically necessary for them at that moment.

🔑 During a period of overstimulation, we can connect with an autistic person in a neuroaffirming way to find out if there is something we can do to help, such as saying, “I notice you are doing a lot of hand flapping, and I wonder if you are feeling a lot of stimulation. Is there anything I can do to help?” 

Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

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

This week, we share Rachel's interview with Vicki Haddix and Janine Peca! Vicki Haddix is an AAC Specialist and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Memphis who teaches their course on AAC for the Communication Sciences and Disorders program. Janine Peca is an autistic adult who recently went through Memphis’s CSD program and is now an SLP. Vicki shares about making pre-service education more interesting and engaging, and the need for increasing mentorship for recent graduates. Janine shares some of her experiences as an autistic adult, including some of the ways neurodiversity was and was not supported during her undergraduate and graduate experience. 

Key ideas this week:

🔑 Even with with the best AAC pre-service prep for students, we will need mentors after graduate school for new SLPs to lean on, especially for initial AAC device selection and implementation.

🔑 One part of a being a good mentor is leading others to where the good resources are (e.g., podcasts, webinars, articles). One way we can do that is giving them a “curated” list of resources to review before you meet together. Once they have gone through those resources, you can discuss them in-person. This can reduce the time spent going over basic information and increase the value of your discussion together.

🔑 New SLPs may also feel lost on how to evaluate and treat non-symbolic communicators who may only have emergent intentionality.  They may write goals and use materials for more advanced communicators that are not appropriate yet. We can direct them to focus instead on establishing foundational communication skills, including initiation and understanding symbolic representation.

🔑 When someone asks Vicki to explain AAC to them, she will point them to praacticalaac.com, AAC in the Cloud (aacconference.com), and the Talking with Tech podcast (talkingwithtech.org - thanks Vicki ☺️). This gives people something to read, something to watch, and something to listen to, depending upon how they learn best.

Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

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

This week, Chris interviews Shelley Anderson! Shelley is a music therapist who works for a private practice in Ft Wayne, IN and runs a business, Notes 2 Live By, that teaches basic communication through sign language and, more recently, through assistive technology. Shelley shares about the ways that music can be used to teach language to everyone, including AAC users, including how music can be used in unique ways to teach core language concepts. 

Before the interview, Chris chats with his son Tucker and daughter Maggie about current slang that you may want to consider adding to AAC devices. They talk about slang such as “slay”, “queen”, “give me the tea”, “fit”, “choogie”, and more! 

Key ideas this week:

🔑 It can be very motivating to start singing a song and to then stop it at a point that makes the listener want to keep singing. An AAC user can add a word from their device to the song you are singing in the same way, such as us singing “Because I’m” and having them say “happy” to the tune of “Happy” by Pharrell.

🔑 When using music to teach language, it is better if you sing acapella or play an instrument. That way, we can slow down the pace to meet their needs, which  is more effective than pausing the music on a pre-recorded track. 

🔑 We can use music to teach a particular core word, such as playing “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” by WHAM! to teach “Go”. You can also contrast the different meanings of a core word using different songs (e.g. “Can’t Stop This Feeling” by Justin Timberlake and “This Train Don't Stop There Anymore” by Elton John).

🔑 If you are using music in therapy, make sure not to overuse a particular song (e.g. play the same song they like every week for months), as this can effect how motivating it is.

Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

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

This week, we present Part 2 of Rachel’s interview with Alma Partida (@aacforyouandme on Insta), Sarah Lee (@aac_together), Melissa Tapia (@hablame_de_language), and Maria De Leon (@code.switch.slp) about Bilingüe AAC, a platform that supports evidence-based, culturally affirming Spanish AAC. In this segment of the interview, the Bilingüe AAC team provides lots of useful information, including research that supporst bilingualism for AAC users, some of the myths of bilingual AAC, and information you can share with families who are hesitant to teach an AAC user two languages. To listen to Part 1 of this interview, click here.

Before the interview, Rachel and Chris answer a question posed by Patreon member Anna, who has a 15-year-old autistic son who is a complex communicator and AAC user. He has a verbal vocabulary of around 200 words, and a more limited AAC vocabulary. Her son went to a well-regarded ABA school, where they they used AAC to only teach only fringe words and as a backup to verbal speech when they couldn’t understand him. His mother learned more about AAC implementation and moved him to a new school. Now, the new SLP wants her son to use a different vocabulary template (in his case, Crescendo for Proloquo2go) that better supports core language, and Anna wanted to know how best to transition her son from his old vocabulary template to his new one. 

Key ideas this week:

🔑 When teaching AAC to a student in two different languages, we can take a “Cross Linguistic” or a Bilingual approach. The Cross-Linguistic approach has the SLP or teacher doing one day of AAC implementation/language therapy in Spanish and another in English. The Bilingual approach, which is recommended for monolingual therapists, teaches both languages at the same time (e.g. teaching “water” and "agua" at the same time).

🔑 Monolingual (e.g. English-speaking only) therapists and teachers should try to teach vocabulary to bilingual students in both their languages. This sends the message “Your culture is OK,” even if we can only teach one word at a time.  If you aren’t as strong in their first language, tell the student “Let’s learn this together,” or “You can teach me”. It goes a long way to build trust and rapport with the student and their family.

🔑 If you are hearing that a student is “not motivated by anything,” it is better to say “they aren’t motivated by anything yet.” One idea is to consider their sensory needs and interests. If we are able to do a deep dive into those interests, we may find something to help a student regulate their sensory needs, or find something that they simply enjoy (e.g. touching shaving cream) that will motivate them to communicate. 

Links this week:

King, M., Lim, R., Romski, M. (2021). Language experience, cognitive skills, and English and Spanish semantic abilities in bilingual children with typical development and language impairments.

McNamara, E. (2018). Bilingualism, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, and Equity: Making a Case for People With Complex Communication Needs 

Bilingüe AAC has pages with freebies in both English and Spanish, including a “Common Bilingualism Myths” visual. 

Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

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

This week, Rachel interviews Alma Partida (@aacforyouandme on Insta), Sarah Lee (@aac_together), Melissa Tapia (@hablame_de_language), and Maria De Leon (@code.switch.slp) about Bilingüe AAC (www.bilingueaac.com), a platform that supports evidence-based, culturally affirming Spanish AAC. They discuss many aspects of bilingualism and AAC, including core word considerations and strategies for family-based AAC assessment.

Before the interview, Chris and Rachel talk about the difference between “progress” and “success” when we are talking about an AAC user’s communication journey. For some, making progress with using AAC demonstrates success. However, if we are not making progress fast enough or are using a tool that doesn’t promote language development (e.g. a 4 icon core board) then we aren’t really working towards true success, which includes independent, spontaneous communication.

🔑 When assessing a bilingual student for AAC, take a family centered approach to assessment.  Try and get an interpreter involved (if necessary) and talk to the family about how they communicate in the home. If we get a bilingual word inventory of the student and discuss vocabulary with the family, we can get a better picture of what words will be most useful for that student.

🔑 Generally, we don’t want to directly translate core word lists between two languages. Depending on the languages in question, the core words may be somewhat different (e.g. English and Spanish) or completely different (e.g. English and Chinese). In either case, shouldn’t assume that the core words are exactly the same.

🔑 When assessing a bilingual student, do a home language survey that includes the amount the family uses each language. In some cases, they may speak 90% english with only little bit of Spanish, or vice versa. 

Links this week:

Diverse AAC YouTube channel

 AAC App Crosswalk- table with different AAC app features, including languages offered

Soto and Cooper (2021): An early Spanish vocabulary for children who use AAC: Developmental and linguistic considerations. 

AAC in the Cloud Presentation on diverse AAC implementation

Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

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

This week, Chris interviews Ceci Fetterolf, a high school senior who created core word videos and linked them using QR codes for her school capstone project. Ceci shares about how she came up with her project and decided on the core words to make videos about, and also how she created books for students that simplified math concepts, like shapes. 

Before the interview, Chris gathers with Karen Janowski, Mike Marotta, and Beth Poss to discuss their upcoming “Inclusive Road Trip to ISTE”! This road trip starts at TextHelp headquarters in Massachusetts and ends at the ISTE conference in New Orleans, LA. During the road trip, Chris, Karen, Beth, and Mike will pull out their favorite inclusive tools and use them to enhance their roadtrip experience! Follow them on social media with #inclusiveroadtoISTE. 

Key Ideas this Week:

🔑Learn more about the Inclusive Road Trip at inclusive365.com/inclusiveroadtoISTE, including the Wonderfully Inclusive Scavenger Hunt (WISH), an event which you can join at home!

🔑You can add to the playlist Chris, Karen, Mike, and Beth’s will listen to on their trip by going to their Spotify #InclusiveRoadToISTE Playlist

🔑 If you want to learn more about the Road Trip and WISH live, you can Register for the June 22nd #ATchat #InclusiveRoadToISTE Kick off Event

Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

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

This week, Chris has an amazing interview with Benjamin Bennett, an AAC Specialist for the Escondido Union School District near San Diego, CA. Benjamin has a wealth of information to share, including his school’s move from doing traditional AAC evaluations to a model that is more focused on the considerations of the whole team. Benjamin has lots of questions about the strengths and drawbacks of the Specific Language System First Approach (SLSFA) - his district is strongly considering moving more towards the SLSFA and he wanted to think through possible issues before rolling it out. To learn more about about the SLSFA from Chris, click here.

Before the interview, Chris and Rachel have a great discussion about writing effective goals for AAC users, including tracking spontaneous language and independent initiation. According to Rachel, independent initiation has to be a foundational skill if we want everything else, because “we see a lot of kids who can do a lot with support, and not a lot without it.” She thinks that we need to be open to all the ways students are communicating with us - if they aren’t using the word we are working on but they are communicating, that is still growth and should be recognized. 

Key ideas this week:

🔑 Students in school should not be required to respond - they aren’t getting paid to be there and it isn’t their choice. We shouldn’t put all of the communication responsibility on the student - instead, let’s ask, what can we do to make communication more tempting?

🔑 Benjamin shares about a school site that has a variety of students who are nonspeaking, minimally verbal, and verbal all using the same systems in the moderate/severe classrooms. This helps get everyone involved with AAC and no longer isolates the nonspeaking students. It just becomes “how we teach” instead of a tier 3 support that only a few students have access to.

🔑 One thing to consider if someone comes in with an AAC system that is different than what is typically used at a new school site - are they independently using the device to communicate? If the device is being used effectively, there is a very strong argument for keeping them on that system and not disrupting their motor plan by moving them to a different one.

🔑 People often think about putting everyone on the same tool, but what about strategies? Is there consistency of communication partners between sites? Do people focus on the same things and model the same way across the district? That is often a bigger concern than the particular system. 

Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

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

This week, we present Rachel’s interview with Laura Taylor, a Special Education Teacher and AAC Specialist with a years of experience teaching language and literacy to people with complex communication needs. Laura has done amazing work utilizing the Pragmatic Organization of Dynamic Displays (PODD), a form of AAC that, at least in the early stages, focuses on teaching communication functions along with vocabulary.

Before the interview, Rachel shares about a client of hers with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. This client was strongly averse to AAC - he would even protest against looking at an iPad with AAC on it. Rachel describes how she got him to start using AAC by giving him a “Please don’t take off my sweater” button! Rachel and Chris then discuss the value in teaching students to protest and to direct the actions of others.

Key ideas this week:

🔑 PODD is a low-tech or high-tech AAC solution that allows for direct access or partner-assisted scanning. PODD starts out organized by communication function and moves on to organization by category later. It also focuses more on suffixes/morphology as time goes on.

🔑 One advantage of PODD is its organization by pragmatic function. Having vocabulary organized this way may help demonstrate to the student what they can communicate about more frequently than other organization methods. Many students are used to the pragmatic functions of answering questions or requesting but not much else. Using PODD may give these students a head start with extra exposure to these other communication functions.

🔑 If you are trying to figure out how to get started with teaching literacy and communication, Laura recommends to “just start.” Do what you can manage. Start small and it can build to big things - modeling, communication opportunities, etc. Get strategic with yourself on one thing that will make an impact - then you can get good at that and build off that!

You can find out more about Laura and PODD at Tayloreducationalconsultants.com and can reach Laura via email at [email protected]

Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

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