Talking With Tech AAC Podcast

This week, the TWT team presents Chris’s interview with Carson Covey, social media manager & AAC mentor at Jill Tullman & Associates, ambassador with PRC, and AAC user! Carson shares about changing his AAC system to TouchChat; the importance of having his circle of support use his device; updating AAC devices when sheltering at home; and going to school to become an SLP!

Before the interview, Chris and Rachel play AAC Bingo & score themselves on AAC in their lives, including advocating modeling, using low tech AAC, valuing motor planning, and using AAC memes.

Key ideas this week:

🔑 Having an AAC user’s 1:1 aide know and use the device can be a huge help when navigating the school environment inside and outside of class. Having the family know the device is similarly helpful at home.

🔑 It is important to avoid helping AAC users too much - we must give them the time and opportunity to communicate before jumping in to help.

🔑 AAC users should trust in themselves, and trust their technology!

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

Visit bit.ly/twtpod for access to previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Tara Wineinger and Rachel discuss Sophie’s Run (runsophies5k.com), a “virtual 5k” that supports decreasing the amount of time students wait for AAC devices and to assist communication partners with training in the Kansas City area. Tara shares about building awareness for AAC, the services they have been able to provide, and ideas for how you can bring fundraising like this to your school district.

Before the interview, Chris and his wife Melissa talk about how the school closures have changed their personal and professional lives. They discuss how “eduspeak” can be overwhelming to some parents, how getting emails from multiple teachers for multiple kids can be a lot to manage, and why we need to have a lot of compassion and empathy for each other in these times. 

Key Ideas This Week:

🔑 If possible, educators and therapists should focus on helping students to understand academic content and apply it to their lives (e.g., graphic organizers, reflective coaching, solving authentic problems.) rather than just providing content.

🔑 Having teachers and therapists meet as a team with AAC users and their parents to support AAC implementation and provide resources can help promote language development during school closure.

🔑 Co-Vidspeak (covidspeak.org) is a free open source, web-based video conferencing tool built for people who can't speak but still need to connect with others.

Double Time Docs helps you write your pediatric SLP, OT, and PT evaluation reports in a fraction of the time. SIgn up for a free 30 day trial at doubletimedocs.com and use promo code TWT2020 for to get 1 free Doc credit! 

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

Visit bit.ly/twtpod for access to previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, the TWT team presents part 2 of Rachel’s interview with Caitlyn Calder, parent of a child with complex communication needs and SLP at CHI St. Luke’s Health in Houston TX. Caitlin continues to share from all that she has learned about being a parent of an AAC user, including thinking of parents as “co-clinicians”, how she second-guessed herself about her daughter’s progress with her device, how grief can impact family buy-in, and more. 

Before the interview, Rachel and Chris talk about running a “virtual 5k” called Sophie’s 5k to help fund devices for people with complex communication needs (runsophies5k.com) and Chris’s latest stories involving characters that use technology to communicate. Listen for free at  nightlightstories.net !

Key ideas this week:

🔑  Caitlin’s daughter learned how to communicate much faster once there was more family buy-in for modeling. Showing parents how to model by watching the SLP do it first can be very helpful.

🔑  It can be really stressful for parents when a child starts to make progress with AAC, because often the family could have started supporting AAC sooner. It’s important to recognize that progress can be made at any age and to celebrate success rather than focus on what could have been done at a younger age.

🔑  Parents of students with disabilities experience grief in different ways at different times. The grief can be so overwhelming at times that working with a device feels impossible, but that doesn’t mean that it will feel impossible forever.

Double Time Docs helps you write your pediatric SLP, OT, and PT evaluation reports in a fraction of the time. SIgn up for a free 30 day trial at doubletimedocs.com and use promo code TWT2020 for to get 1 free Doc credit! 

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

Visit bit.ly/twtpod for access to previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

On this episode of Teaching with Tech, Rachel and Chris do a deep dive into Double Time Docs, an online software that helps you write speech and language reports, including AAC assessments! By answering multiple-choice, fill-in, and short answer questions, you can have a fully written and formatted report generated in moments. It has an extensive bank of standardized tests that only require a few fill-ins to complete, as well as sections for articulation, voice, fluency, pragmatics, parent & teacher reports, observations, developmental history, and more! Their AAC evaluation section includes device trailing, method of access, and common standardized testing used to evaluate people with complex communication needs. Whether you are a new clinician that could use help making your assessments more thorough, or a veteran who would like to write reports in a fraction of the time, it is worth taking look at Double Time Docs!

Go to doubletimedocs.com for a free 30 day trial, and use the promo code TWT2020 to get an additional report “doc credit” for FREE! 

This week, the TWT team presents part 1 of Rachel’s interview with Caitlyn Calder, parent of a child with complex communication needs and SLP at CHI St. Luke’s Health in Houston TX. Caitlin shares from some of the many lessons she has learned, including working with specialists, teaching her daughter AAC, dealing with expectations that don’t match reality, and navigating the many challenges that complex communication needs can bring.

Before the interview, Rachel and Chris discuss dealing with co-workers and communication partners who are not motivated to provide the best service they can. Ideas for overcoming this include focusing and talking about the positive, charting out growth for everyone to see, incorporating language opportunities into routines, and more!

Key ideas this week:

🔑  Parents & teachers can think “this isn’t working” when there isn’t quick success, but its normal for kids with complex communication needs to take significant time to learn language.

🔑  Parents who expect to use the device 24/7 may feel badly when the device isn’t being implemented all the time, which can lead to negative feelings that discourage them from using the device even more.

🔑  We can help parents feel less overwhelmed by setting realistic expectations for using the device (e.g., starting small,)  telling them it’s OK to feel awkward to start using AAC, and teaching them how to model at home.

Double Time Docs helps you write your pediatric SLP, OT, and PT evaluation reports in a fraction of the time. SIgn up for a free 30 day trial at doubletimedocs.com and use promo code TWT2020 for to get 1 free Doc credit! 

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

Visit bit.ly/twtpod for access to previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

For a FREE 30 day trial of Smarty Symbols, go to smartysymbols.com and use coupon code TWT30 at checkout!

On this episode of Teaching with Tech, sponsored by Smarty Symbols, Chris and Rachel do a "deep dive" into Smarty Symbols! Smarty Symbols provides access to over 21000 clean and modern symbols that can be used to create visuals supports and materials for therapy and language enrichment. Chris and Rachel discuss how the Smarty Symbols website can be used to create comic strips, planners, low tech AAC boards, visual scenes, and more! The site also provides access to a library of ready-made materials and simple drag-and-drop tools for creating materials. The symbols can be used in other apps to create new materials as well, such as using them to create Boom Cards.With a commercial license, you can even sell your Smarty Symbols creations on sites like TPT!

Visit bit.ly/twtpod for access to previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, Chris interviews Mike Hipple, Tami Altschuler, and Sarah Blackstone of the United States Society of AAC (USSAAC) to talk about USSAC and its role in policy making, disaster relief, and providing funding help for AAC users.

Before the interview, Rachel & Chris answer a Patreon member’s question about using music to teach AAC and how to support her son’s fine motor challenges. Chris and Rachel discuss teaching core words by starting and stopping music with edpuzzle.com, using a switch with powerpoint, adapting instruments to make them more accessible, creating a grid of links to music with symbaloo.com, putting links on a picture with thinglink.com, and more!

Key ideas this week:

🔑  Without the work of USSAAC & Lew Golinker, Medicaid and Medicare would probably not cover AAC devices

🔑  patientprovidercommunication.org is providing free alphabet boards, symbol boards, medical decision making boards, and other communication resources for people in acute care & ICUs, including people in respiratory distress due to COVID-19.

🔑  We should look at communication as a medical priority - its a quality and safety issue. If you use AAC, having a “go bag” with chargers, low tech options, and anything else you might need in the hospital can help with emergency preparedness. 

This week, the TWT team presents Rachel’s pre-conference presentation for AAC in the Cloud on AAC and telepractice! This session is filled with practical solutions for practitioners who are working with anyone over telepractice, with an emphasis on working with AAC users.

Key ideas this week:

🔑  All children are candidates for telepractice, but telepractice will look different for everyone. They don’t have to be able to watch a screen for us to facilitate communication!

🔑  Checking in with parent’s to gauge how overwhelmed they are is critical right now; some parents are ready to take on more responsibilities, while other parents may need something simple and achievable.

🔑  Communication should not feel like work - look for the opportunities that already happen during the day and take advantage of them. What is their favorite time of day to spend with their child? When does their child communicate spontaneously, and what do they say?

🔑  Include a variety of communication partners, including siblings, friends, ABA professionals, teachers, etc. You can have them join in virtually as well as in person.

🔑  You can plan ahead and track progress using a shared google sheet to provide materials prior o the session, share photos/videos, and provide feedback after the session.

🔑  Use strengths-based coaching - start with what communication partners are already doing well, build a strong relationship through collaboration & listening, provide performance feedback, and encourage self-reflection.

Links:

Handout from the presentation: bit.ly/teleAAChandout

Free Coaching Guide: www.rachelmadel.com/aaccoach

Rachel’s Free Communication App List: www.rachelmadel.com/applist

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

Visit bit.ly/twtpod for access to previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, the TWT team is proud to present the amazing Caroline Musselwhite! Caroline shares from her 45 years of experience with low- and high-tech AAC, including the communication circle of people around an AAC user, the importance of pranks & humor when using AAC, recognizing gestures, and more.

Before the interview, Rachel shares from her webinar on telepractice and AAC and why “all children are good candidates for telepractice.” Rachel notes that telepractice can look different for different students, but all children can benefit from a qualified speech-language pathologist and/or AAC specialist facilitating communication, even if students won’t pay attention to the screen. Telepractice doesn’t have to be a direct service model - we can always coach communication partners, including parents, siblings, and other family members on how to support an AAC user's communication.

Key ideas this week:

🔑  Coaching an AAC user’s circle of support should include peers whenever possible. Training friends and siblings allows for exposure to different communication functions, and involving peers can increase an AAC user's motivation and buy-in.

🔑  “Coaching” is not necessarily the same thing as “consulting.” They are both important, but coaching can be more valuable because it involves follow up and showing communication partners how to work with AAC users, not just telling them what to do.

🔑  Gestures are an important part of multi-modal communication. Recognizing what each AAC user communicates (or can communicate) with things like facial expressions can add to the overall effectiveness of their communication.

You can learn more about Caroline and her work at www.aacintervention.com, her AAC Girls blog, on Pinterest, and Teachers Pay Teachers.

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

Visit bit.ly/twtpod for access to previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

This week, the TWT team presents the audio recording of Chris and Rachel’s AAC Hour-by-Hour webinar originally presented on Xceptionaled.com! This episode is jam packed with practical strategies and advice for parents and professionals working with AAC users who are staying at home. These ideas can be implemented in the home or shared with parents and communication partners via teletherapy!

Key ideas this week:

🔑  Look at your daily schedule and plan out the “when what who and how” for incorporating core words into your routines. Choose routines that happen every day to allow for more chances to model.

🔑  It’s OK to take a break and not model 24/7, especially when you are with an AAC user all day long. When giving AAC users a break, you can let them “babble” and explore with the words on their device freely.

🔑  Have a family meeting and create a to-do list for your extended time at home. Create the to-do list together to increase everyone’s motivation, and give everyone a chance to talk about feelings regarding the break.

For links to the slides used in this episode, including shared resources, go to bit.ly/aachourbyhour

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

Visit bit.ly/twtpod for access to previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!