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

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