Talking With Tech AAC Podcast

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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