By Sandy Baldwin, M.S., CCC-SLP, Regional Consultant for PRC I’ll never forget the day I scheduled an appointment in the park to meet the family of a handsome, energetic 6-year-old boy. This special young fella, whose diagnosis was autism, used no verbal speech, but there was an obvious connection between Elisha and...
By Elizabeth Bortz, MSCCC-SLP, Regional Consultant for Maryland/Delaware Access Issues Anyone??? As an SLP, who had been a part of an Assistive Technology team for years, I was always been challenged with the students who you know could say more if their access issues didn’t “get in the way”. I consist...
By Gretchen Bright, B.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Well, at least it is for me and about 570 million other folks worldwide in the month of March. Birthdays and holidays are a really fun time to incorporate more language with a communication device. Just think of all the fun things we say during a birthday or other holidays! Ev...
By Helen Canfield, MA, SLP, Augmentative Communication Specialist We teach parents and caregivers the best way to help their child to learn to use a communication device to talk is to respond, respond, respond. That means no matter which button gets pushed and words spoken the parents are to respond as though it was pu...
Jeanne Tuthill, MA, CCC-SLP AT Specialist, Collaborative for Educational Services, Northampton, MA Adjunct Faculty, Simmons College, Boston, MA jtuthillslp@gmail.com Jeanne Tuthill Each time I teach my graduate class I try to invite at least one AAC user in as a guest speaker to share their story with the students in the ...
By Sarah Williams, classroom teacher Some of the realities of teaching in a K-1 (in reality Pre-4th grade), self-contained classroom for students with intellectual disabilities are as follows: Communication is extremely important: receptive and expressive communication from students, communication with parents, commun...