Highlights For the Week of Aug 25, 2025
Highlights For the Week of Aug 18, 2025
AAC Implementation -- Model as a MASTER PAL
Tabi Jones-Wohleber
2019
A MASTER PAL, or “skilled partner” of an individual who uses AAC engages in authentic and meaningful interactions. However, developing such skills with communication partners is an on-going, nuanced and gradual process. This session lays out a framework for meaningful team dialogue to identify, describe, and discuss interaction behaviors of exemplar communication partners, in digestible chunks. Model as a MASTER PAL has been implemented in a school-based setting, but the content and structure are relevant across environments where AAC communication partners require support to understand and engage in authentic communicative interactions. Participants will be provided access to and an overview of Model as a MASTER PAL modules on the following topics: Model AAC, Motivate, Accept Multiple Modalities, Statements more than Questions, Time, Engage Naturally, Response Not Required, Presume Competence, Appropriate Prompting, and Let the Child Lead.
Highlights For the Week of Aug 11, 2025
Highlights For the Week of Aug 4, 2025
How I Learned to Read -- the experience of an AAC user
Cristian Rosas
2019
Yesterday I posted on Facebook, took my medicine, went to class, answered emails, and went out to eat. I can do this because I can read and write. I can read my medicine bottle, my Facebook feed, my class books, emails, and the menu at the restaurant. It was hard to learn to read. I will tell my story about learning to read and how I read and write now.
Highlights For the Week of Jul 28, 2025
Helping Families Build AAC Teams Through Collaboration
Heather Roach
2024
Explore effective collaboration strategies for AAC users, families, educators, and healthcare professionals. Gain insights from a seasoned special education teacher and parent of an AAC user. Learn to create personalized action plans integrating education, therapy, and medical goals. Empower families to advocate effectively and build cohesive AAC teams, leaving with practical tools for inclusive AAC support.
Highlights For the Week of Jul 21, 2025
AAC for Caregivers
Randi Sargent
2019
AAC for Caregivers: When aging parents or a spouse suffer speech loss following a stroke, surgery, progressive illness or dementia, life at home gets very stressful. This presentation provides an overview of how to use no tech/low tech Augmentative Communication Aids to help individuals get their care needs met at home, in the hospital and out in the community.
Highlights For the Week of Jul 14, 2025
STE'A'M Partnerships Make Robust Language Systems Available for Toddlers
Gemma White
2021
3D printers create amazing Items supporting multisensory teaching and home made keyguards. Create visual, sensory and tactile cues to exploring and understand the language system. Let’s face it not everybody has a 3-D printer….it’s about partnerships: local high schools, generous engineers, community colleges. Come learn about 3D printing and AAC and see how I came up with novel ways to teach robust language systems to toddlers.
Highlights For the Week of Jul 7, 2025
Highlights For the Week of Jun 30, 2025
Powerful insights from Adult AAC users that challenge how we practice AAC
Amanda Hartmann
2019
In 2018, AssistiveWare embarked on a project to create support materials for users of text-based Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC). After conducting a comprehensive literature review, we realised how little specific support and knowledge there is. Following this we conducted interviews with a range of AAC users and their supporters, including users with developmental disabilities and Autism, acquired physical disabilities, aphasia, and traumatic brain injury. The insights and knowledge gained from the group of AAC users changed many assumptions we had made about AAC.
Highlights For the Week of Jun 23, 2025
What's New With CoughDrop
Brian Whitmer
2018
We're always making changes to CoughDrop, based on new research and what we learn from our users. Come see how new integrations, built-in modeling ideas and other new features keep making CoughDrop better and better!
Highlights For the Week of Jun 16, 2025
The Meaning of Voice -- The Lived Experience of SGD Users
Kathy Howery
2019
What is the meaning of voice in the life of a young person who speaks using a SGD? This presentation provides a glimpse into the lived experience of people who use speech generating devices, drawing upon their first hand accounts. “Giving voice”, both literally and metaphorically, will be explored.
Highlights For the Week of Jun 9, 2025
Eye Gaze Access for Autistics
Saoirse Tilton
2022
Eyegaze AAC is often primarily considered when a disability affects the use of hands, arms or multiple limbs! When thinking of eyegaze most people think of ALS, cerebral palsy or similar disabilities as they are well known for impacting motor and coordination! rarely if ever considered for autistics, however many autistic speak at length about the brain body disconnect where our bodies don't listen to our brains, this ranges from person to person but is widely discussed and well known in the autistic community, the brain body disconnect effect motor movements, speech coordination ect. However despite it being widely discussed by autistics. As well as Spoken a fair bit about by many non speaking autistics eyegaze still doesn't seem to be looked at as an AAC access method for autistics
Highlights For the Week of Jun 2, 2025
AAC and Heritage Language
Janet Callahan
2021
A Heritage Language is a language that is not the dominant language, typically learned or used at home, by people who have cultural ties to that language. Through our family’s journey to achieving fluency and a working AAC device in an endangered language, this presentation will address common issues.
Literacy Connections -- Reading, Writing and AAC
Beth Poss & Kelly Fonner
2023
For students AAC communicators, the development of literacy skills are essential to unrestricted access to ALL the words. Too often, Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening are taught in isolation. In this session, participants learn ways to connect and integrate reading, writing and language into instructional routines across the student day.
Highlights For the Week of May 26, 2025
Overcoming Barriers to Communication
Jill Senner/Matt Baud/Shelley Harris
2018
Providing successful home, school, and community communication experiences for individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) can be challenging, particularly in environments that do not easily allow for use of high-tech AAC systems. This webinar will provide participants with an overview of innovative strategies collaboratively developed by family members and therapists to overcome environmental and positional barriers to communication. This "show and tell" will highlight some of the creative adaptations that have allowed children and young adults to communicate in bed, in the shower, horseback riding, swimming, and more!
Highlights For the Week of May 19, 2025
Plain Language for AAC -- What It Is and Why It Matters
Donnie TC Denome
2023
Plain language is a type of writing that uses clear, simple words and sentences. Plain language can help people understand a piece of text better. You should use plain language when writing and talking about AAC. This presentation will teach you the basics of writing in plain language. This presentation will talk about how to write about AAC in plain language.