There is a rapidly growing body of research that demonstrates the positive effects of augmentative and alternative communication
(AAC) intervention on the communication of children and adults with complex communication needs. Despite the positive impact
of many AAC interventions, however, many individuals with complex communication needs continue to experience serious challenges
participating in educational, vocational, healthcare, and community environments. In this paper, we apply the framework
proposed by the International Classifi cation of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) to illustrate the need to re-think AAC
intervention to improve outcomes for individuals with complex communication needs, and to foster a new generation of intervention
research that will provide a solid foundation for improved services. Specifi cally, the paper emphasizes the need to take a
more holistic view of communication intervention and highlights the following key principles to guide AAC intervention and
research: (a) build on the individual ' s strengths and focus on the integration of skills to maximize communication, (b) focus on
the individual ' s participation in real-world contexts, (c) address psychosocial factors as well as skills, and (d) attend to extrinsic
environmental factors as well as intrinsic factors related to the individual who requires AAC.
Learning Ally and the Virginia Accessible Instructional Materials Center (AIM-VA) have created a partnership to give eligible K-12 students with IEPs access to Learning Ally's library of 80,000 audio textbooks and literature
titles, including VOICEtext audiobooks that highlight text as it's being read, improving and enhancing student comprehension.
Very simple to use, and students do not need an account to create stories here. Students choose their main character from a list of possible characters, then they choose the character's goal and a secondary character. Stories can be printed or saved as PDF files.
This is a great step by step description of which core words to target during specific activities and how to do it! It applies to all well designed and robust AAC apps/page sets.
These task cards are meant to be desktop reminders or "cheat sheets" for using Read & Write. While the cards highlight version 10 of Read & Write, the content still applies to the current version, version 11. The taskcards can be printed and hung on a key ring by your computer for quick and easy reference!
These task cards are meant to be desktop reminders or "cheat sheets" for using Read & Write. While the cards highlight version 10 of Read & Write, the content still applies to the current version, version 11. The taskcards can be printed and hung on a key ring by your computer for quick and easy reference!
Aided language modeling: adult models how to use the individual's communication board/AAC
system by actually pointing to/selecting symbols to represent words being read from the text
Learning how to use aided language modeling during reading activities using strategies; either of
the strategies could be used although in the research the RAA strategy was used primarily to
model and elicit single symbol responses whereas RAAP strategy was used primarily to model
and elicit multi-symbol response. You can use either of these strategies but prompts may be
needed for some children.
* RAA: using the read-ask-answer strategy to elicit single symbol responses on the AAC
system
* RAAP: using the read-ask-answer-prompt strategy to elicit single symbol or multisymbol
responses on the AAC system
An article characterizing The Least Dangerous Assumption, a shift in paradigm that drives many expectations and practices when working with people with disabilities