Integrating AT and AAC throughout the classroom

Integrating AT and AAC

throughout the throughout the

classroom

Charlene CullenSpeech Pathologist

Speech Language and AAC Consultant

Today’s Outline

9 – 10.30 Introduction

SETT framework

Visual Supports

11 – 12.30 iPads in special education

1.30 – 3.00 AAC

3.30 – 5.00 A typical day

It Can’t Teach

Student

Environment

Tasks

Tools

• What are the student’s

current abilities?

• What are the student’s

special needs?

• What are the functional

areas of concern?

• What are the other students • What are the other students

doing that this student

needs to be able to do?

• What does the student

need to be able to do that

is difficult or impossible to

accomplish independently

at this time?

• What activities take place in the environment?

• Where will the student participate?

• What is the physical arrangement?

• What activities do other students do that this student

• What activities do other students do that this student cannot currently participate in?

• What assistive technology does the student currently use?

•What specific tasks occur in the environments?

•What activities is the student expected to do?•What activities is the student expected to do?

•What does success look like?

•Tools - no/low to high-tech.

•Tools must be student

centered and task oriented

and reflect the student’s

current needs.

•Describe tool features that

are needed rather than brand are needed rather than brand

names.

•Consider the cognitive load

required

•What are the training

requirements for students and

staff?

Inclusive Technologies Continuum

Low/NoLow/No MidMid HighHighLow/NoLow/No MidMid HighHigh

Least restrictive Most restrictive

Access to books – Low/Lite Tech solution.

Assistive Technology Continuum

Access to books – Mid Tech solution.


http://tarheelreader.org

Access to books – High Tech solution.


Getting organised

Getting Organised

• What do we need to do to make the school

day successful?

• Clear workspaces

• Schedule ready to go• Schedule ready to go

• Batteries checked

What are Visual Supports?

Things that we SEE to

enhance the

communication process.communication process.

Why Visual Supports?• Some people find the world to be chaotic.

• Expectations and demands they cannot

understand may confuse them.

• Verbal instructions and explanations are often

not adequate to provide the information

needed in order to comprehend.needed in order to comprehend.

• These people (and others) often need the

support of having information presented in

visual form.

• Some people learn best through what they

see, and using visual strategies builds on this

strength.From “Visual Strategies”

Pennsylvania Department of Education, 2000

Why Visual Supports?

•Many people are not easily able to understand

spoken directions.

•It is not always obvious that a person is having

difficulty because they may be quite adept at difficulty because they may be quite adept at

following environmental cues.

I hear and I forget

I see and I rememberI see and I remember

I do and I understand

Making a Paper Plane

What visual supports do you

use? use?

• Body Movement: such as body language,

natural gesture, key-word sign

• Environmental cues: such as objects and

signs e.g. logos, labels

• Traditional tools for organisation of

Types of Visual Supports

• Traditional tools for organisation of information: such as calendars, shopping

lists, recipes, instruction manuals

• Specialised communication aids and

materials: such as picture stories, behaviour

scripts, activity schedules

Visual Support Continuum

Real objectsColoured photos

Black & white photos

Object symbols

Black & white photos

Line drawings

Sign LanguageWritten words

Communication is...

Use of speech with..

�gesture

� sign

�object symbols�object symbols

�photos

�pictures

… selected according to the person’s

comprehension skills and communication needs

Visual supports are helpful in

many ways….

• They may improve a student’s behaviour

by clearly showing expectations and

visually depicting what will happen next.

• They allow people to function more • They allow people to function more

independently and gain confidence.

• They improve the student’s ability to

understand!

Timetables, Activity Schedules,

Calendar Boxes

• Backs up verbal with visual information

• Provides consistent cues about daily routine

• Teaches that symbols (3D or 2D) can

represent daily activitiesrepresent daily activities

• Encourages participation in planning &

choice-making

• Ongoing strategy (we all rely on visual

supports)

Visual Strategies

Timetables & Schedules

Class Timetable

Mini Schedule

Boardmaker

• Formal strategies to indicate

- Completion of a task

- Break needed

- Need to avoid/escape activity

• Finished mat - checkered placemat

Finished Strategies

• Finished mat - checkered placemat

• Finished box - may incorporate checkered

icon

• Finished symbols - eg. check icon, finish

sign, abstract symbols

Augmentative Resources

http://www.spectronicsinoz.com/catalogue/au

gmentative-resources-and-products

Symbols

• PCS Classic and PCS Thinline

• Symbolstix

• Widgit

www.google.com.au

www.flickr.com

• Are a tool for helping people to control or

redirect behaviour

• Identifies the consequence of the behaviour

• Acts as a visual reminder - content is

important

Social Stories

important

• Use consistent language across changing

communication partners

• Remind, Rehearse, Review

• The situation is described in detail and focus is given to a few key points: the important social cues, the events and reactions the individual might expect to occur in the situation, the actions and reactions that

Social Stories

situation, the actions and reactions that might be expected of him, and why.

• The goal of the story is to increase the individual’s understanding of, make him more comfortable in, and possibly suggest some appropriate responses for the situation in question.

Social Stories

Input Before Expecting Output

Others need to use the visual

support to communicate with support to communicate with

the person before expecting

the person to use it.

What do you need for a visual

support to work?

An opportunity to learn and to

use the visual supportuse the visual support

at many times,

with many partners,

in many situations!

Introduction to the iPad/iPod in the

classroom

The iPad

• Engagement

• Portable

• Mainstream device• Mainstream device

• Price

• Supports universal design

• Wide range of apps

“Every new literacy changes the

way we think about the world. The

alphabet did this to oral cultures.

Cheap books did it after

Gutenberg. Mobile, interactive Gutenberg. Mobile, interactive

multimedia technologies are doing

it in our time. As educators are we

up to the challenge?”

Pat Clifford, Galileo Educational Network

iPad basics

• Physical

• Home Screen

• The Dock

• Included Apps• Included Apps

• Rearrange and delete Apps

• Create and use folders

• Multitasking and closing apps

• Screenshot

iTunes

Tips and Tricks

• Restrictions

• Bub Caps

• Selecting Text

• Cut, copy and paste• Cut, copy and paste

Accessibility

• Settings

• VoiceOver

• Zoom Magnification

• White on Black Display

• Large text

Apps for

• Communication

• Tap Speak Sequence

• Touch Chat

• Predicatable

• Visual Supports

• First Then

• Pictello

• Time Timer

Access

• Pointers, keyboards and

keyguards

• App embedded assistive • App embedded assistive

technology

Accessibility

• Switch Access

Blue2 Bluetooth Switch

By Ablenet

Switchbox

by Therapy Box

Accessories

Assessment

Rubrics

• http://learninginhand.com/

• http://treetops.org.au/groups/ipadagogy/• http://treetops.org.au/groups/ipadagogy/

• Student

• Environment

• Tasks

• Tools

•www.joyzabala.com

Things to think about

• Fragile

• Access to other distracting Apps

• Using in outside light

• No USB• No USB

• Alternative access methods limited

• Trialling Apps difficult

• Management

Curriculum

• Reading

• Green Eggs and Ham, Stinky Socks, iBooks

• Writing• Writing

• Pages, SpeakIt, Verbally, Word Wall

• Numeracy

• Jungle Coins, Math Bingo

• Creative Arts

• Paint Sparkles, Clicky Sticky

www.spectronicsinoz.com/blog/apple

www.aseaq.org.au/files/School_iPad_advice.pdf

Quality Apps Review

Spectronics App lists

• http://www.spectronicsinoz.com/article/iph

oneipad-apps-for-aac

• http://www.spectronicsinoz.com/article/ap• http://www.spectronicsinoz.com/article/ap

ps-for-literacy-support

• http://www.spectronicsinoz.com/blog/tools-

and-resources/visual-support-apps-for-

ipodipad/

Quality Apps Review

Others

• http://a4cwsn.com/

• http://broxtermansblog.blogspot.com/

• http://digital-storytime.com/wp/• http://digital-storytime.com/wp/

• http://www.iear.org/

• http://www.inov8-ed.com/

• http://www.ipadinschools.com/

• http://spedapps2.wikispaces.com/

And much more!

Other favourite resources

• iTeach Special Education – iDevices in

Special Education (Facebook group)

• Assistive Technology (Facebook Group)

• Twitter• Twitter

• #edapp

• #iPadEd

• #spedchat

Alternative and Augmentative

Communication

What is AAC?

• Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC): An

area of specialised clinical and educational practice that

provides communication options and interventions for people

with complex communication needs. The term augmentative

in this context means supplemental or additional to speech.

Augmentative techniques (e.g. gestures, and facial Augmentative techniques (e.g. gestures, and facial

expressions) are commonly used when communicating and

interacting with others.

• The use of the term alternative acknowledges that there are

some individuals whose speech is sufficiently impaired that

they must rely completely on standard and special

augmentative techniques, which do not augment speech but

are alternatives to speech (Vanderheiden & Yoder, 1996).

(Speech Pathology Australia AAC Position Paper 2004)

AAC System

• AAC system: An integrated group of

components, including the symbols, aids,

strategies and techniques used by

individuals to enhance communication. The

system serves to supplement any gestural, system serves to supplement any gestural,

spoken, and/or written communication

abilities

(American Speech and Hearing Association,

1991).

AAC System

Unaided and Aided AAC

• Unaided AAC: All techniques that do not require

any physical aids (e.g. gesture, sign, facial

expression).

• Aided AAC: Techniques where some type of

physical object or device is used (e.g. object physical object or device is used (e.g. object

symbols, communication boards, books, wallets).

Aided AAC is often divided into high technology or

low/light technology systems.

(Speech Pathology Australia AAC Position Paper 2004)

AAC Myths and Legends

• Introducing AAC will stop someone from

developing speech

• Low tech before High tech

• Has a little speech so doesn’t need AAC• Has a little speech so doesn’t need AAC

• Too cognitively impaired for AAC

• AAC will fix all communication difficulties

• Too young for AAC

• Doesn’t need AAC as they can express basic needs

So how do we introduce AAC?

Good Practice Approaches to

AAC

• Aided Language Displays (ALDs)

• Engineering the Environment

• Chat Now• Chat Now

• PODD

• Core Vocabulary

High Tech AAC

• Custom Speech Generating Devices

• Mainstream Technology

• iPod touch/iPad

• Android Phones/Tablets• Android Phones/Tablets

• Laptops

Communicative Competence

• Light (1989)

• Linguistic Competence (mastery of the linguistic

code)

• Operational Competence (access methods,

on/off)on/off)

• Social Competence

• Strategic Competence (make the most of the

vocab they have)

Aided Language Displays

• Prospective users must be provided with

frequent examples of interactive,

generative use to acquire any semblance of

proficiency.


• No one would dispute the fact that it would

be very difficult to become a fluent speaker

of French, if your instructor seldom used

French in your presence.

Goossens’, Crain and Elder (1988); Goossens’

(1989)

• Aided Language Displays are NOT choice making boards.

• Choice making boards supplement ALDs.

• E.g. in music time a choice board of songs is followed by boards for singing the songs.


followed by boards for singing the songs.

It is critical for an individual to not only

have symbols, but also to have

experience with those symbols in a

symbol rich environment / print rich

environment. The typically developing environment. The typically developing

child will have been exposed to oral

language for approximately 4,380

waking hours by the time he begins

speaking at about 18 months of age.

If someone is using a different symbol

set and only has exposure to it two

times a week, for 20-30 minutes each,

it will take the alternate symbol user 84

years to have the same experience years to have the same experience

with his symbols that the typically

developing child has with the spoken

word in 18 months!!!

Jane Korsten (2011) QIAT Listserv 4th April

• If children are to gain proficiency in using

their aided AAC systems, others must begin

to use the children's AAC system to

communicate with them.


From “Being a Model Communicator,” ComTEC, 2010


• By modelling how to use a display to initiate

and maintain communication, you show a

student how to initiate and maintain – not

just respond!

Aided Language Stimulation

Aided Language Display Design

• If you (as a person proficient in language)

cannot use a communication system or

display throughout an interaction then how

can you provide Aided Language

Stimulation?Stimulation?

• If you cannot use it, is it designed well?

Exercise

• In pairs: Design an Aided Language Display

for making things from pipecleaners.

• Remember to include vocabulary such as

names, actions, positions, requests, names, actions, positions, requests,

commands....

Boardmaker Software Family

• Boardmaker

• Boardmaker Plus

• Boardmaker with SD Pro

• Boardmaker Studio• Boardmaker Studio

www.boardmakershare.com

Engineering the Environment

Storing displays

• Must be stored in close proximity to where they are needed

• Must be stored in a way that helps with quick access and set-up

• E.g. in dress-up box, on back of bookshelf, • E.g. in dress-up box, on back of bookshelf, on walls, in plastic bucket, inside game box, with props, in eye gaze arrangement

CHAT-Now

• Developed by Gayle Porter (Cerebral Palsy

Education Centre) and Marnie Cameron

(Communication Resource Centre)

• Children’s Aided Language Tools• Children s Aided Language Tools

• Consists of aided language displays for early

childhood settings and general interactive

board(s)

CHAT-Now

• A series of ALDs for different activities.

• Designed for early childhood but suits many

special education settings

• Also includes a general interactive board for • Also includes a general interactive board for

use throughout the whole day

CHAT-Now – Book

CHAT-Now – Music play

CHAT-Now General Interactive

Tap Speak Choice – AAC App

Yes/No

• Need to watch the number of yes/no

questions we ask AAC users

• BUT

• Every AAC user needs to develop a good, • Every AAC user needs to develop a good,

clear Yes/No response

Yes/No

Pragmatics

Pragmatics

• Pragmatics – social use of language

• Using language for different purposes, such

as greeting, informing, demanding,

promising, requestingpromising, requesting

• Changing language according to the

needs of the listener

• Following conversational rules

www.asha.org

Pragmatics

• Need to ensure AAC users have access to

and know how to use a range of pragmatic

skills

• Dewart and Summers “Pragmatics Profile”• Dewart and Summers Pragmatics Profile(1998)

• http://wwwedit.wmin.ac.uk/psychology/pp/

Pragmatically Organised

Dynamic Displays (PODD)

PODD

• PODD is a way

of organising whole word

and symbol vocabulary in

a communication book or a communication book or

speech generating

device to provide

immersion and modelling

for learning.

PODD

• The aim of a PODD is to provide vocabulary:

• for continuous communication all the

time

• for a range of messages• for a range of messages

• across a range of topics

• in multiple environments.

PODD

• PODDs can have different formats,

depending on the individual physical,

sensory and communication needs of the

person who will use it.

PODD

• PODDs have been developed over the past

15 years by Gayle Porter, a speech

pathologist with the Cerebral Palsy

Education Centre (CPEC) in Victoria.

Each PODD format has been shaped by the Each PODD format has been shaped by the

experiences of both children with Complex

Communication Needs (CCN), and their

communication partners.

Let’’’’s have a look....

Core Vocabulary

• Using common English words on an AAC

display to enable a user to construct their

own sentences.

• Approach used in lots of high tech systems • Approach used in lots of high tech systems

but not used as much in low tech due to

difficulty of arranging vocabulary for access.

Core Vocabulary

• CORE VOCAB

• High frequency

words

• Can be combined

• FRINGE VOCAB

• Low frequency

words

• Only useful in one or • Can be combined

to get your

message across in

lots of different

situations

• Only useful in one or

two situations

• Often related to a

specific topic

Core Vocabulary

Core Vocabulary

•WordPower 24 in TouchChat, AAC App

Core Vocab to supplement ALDS

• From the Disability Services Commission WA

http://www.boardmakershare.com/Activity/969086/Core-Vocabulary-Display

The Language Stealers

Technology

High Tech and Light Tech

• Both are just tools

• Both need good vocabulary design and

good modelling to ensure success

• High Tech can be less forgiving but can offer • High Tech can be less forgiving but can offer

more access options

• Some students more motivated by high tech

and some don’t like it!!

• Most people need both – for different

situations

Speech Generating Devices• STATIC DISPLAY • DYNAMIC DISPLAY

Access Options

• For a user who need alternative access,

SGDs can offer:

• Large range of access options

• Flexibility

• Complete control over device and other

software

Low Tech Scanning & Eye Gaze

• Add movie file here

High Tech Scanning

High Tech Eye Gaze

Building A Well-balanced Program

Using Assistive Technology & AAC

Our Day

• Working through a typical day – from

morning news to afternoon activities

• Looking at how we would use assistive

technology and AAC all through the daytechnology and AAC all through the day

Remember

Repetition with variety is

crucial for learningcrucial for learning

Going to the Movies

Morning News

Morning News

• A great chance for peers to interact

• Highly predictable and easily scripted –

great place to use new skills e.g. learning to

use your switch in conversationuse your switch in conversation

• Can be made very errorless!

Newstime!

Literacy

• Doing a balanced literacy program giving

students a chance to read and write each

day.

• Guided reading, self selected reading, • Guided reading, self selected reading,

writing and working with words occur

throughout the week.

Guided Reading

• Help our students to understand that

reading involves thinking and meaning-

making.

• Help them to become more strategic in their • Help them to become more strategic in their

own reading.

Book of the Week for Guided

Reading

Toy Story book in Boardmaker

Studio

Talking Books

• Used as part of a balanced literacy

approach

• Using a simple talking book with common

sight wordssight words

• Students have the opportunity to read and

re-read independently outside of this session

Switch Access

Switches

Switches, switches, switches

• AbleNet Switch Comparison Chart

• http://www.spectronicsinoz.com/article/abl

enet-access-switch-comparison-chart

Self-selected Reading

• Help our students to understand why they

might want to learn.

• Become automatic in skill application.

• Choose to read after they learn how.• Choose to read after they learn how.

• Remember:

• It isn’t self-directed if you don’t choose it yourself.

• You can’t get good at it if it is too difficult.

Toy Story books for self-selected

reading

Writing

• Each student has the opportunity to write a

story or sentence about Toy Story – at their

own level and with appropriate supports

and a pencil that works for them!

Supports for writing

Joe writing

Working with Words

• Help our students become strategic in

reading words

• Word wall

• Onset rime• Onset rime

• Word games e.g. Bingo

• Making words

Word Wall

Toy Story Bingo in Boardmaker

Studio

Onset Rime in Clicker 5

Making Words in Clicker 5

MeVille to WeVille

Numeracy

Opportunities for access to mathematical

ideas through high quality child centred

activities

Varied, interesting, appropriately targeted for

maximum results, engaging and presented in

a fun, success oriented manner

Numeracy

Drill & Practice

Numeracy

Barrier Games & Maths

Barrier games are activities based on giving

and receiving instructions, require interaction,

and use language to complete a task.and use language to complete a task.

Maths barrier games support the

development, understanding and practice of

mathematical language.

Numeracy

Barrier Games & Maths

Numeracy

Transformational technology

Buying a Movie Ticket

Toy Story Dance Party

Social Chat at the dance – role

playing

Social chat

Social Story

Toy Story Dance Party

Reflection

• Think of your student(s) again.

• What technology do you want to

investigate to help them do the tasks they

want to do?want to do?

• What tools?

Thanks for coming!

Integrating AT and AAC throughout the classroom

Education

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