All Together We Can » AAC

Emergency Communication Tools

Samuel Sennott — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:55:19 +0000

Yesterday, the AAC lab here at Penn State shook under the earthquake. I looked at my colleague and she looked back at me. As we are both from the east coast, we don’t expect and certainly don’t prepare for earthquakes. As I walked home later that evening, I thought about how the AAC community has worked hard on creating awareness of the importance of individuals with complex communication needs being prepared for emergencies and disasters. On the AAC-RERC site there is a range of resources that have been created including guides, sample communication boards, and information for emergency workers. A big part of the push for the creation of these materials was due to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The irony of being in the AAC lab during the earthquake yesterday reminded me of the importance of being prepared for emergencies.

Go to the AAC-RERC to access the materials on Emergency Communication: Disaster Preparation, Response and Recovery for People with CCN.

If you have other tips or recommendations in this area, please leave them in the comments.

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Every Move Counts

Samuel Sennott — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:43:55 +0000

It was terrific learning from Jane Korsten today for a couple hours between writing sessions of a paper I am working on for my PhD. She teaches about a framework she co-created called Every Move Counts.

Here is how the authors of the framework describe it in their project overview:

Everyone communicates in some way.

Is it possible to recognize that communication?
What makes the act of communicating intrinsically motivating and rewarding for those with severe motor and/or sensory differences. When is a symbol system appropriate to an individual’s cognitive abilities? How are truly functional alternate and augmentative communication systems developed?

Only when communication is recognized and consistently reinforced will those with severe differences find the effort to communicate worthwhile.

In the couple hours I listened to Jane present her message, something really clicked for me. What I realized was the power of teachers and parents providing communication opportunities for these individuals with complex needs. Inside of those opportunities, the experience of the learner connecting to the process of communicating opens the door to so much more communication and language learning. That aha moment or spark is so important. Yet, for some children, teachers do not provide the opportunities to connect to communication and also give up on learners with complex needs. It is such an amazing thing to see children realize the communication power they hold. I am thankful for people like Jane, teaching about how to facilitate this process, as well as many others I appreciate such as Janice Light, Linda Burkhart, Caroline Musselwhite, John Costello, and a long list of others. In some ways, it is a simple insight, but I believe looking more at the quality/ quantity of opportunities is quite complex.

Every Move Counts focuses on meeting those learners where they are at and attempts to provide opportunities to use and learn symbols to communicate. I look forward to learning more about the program and am going to explore the book about the framework.

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Back to School Blog Resource: Teaching Learners with Multiple Needs

Samuel Sennott — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:41:17 +0000

Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs is a blog, led by Kate Ahern, is full of useful resources, reviews on new technology (light and high tech), and a very welcome focus on curriculum and putting ideas into practice. This blog specializes in top quality information and is very readable. It is a terrific resource to utilize in preparation for back to school.

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Wall Street Journal: Using the iPad to Connect Parents, Therapists Use Apple Tablet to Communicate With Special Needs Kids

Samuel Sennott — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 02:07:04 +0000

Check out the following article and video, featuring a Proloquo2Go user and Steve Jobs commenting on the people we serve. Seeing this made me so thankful that I believed in the vision of creating Proloquo2Go. Also, it is vital that AAC moves from being obscure to being as well known as sign language, hearing aides, and braille.

Using the iPad to Connect
Parents, Therapists Use Apple Tablet to Communicate With Special Needs Kids
By JENNIFER VALENTINO-DEVRIES

It is days like this that help boost my desire to help even more as I study AAC in-depth as a PhD candidate at the Pennsylvania State University.

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iBooks Update 1.1.1 Allows Audio and Video

Samuel Sennott — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:15:02 +0000

iBooks

On July 19, 2010, Apple updated iBooks to version 1.1.1. This update adds a key feature, “the ability to experience books that include audio and video.” This is terrific for a wide variety of learners from individuals just learning to read to experienced readers. The key component is the expanded interactive nature of digital books. This is important because iBooks is a mainstream application, not just a special education focused tool. This certainly looks to be a step in the right direction towards the goal of more universally designed literacy resources. Researchers at Penn State will be pleased about this ability, as it will empower them to start to use more interactive books on the iPad. You can see some of the work they do on this terrific website, aacliteracy.psu.edu.

Here is what the update brings:
• The ability to double-tap an image within a book in order to view it in greater detail.
• The ability to experience books that include audio and video.
• Look up definitions to English words inside books without a specified language.
• An answer to an issue that may have caused some book downloads to not complete.
• The addition of many stability and performance improvements.

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Back to the lab again…

Samuel Sennott — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:25:54 +0000

Beakers

I have learned so much in the 13 or so years in this field. The learning has grown exponentially, especially since I first envisioned an AAC app for the iPhone, which turned into Proloquo2Go, and as I started the PhD program at PSU. Yet, as much as I am seeing, experiencing, and learning from reading, meeting people, attending conferences, classes, researching, and more, I am realizing there is so much more to learn. There is so much to learn about how to assist the people with disabilities I work to serve. The fields of education and universal design are endless, for sure. I now believe that it is going to take more than I thought to truly make a holistic difference in the lives of these people I care deeply about. During this time of reflection in my work and life, I am again asking the question, “What will it take?”.

So with that being said, it is “back to the lab again”, where I will be working on that question systematically over time. What a gift to be here at Penn State! The people here are simply terrific. I look forward to sharing the fruits of our research work with you over the coming months and years.

This blog is very important to me and while the posts have been infrequent recently, look for them to pick up shortly.
photo credit

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Sennott to Focus on Research, Sells Share in Proloquo2Go

Samuel Sennott — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:14:10 +0000

Sennott to Focus on Research, Sells Share in Proloquo2Go

June 3, 2010
Amsterdam, The Netherlands; State College, PA

Dear Proloquo2Go user, community member, and/or Proloquo2Go partner,

Samuel Sennott, co-creator of Proloquo2Go, is selling his share in Proloquo2Go to AssistiveWare in order to focus his research and development efforts on his PhD at The Pennsylvania State University and on his new company, Sennott Technologies, LLC.

Proloquo2Go has made a large impact on the AAC world over the two years of the collaboration between AssistiveWare and Sennott Consulting. When they came together almost two years ago, they believed they could make a difference by creating a new AAC solution that was powerful, affordable, and cool. From the amazing user community, to a front-page feature in the NY Times, Proloquo2Go has had a profound impact.

While Sennott will not continue to be a part of Proloquo2Go, he will remain fully committed to the AAC community, serving through his research and future endeavors. He has full confidence that AssistiveWare will continue to provide great service as well as many further enhancements to Proloquo2Go that will benefit the Proloquo2Go community.

David and AssistiveWare would like to use this occasion to thank Sam for the important contributions he has made to Proloquo2Go and, not in the least, his success in drawing public attention to the needs of AAC users. With his ongoing research, he will be able to make even more contributions to the field of AAC in the future. Let us all give Sam a big thank you and wish him well in his further pursuits.

Samuel Sennott would like to specially thank David Niemeijer for the amazing work we did together. He would also like to thank his father, mother, family, Deirdre, Joseph Barnick, Pam H., Sue M., Mads, the Penn State community, The DC Crew, TLC, Origin Instruments, Apple Inc. and the whole Proloquo2Go community for their support.

Best wishes,

David and Sam

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Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2010

Samuel Sennott — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 05:42:46 +0000

I am very excited to be attending the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference this year. Things kick off with the keynote tomorrow morning 10:00 AM Pacific. If you want to follow along with the keynote live, try Macrumors.

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Emotiv, a Brain Computer Interface, Commercially Available

Samuel Sennott — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:09:42 +0000

Emotiv is a much fabled consumer brain computer interface that seems to finally have a shipping date. I ordered today and am eager to see if they can meet their promise of arrival by Christmas.

From the www.emotiv.com website. Based on the latest developments in neuro-technology, Emotiv has developed a revolutionary new personal interface for human computer interaction. The Emotiv EPOC uses a set of sensors to tune into electric signals produced by the brain to detect player thoughts, feelings and expressions and connects wirelessly to most PCs.

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Proloquo2Go is Available

Samuel Sennott — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:44:54 +0000

Proloquo2Go is available on the iPhone App Store.

Late last night, we recieved the acceptance email. We all have been waiting patiently. The emails have been pouring in from families and practitioners of all kinds. The time has finally arrived.

To find out about obtaining Proloquo2Go and about how our partners are making Proloquo2go available for schools and centers to use purchase orders you can visit our webpage.

Proloquo2go: AAC on the iPhone and iPod touch

We are so thankful to present Proloquo2Go version 1.0 to the world. The dream of being able to offer an extremely powerful communication solution that is both available commercially and affordable has been moved forward.

As we launch, there is an image that keeps sticking in my head and makes me smile. It is of a 15 year old walking into high school and using Proloquo2Go an iPod touch to talk. True, it is super cool for kids as well. Yes, we know how adults are wild about the iPhone and iPod touch too. Proloquo2Go will be “cool” for many people, whether it is as an addition to their tabletop device or myabe it is their first dynamic system. Yet, there really seems to be something to it for the teenagers!

Plus at an introductory price of $149 and our partners generously offering bundles at resonable prices, we feel that Proloquo2Go is a terrific value.

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