All Together We Can » Augmentative Communication

ABC News

Samuel Sennott — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 05:44:13 +0000

It was terrific speaking with ABC news about Proloquo2Go on the iPad. Here is the link to the full story. You can see the video below.
The Conversation: iPad Gives Voice to the Autisti

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The NY Times listens to those who struggle to use their voice…

Samuel Sennott — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:15:11 +0000

This goes out to Kara Lynn and her family. Kara Lynn is a mother. She is a mother who has ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease and struggles to use her natural voice to communicate. She is a mother to a son Aiden, who has Down Syndrome, who also struggles to use his voice to communicate. They both use Proloquo2Go, the augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) solution for the iPhone and iPod touch. I look up to all mothers who work hard raising their children. Yet, today, we salute Kara, a mother who works extra hard!

Read about Kara and Aiden in the New York Times Technology column:

For Speech-Impaired, Insurance Fights Remedy

Kara and Aiden - Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

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ABC News in DC: iPhone App Gives Voice to Those Without

Samuel Sennott — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:33:11 +0000

iPhone App Gives Voice to Those Without

as seen on ABC News Channel 8 Washington, DC on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 Read the background story on the News Channel 8 site.

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A Cub Scout and Proloquo2Go: Simple Things We Forget

Samuel Sennott — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:48:13 +0000

Here Ryan is simply being a Cub Scout. Simple, but awesome is all I have to say! Go Ryan!

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Digital Books

Samuel Sennott — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:35:25 +0000

I believe in good teaching, good research, and combining it with finding innovative ways to accomplish our goals. In this time of exponential possibility, getting back to basics and working from “good seed” so to speak, is always welcome. Here are some books to check out and share. Note: this is easy and fun to do in PowerPoint or whatever authoring software you like, Intellitools Classroom Suite, Clicker 5, Boardmaker, etc…

Do you have enough books? Would you like some more? How about links out to over a thousand books? Here is a books launcher that was presented as part of the ISAAC 2008 pre-conference presentation I collaborated on with Caroline Ramsey Musselwhite titled, Writing Books for Beginning Readers . . . and Using Them to Support Real Reading.

Download the accessible-books-launcher in PDF Format

Link to a Two Switch Step Scan Capable Online Version

If you enjoy this resource and have other book websites, please email them to me at samuel.sennott@gmail.com.

Also, it is good to consider Dr. David Koppenhaver’s feedback on this resource that it links out to a wide variety of levels and types of books from enrichment, to transitional, to conventional. So use it appropriately. Enjoy.

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Professional Development DVDs! by Dr. Caroline Musselwhite

Samuel Sennott — Sun, 31 May 2009 05:49:18 +0000

The professional development DVD series by Caroline Ramsey Musselwhite is a perfect way to provide training to educators, SLPs, and other people who support individuals with special needs.
These would be great for a professional development series in a school for the upcoming year or for learning over the summer. You can see samples of the titles here: http://www.youtube.com/user/CMusselwhite and you can order these from this website: www.aacintervention.com

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A Reason to Become a Teacher or SLP

Samuel Sennott — Sun, 31 May 2009 03:29:38 +0000

Lately, in such a good way, I feel pulled in so many directions, keeping family first, new friends, p2g, and last but not least, the PhD. With so much data coming at you, it can be hard to keep the ax sharp. Yet, there are times when someone tells you something and it pulls things right back into focus. When Kara, one of the first Proloquo2Go users messaged me tonight, it reminded me that I became a teacher because I care and because I like being part of a community. This was Kara’s response to my message commenting on how cool it is that both her and her son use and benefit from Proloquo2Go, on the iPhone and iPod touch respectively. Much thanks to Kara for letting me tell the story here. To me, things like this are my motivation for being a teacher.

….yeah, it’s something he and I can do together.

I have a nice story. Today we took my car to the dealer for service. My aide, Aiden, and I were playing in the kids play room. A man came in with his adorable 4-year-old daughter, whom Aiden fell instantly in love with. He immediately sat very close to her and kissed her cheek! I could see the stars in his eyes! After she recovered from the initial shock, she looked at Aiden and said “What’s your name?” From across the tiny room, I typed into my iPhone, and P2G spoke: “Say hi. My name is Aiden.” The kids were noisy, so I repeated the phrase. The little girl smiled, and her dad, who looked like a kid who just watched a really good magic trick, said “What just happened? What was that? Is that an iPhone? No, that’s not… an iPhone?” My aide then explained that, indeed, it was an iPhone, and I was using it to communicate. Well this guy was really impressed! We spoke for a while… him vocally, me digitally. It was really nice. I think that because he recognized my device, he was very interested and comfortable asking about it. When I asked him if he had an iPhone, he said “No, but after seeing that, I think I’m gonna get one!” He said his wife’s friend has ALS, and he wants to tell her about P2G, so I emailed the URL to him.

-Kara

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AAC and speech are all parts of a total communication system that is fully individualized for the particular individual it serves

Samuel Sennott — Sat, 30 May 2009 23:47:27 +0000

Rob,

I am so glad you addressed the incendiary issue put forth around speech and communication because it is a conversation worth having. I believe that as a field in general we have been overlooking a key missing link, how they connect.

Today has been a day where I have seen dreams move forward. Today a boy was able to walk into his elementary school and say that he was in the newspaper. Today I have seen simple miracles of life.

Out of the shadows of fear of missed opportunity of speech, comes a potential alternate scenario. Out of a debated, confused topic comes a concept of focusing on communication, which can mean many things to many people.

For some, communication is writing, while for some it is selecting pictures and placing them on a velcro strip. For others it is using a PODD book. For yet others it is switch scanning. Now people use their eyes. Back then, people used their eyes. For some it is art. For some it is using a computer.

To me, when I try to think about what communication means, I always hear about three or four of some of the people I look up to most. I hear Janice Light saying communication is the essence of life. I think about that intro to the Buekelmand and Mirenda text about driving up to stop light and you don’t realize how many symbols we all use. I hear Robin from the Respite saying it is all about love. I hear Patty Cassidy saying “model, model, model”, bringing me back to my role as a teacher and mentor. I also think about Michael Phillips and his blog.

Yet today, I was considering the evidence of how augmentative communication use effects speech. There is a mounting body of evidence that suggests that speech is improved in individuals using AAC (Binger et al. 2008, Schlosser & Wendt, 2008, Milar, Light & Schlosser 2006). In practice, I have definitely seen this be the case and I believe it is because of the active engagement around communication is improved while using AAC, the individual has the opportunity to see the power of communication, and the individual often has a more full immersion experience with both receptive and expressive communication. So while we see this evidence in the studies cited, the key question that came up in a coffee with a professor yesterday was how to you link them? How do we best encourage speech while using AAC? I am glad that Dr. Leaf responded to Robert Rummel-Hudson’s post and I like how he spoke about individuals with autism being able to learn how to use their natural voices. It seems that we now have a conversation going and to me the focus should quickly shift to how can we better teach communication. We can use everything available to us. Truly, unaided natural voices are always with us and I remember Dr. Cress says, “no kid in the world is going to give up on speech” What a great common sense interpretation of the research! So as we take up our iPhones and iPods, Vantages, Vanguards, Tangos, Dynavoxs, and Mercurys, we will consider how it all fits together into a total communication system that is fully individualized for the particular individual it serves. We can remember what Gayle Porter says is the goal, “The goal is for people to be able to meet their own daily language needs as efficiently, specifically, intelligibly, independently, and socially valued as possible. In closing, I would like to invite Dr. Leaf and any other experts in the study of behavior and teaching to engage in this important question, “How best do we help individuals communicate by using everything we have available?”. I went to a lecture in LA at CSUN this past March led by Dr. Bruce Baker and Dr. Bill Helsel, titled Linguistics and Behavior Analysis Find Common Theoretical Ground in AAC and I see great opportunity for collaboration as they laid out how slps, teachers, and behaviorists can each play a part in answering the question we are all interested in better answering.

Thanks for what you do Rob and for how much you care.

Regards,

Samuel Sennott

Binger, C., Berens, J., Kent-Walsh, J., & Taylor, S. (2008). The effects of aided AAC interventions on AAC use, speech, and symbolic gestures. Seminars in Speech and Language, 29(2), 101-11. doi: 10.1055/s-2008-1079124.
Schlosser, R. W., & Wendt, O. (2008). Effects of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Intervention on Speech Production in Children With Autism: A Systematic Review. Am J Speech Lang Pathol, 17(3), 212-230. doi: 10.1044/1058-0360(2008/021).
Millar, D. C., Light, J. C., & Schlosser, R. W. (2006). The Impact of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Intervention on the Speech Production of Individuals With Developmental Disabilities: A Research Review. J Speech Lang Hear Res, 49(2), 248-264. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2006/021).
Beukelman, D. R., & Mirenda, P. (2005). Augmentative and alternative communication: Supporting children and adults with complex communication needs (3^rd ed.). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.

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PRC Pictures (3,385 of them) Wow!

Samuel Sennott — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:12:04 +0000

By Samuel Sennott

PRC

Did you know that you can freely download the Prentke Romich Company’s Picture set? Wow! That is a powerful tool to use and a powerful tool to share with parents and teachers.

Here is the info and links from the Prentke Romich Downloads section of their website. http://www.prentrom.com/downloads

PRC Pictures Hot!

Download the current PRC icons. These icons are the same for all PRC devices. They are available in BMP, GIF, and JPEG format and contained within a single ZIP file. If you need an icon for a device or for use in a PC, then use the bitmap (bmp) file. MAC users will need to use the gif or jpeg files. The files include a page of instructions for using the PRC icons.

-These icons are used in their terrific line up of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Devices that include:

Springboard Lite, Vantage, Vanguard, Pathfinder, Eco-14

You can import all 3,385 pictures into your iPhoto library. Give them a keyword tag of PRC and then make an album. Now in MS Word 2008, they can be used easily by just linking to the iPhoto folder. Plus that way the set can be searched by title for the desired icon. When you download the zipped file you get the BMP, GIF, and JPEG formatted icons organized mostly by letters A to Z. Once they are in one folder in iPhoto, dumping them back into one folder on your desktop or a flash drive may be helpful to have them in one searchable folder for varying applications/ operating systems that do not connect as easily to iPhoto as MS Word 2008 for Mac does. That being said, two posts I have created previously relate to this resource:

PRC Pictures in iPhoto

This is a Talking Visual Scene Display in PowerPoint with the PRC Picture Set in the Object Palette

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