When I first started virtual teaching of learners who use AAC (most of whom also have neurodevelopment disabilities) lots of parents (and students) were surprised when I asked, “what did you think of the book?” after every book we read. ​ For speaking folks it is usually the first question we ask when talking about a book, “oh I just read The Women by Kristen Hannah.” “Really? How was it?”would be a usual book readers conversation starter. However, for most alternative communicators that isn’t a question they hear. They are read to or read books themselves and are asked comprehension questio ..read more

When you see a child having what you view as an “attention seeking behavior” you have two choices. You could decide you can “fix” that behavior and step away and ignore them. Or you could think, “they’ve got my attention, now what do they need?” If you chose the second one you will likely find they are seeking a connection for some reason - perhaps to get another need met, perhaps out of fear, perhaps due to a lack of skills to get the connection in another way. Then you can step towards them, co-regulate and show them how to express their needs safely and without fear of judgment ..read more

How to spot pseudoscientific practices of Facilitated Communication, Rapid Prompting Method and Spelling2Communicate in highly edited documercials: 1) The vocabulary used by the proponents of these systems and in the propaganda often differs from that used in the AAC field in that they like use “type”, “typer”, “spell”, “speller”, “board”, “letter board”, “stencil”, “keyboard” instead of AAC, AAC user/AAC device/system.  AAC users, of course, get to self-define and chose how they wish to be referred to, I am not talking about that, I am talking about the speaking people who are ..read more

Seven years ago I wrote about and created a new prompt hierarchy, designed for use with those who have apraxia.  Soon after Shelane Neilsen collaborated with me to create a visually more appealing Adapted Prompt Hierarchy. Quickly translations began appearing, at first with or Shelane's my consultation and, eventually, without it.  Eventually new versions appeared, usually copying my premise, and often times my exact language, sometimes with credit or consultation and most times not.  Sometimes these were sold by others.  They are making money off of work I have delibe ..read more

One of the frequent things we see in the field of AAC is a struggle to determine how many buttons per page to start with on a new AAC system.  Though there is a myth that one should start small and have a very limited system at first this is no longer best practice, best practice is to consider the users ability to  "Perceive and Access" the buttons on the system. Perceive and Access Start with as many buttons, the maximum, the user can perceive and access (often times called "see and touch", a brilliant approach from the folks at AssistiveWare, but perceive and access ..read more

FrankenSystem is the name for an AAC system which has been highly edited or customized by a stakeholder (caregiver, teacher, ABA practitioner, therapist, etc) without regard for a set of internal rules, visual cues and standards that exist underlying robust AAC systems.  ​Such systems tend to lack consistency between buttons, pages and sections. The visual cues (color coding, fonts, font styles, button shapes) built into most robust systems are ignored.  There is usually a mix of various symbol sets, clip art and photos without a logical basis for when/what purpose the ..read more

Something that happens to me all the time when I talk about what my students can do is people assume I only accept the “high functioning” kids. They ask questions about how what I am teaching is "advanced" and their students would not be able to do it. It infuriates me! Well folks my students couldn't do it before either! My students didn’t have these skills. I taught them. Now they do. That is how teaching works.   I take any student who shows up. The only child I actually turned down for my home school academy I turned down because we would not have been challenging enough. I ha ..read more

There is a new dangerous, propaganda movie about a cousin to the debunked and dangerous Facilitated Communication method going around. It’s called Spelling2Communicate and it is essentially the same thing as Rapid Prompting Method.  Facilitated Communication is holding the hand, arm or another part of the body of a non-speaking person and “helping” them communicate by pointing to letters. Rapid Prompting Method and Spelling2Communicate hold the letter board instead of the body of the non-speaking person. Evidence shows, overwhelmingly, that neither of these methods is safe because inevit ..read more

As AAC implementers there is a lot we have to know and think about and rolled into that is the hope we must have. We must believe that our students/clients/children will grow beyond where they are right now. This is what is meant by presume potential - have hope - not a static hope, but an active hope that adjusts and grows and changes. We believe that full, active, intrinsically rewarding communication is coming.  Today I taught an AAC skills class. The students and their learning coach, usually a parent, were picking an operational AAC goal to focus on for a few weeks. I mentioned in ..read more

​Symbol Supported Text, sometimes called Symbolated Text, is the practice of adding picture symbols above or below each word or phrase in text based materials meant to be read.  (It does not apply to symbols in AAC systems.) Here are some examples: As you can see symbols from a variety of companies are placed above or below the written text.  If you look at the symbols alone, as a non-reader would do, it is very difficult to know what is being said.  The first example might be read as “bird home bird cage give house” to an unfamiliar person.  The second might be read as ..read more