Using Our Verbal and Cognitive Weapons: Becoming Flexible in Interaction
Erna Alant Consultancy Blog
by Erna Alant
1y ago
When last have you observed an interaction that made you cringe? At the Grocery Store I was at the grocery shop and saw how a young man at the checkout counter became annoyed with a young woman. The woman had a disability. She was trying to adjust her purchases to reduce the overall cost. The young man, however, got impatient. He told her  to “Please step out of line while you make up your mind to allow others to be served.” She didn’t understand what he was saying, but picked up that the tone of his interaction was not friendly. Within seconds she discarded what she was doing and said “f ..read more
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Joint Attention and Mutual Awareness: “Why” Not “What”
Erna Alant Consultancy Blog
by Erna Alant
1y ago
Over the years I have come to realize that we often ask the wrong question. The real issue is not “What should we do” or “What type of activity will s/he be interested in?” but rather “Why is the student acting this way? Why does s/he not show interest?” Answering the “Why” question is, however, trickier when a student is an AAC user who has difficulty expressing him/herself. So, it seems easier to focus on activity outcomes rather than to spend time understanding why the student is not paying attention. Students who do not behave in a way that we expect can be challenging to teach. This is pa ..read more
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Friendships in Young Students with Severe Communication Problems: Are We Providing Enough Opportunities?
Erna Alant Consultancy Blog
by Erna Alant
1y ago
“This student has no friends.” I often hear teachers and therapists commenting that a particular student has no friends. These comments always make me wonder about how we see friendships developing in young students. What do we mean by “s/he has no friends”? Do we mean that these students: sit mostly by themselves? do not seek out others in a way that we expect them to? show no preference of whom to play with? The comment “This student has no friends” generally signals the beginning of a discussion on how what we do in classrooms impacts on students’ opportunities to make friends. “He is alw ..read more
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AAC Awareness Month October 2022: Promoting Friendships in AAC Intervention
Erna Alant Consultancy Blog
by Erna Alant
1y ago
Introduction Today, I share a presentation I made for AAC Awareness Month at the Centre for AAC in South Africa. I discuss ways in which we can deepen our understanding of different types of friendships. As a result, we can promote friendships in AAC intervention as an integrated part of daily activities. A Challenge in AAC intervention One of the biggest challenges that AAC interventionists face today relates to the sustainability of our efforts. We work to teach children to recognize and use symbols on communication boards or high-tech devices. However, we often must acknowledge that these i ..read more
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Self–Other Awareness and the Use of Core Words with Young AAC Users
Erna Alant Consultancy Blog
by Erna Alant
1y ago
Helping students to develop social closeness with others is less about who does it, but more an approach to teaching and intervention. An approach sensitive to encourage closer relationships between students should center on facilitating the development of self–other awareness. Self-awareness is the ability to be aware of one’s inner life, which includes one’s emotions, thoughts, behaviors, values, preferences, goals, strengths, challenges, and attitudes—and how these factors impact one’s choices. One becomes aware of oneself as one’s awareness of others become more distinct Promoting self-awa ..read more
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Making AAC Users Feel Listened-to: Slow Is Better
Erna Alant Consultancy Blog
by Erna Alant
1y ago
While teachers and therapists might feel the pressure to get students to settle down and get work done in the classroom, allowing time for young AAC users to feel listened-to is an important first step towards engaging them in learning. Even if we feel pressured to get on with reaching set objectives, we need to remember that making students feel listened-to is a first step towards engagement in learning. Slow is better. AAC Questions We Need to Ask Ourselves Can we allow ourselves the time to listen to the AAC students in our class? Or are we going to succumb to our default tendencies of usi ..read more
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Getting Things Done: Compliance or Active Learning?
Erna Alant Consultancy Blog
by Erna Alant
1y ago
I am often amazed at how the pressure of “getting things done” can prevent one from  meaning-making with others. The inability to take time to be with another can have significant impact on our well-being as parents and teachers. A colleague and I were driving to do some training at a school. It was early morning, and we had had a late start. Getting back into the car with two cups of coffee for my friend and me, I felt quite relieved, as I had difficulty understanding the coffee attendant, who was speaking with a heavy southern accent. The Context: Getting Things Done! The coffee at ..read more
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Storytime with Erna #5: Personal Narratives—Sending a Parcel
Erna Alant Consultancy Blog
by Erna Alant
1y ago
About Personal Narratives: For Teachers, Therapists, and Parents Various authors have emphasized the power of personal narratives in encouraging interaction between children of all abilities. Personal narratives provide us with oppotunities to share how we experience events in our lives. It is a powerful tool for enhancing self–other understanding and encourages sharing with others. There is no right or wrong personal narrative—it only describes our own experience. In doing so, it provides a strong incentive for others to respond and share their own experiences and perceptions. This blog explo ..read more
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Peer Interactions and Social Closeness in Self-contained Classrooms
Erna Alant Consultancy Blog
by Erna Alant
1y ago
Much of life can pass us by when we are too hurried to pay attention to it. This is not only true for us, but also for the children we work with. Realizing that small moments of interactions can add to our toolkit to enhance meaning-making and social closeness between children can be a major game-changer! A document (Promoting Positive Social Interactions in an Inclusion Setting for Students with Learning Disabilities) by the National Association of Special Education Teachers focuses on the importance of promoting positive peer interactions: ”None of these (referring to positive ..read more
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In-classroom Learning with AAC Students: One Step at a Time
Erna Alant Consultancy Blog
by Erna Alant
1y ago
I recently observed a three-year-old girl who was going to start in-classroom learning after an extended time at home during COVID. She and her father were visiting her grandparents for the first time after an 18-month gap due to COVID. Even though they frequently interacted online via Zoom or FaceTime, the excitement and anticipation in seeing each other was significant. However, the little girl, on only a few occasions during the two-day visit, wanted to leave the loving embrace of her father. She was able to name all the letters and colors and sat down to do focused desk work for a surprisi ..read more
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