Talking With Tech AAC Podcast

Lory Chrane: Sowing the Seeds of AAC in Uganda

This week, Chris interviews Lory Chrane, an AAC Specialist and Professor at Abelene Christian University. Chris and Lory talk about how Lory has tried to improve pre-service teaching by involving as much experiential learning as possible, especially in the area of AAC instruction. Lory also describes a mission trip to Uganda to work with Hope Speaks, a nonprofit that supports people who have communication challenges and SLPs in Uganda. 
 
Before the interview, Chris and Rachel connect to talk about slang and AAC, including the slang word “poggers" that Chris learned from his kids. Chris notes how putting the current slang on AAC devices can make help users talk the way their peers do and make using the device more motivating.
 
Key ideas this week:
 
🔑 Teaching students how to problem solve and meet challenges head on when dealing with AAC can really help students not be afraid of AAC in practice.
 
🔑 It’s important to teach students that a lot of work with AAC is teaching language concepts to AAC Users who have difficulty with vocabulary. A much smaller part of working with AAC involves programming or more technical work.
 
🔑 Lory is working with ACU on a project to support greater inclusion of AAC users into faith-based activities. This includes teaching church leaders to use the Symbol-It software  to provide symbols along with text for greater visual support.
 
Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!
 
Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!
 
To learn more about Hope Speaks, go to joinhopespeaks.org

Coaching Call with Anya Ashouri - Part 2: Focusing on AAC Strategies, Not Just Tools

This week, the TWT team presents Part 2 of Chris and Rachel’s coaching call with Anya Ashouri, an SLP and AT Specialist for a Non-Public School. In this half of the coaching call, Chris, Rachel, and Anya discuss how to decide what the next AT strategy to work on with students will be, the benefits of providing visual supports to everyone all over the school, how to monitor the quality of implementation in the classroom, and how to get students more excited about the writing and editing process. 
 
Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss a question from Luke about supporting AAC users who primarily use text to communicate (rather than symbols). Rachel touches on how to model AAC using text, when a typing-only system (e.g. Proloquo4Text) would be more appropriate than symbols + text, and how to encourage modeling AAC for a family when parents understand the child’s speech but it is difficult for others to understand.
 
🔑 When you are assessing a child with complex communication needs who has strengths in the area of writing, look at the complexity of the AAC user’s utterances - if there is low MLU and simplistic sentences, consider including symbols along with the keyboard to support language growth and modeling.
 
🔑 If a child wants to type messages more than use symbols, but they still have growth to make in learning vocabulary, consider a hybrid  like TouchChat with WordPower80 that includes a keyboard and symbols. That will allow you to teach new vocabulary while using a keyboard at the same time.
 
🔑 When you are considering what kinds of supports you want to target on in the area of AT, consider the strategies that will make the biggest difference, and not just the tools that are needed. For example, making “modeling” a targeted strategy rather than making “high tech AAC” a target allows you to implement a strategy that can be used by all students, not just AAC users.
 
To listen to last week’s episode, visit talkingwithtech.org/episodes/anya-ashouri
 
Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!
 
Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

Coaching Call with Anya Ashouri: Getting School Admin Buy-In for AAC

This week, the TWT team interviews Anya Ashouri, an SLP and AT Specialist for a Non-Public School who had questions about  identifying students in her school who are complex communicators but were not given AAC to communicate. Anya describes how she came to learn that her school needed more robust AT, the steps she took to train herself on AAC and AT, and asks Chris and Rachel for advice on getting admin and parent buy-in for robust AAC. 
 
Before the interview, Chris and Rachel talk about a journal article from May 2020, called “The Effects of Telepractice to Support Family Members in Modeling a Speech-Generating Device in the Home”. The article resonated with Chris and Rachel because they both had always felt that coaching family members through tele practice can lead to greater success than direct therapy alone.
 
Key ideas this week:
 
🔑 If we are building from the ground up, we should tell people what AAC is and why its important. It’s easy to overwhelm people with jargoin if they are not familiar with AAC.
 
🔑 Many people thing about the SETT framework to select the AT tool, but that is only one part of it. As you are having this discussion, discuss what kind of outcome you want? What else needs to change in the environment? Do we need to change the tasks?
 
🔑 When you visit a classroom, be conscious of how you can help all the kids, not just one student. Helping teachers with ways they can promote language development for all students is a good way to build rapport and buy-in. 
 
Links:
 
 “The Effects of Telepractice to Support Family Members in Modeling a Speech-Generating Device in the Home”. by Sarah Douglas, Elizabeth Biggs, Hedda Meadan, and Atikah Bagawan
 
https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2021_AJSLP-20-00230
 
Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!
 
To listen to this episode, search "Talking with Tech" in your podcast player of choice or go to www.talkingwithtech.org/episodes/anya-ashouri

Anu Garla: Benefits of AAC Coaching and Intensive Language Interventions

This week, Rachel interviews Anu Garla, a mother of Oliver, a boy with autism and cortical visual impairment who uses AAC to communicate. Anu describes her journey getting a diagnosis, how she started working with Rachel, why coaching with Rachel really jump started progress for her son, and advice that she has for other parents who are starting on an AAC journey (e.g. little “homework” assignments for parents can help).
 
Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss a recent presentation that Rachel did that she almost missed due to clerical error from one of her staff, and how she adjusted to the situation and made the presentation work. They also discuss how they decide how much to charge (or if to charge) for doing presentations, and have advice for people wanting to do more presentations.
 
Key Ideas This Week:
 
🔑 Oliver didn't really make a lot of progress until they started working more closely with Rachel during the pandemic. There was an intensive intervention with Rachel and Oliver that led to the discovery that the team needed to give more time for Oliver to initiate. 
 
🔑 Sometimes, intervention in the home environment is more “quality than quantity”. If you have short, high quality interactions and connections with your child, they are still making progress. It doesn’t need to be hours of intense “drill and kill”, it can be based on brief, quality interactions throughout the day.
 
🔑 Its important to listen to families as much as other professionals on the team of an AAC user. Parents usually know their child better than anyone!
 
🔑 Before we decide if a child can or cannot do something, we need to make sure motivation is there. Motivation is a current that flows through everything we do as educators and therapists.
 
Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!
 
Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!
 
Link from this episode:
 
Comprehensive Literacy for All by Karen Erickson and David Koppenhaver: https://www.amazon.com/Comprehensive-Literacy-All-Significant-Disabilities/dp/1598576577
 
Anu's Facebook & Instagram: @oliphantabulousstormilicious

India Ochs: Lawyer, Social Justice Advocate, Mother, and AAC User

This week, Chris interviews the incredible India Ochs! India is a brilliant social justice advocate, lawyer, educator, and board member for USSAAC and ISSAC who is also a lifelong AAC user. India describes her incredible journey with AAC, how she has used her many skills to advocate for social justice, why she volunteers so much of her time to the disabled community, and what she sees are the impacts of systemic racism on the field AAC (e.g. lack of vocabulary words to talk about racism).
 
Before the interview, Chris and Rachel respond to several comments from listeners about their recent banter about PECS. Some listeners said PECS works for them while robust AAC  doesn’t work for them. Chris and Rachel note that, if robust AAC hasn’t worked, maybe the implementation hasn’t been done in a systematic way. They also respond to the idea that PECS is a necessary stepping stone to robust AAC, and provide some strategies for demonstrating early success with robust AAC when it doesn’t look like AAC is “working” yet.
 
Key ideas this week:
 
🔑 While the systematic nature of PECS implementation can encourage some people who would like a step-by-step guide, in some cases it causes students to “stall out” at a particular stage because they are required to demonstrate certain skills before moving on the next skill.
 
🔑 A simple paper and pen can be the most effective form of AAC for some literate AAC users. 
 
🔑 It is difficult to find symbols for words like racism, anti-racism, African-American, Black person, hispanic, Martin Luther King, Jr on many AAC devices. Developers need to bring in experts on Black history and anti-racism to tell us what vocabulary we need to add to our devices.
 
Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!
 
To listen to this episode, search "Talking with Tech" in your podcast player of choice or go to www.talkingwithtech.org/episodes/india-ochs
 
Links from the episode:
 
AAC Speaker Connection: https://speaker.ussaac.org/
 
Silent Auction benefiting USSAAC that ends October 15th:
https://www.silentauctionpro.com/bidonlinegrid.php?groupId=1860
or email Virtualauction@ussaac.org
 
India's Blog: https://intrepidoaks.com/
 
Xceptional AAC Leaders Book with Chapter by India 

Laura Hayes: How to Shape & Support AAC ”Stimming”

This week, Rachel interviews SLP and AAC Facilitator Laura Hayes! Laura recently did a presentation on AAC in the Cloud on AAC “stimming” and how we can best support AAC users who choose to press a button or series of buttons repeatedly. Laura shares that, If a person using AAC is “stimming”, ask yourself “how can I shape what we are doing” (e.g. teach a lesson on the word they are pressing) rather than just trying to extinguish the behavior.
 
Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss a listener question, who asked for ideas on how to become a better communicator and presenter in a conference setting. Chris and Rachel share lots of tips on presenting to others, including the importance of making it interactive, asking reflective questions to the audience, showing vs telling, and why often less is more.
 
Key ideas this week:
 
🔑 “Stimming” means different things to different people in the context of AAC devices. Laura found  this behavior had 4 main purposes: babbling/exploration; exploratory perseveration; self regulation through audio/visual/tactile components, and/or scripting/echolalia. 
 
🔑 If a person who uses AAC is disrupting a classroom because they are pressing buttons on their device while others are talking, teach the student to turn on “whisper mode” to make the device quieter.
 
🔑 According to Alexandria Zachos of meaningfulspeech.com, as many as 75% of autistic individuals are gestalt language processors, i.e., they process chunks of language without distinction between individual words. 
 
You can reach Laura on Instagram @aac_innovations or via email at aacinnovations01@gmail.com.
 
Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!
 
Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

TWT Live: Closing The Gap - Part 3

This week, we hear from Part 3 of TWT Live - Closing the Gap 2020. This week’s portion of TWT Live has lots of helpful ideas for communication with families, coaching, motivating students, advocating for high-tech AAC with clinicians who always start with PECS, and more! 
 
Before the interview, Chris shares about his recent experience as “Shadow the Labrador”, a mascot at a local school. He and Rachel discuss why we need to be the zaniest person in the room sometimes to get people motivated to talk. They also discuss a situation Chris was in recently where he wasn’t sure if he should ask for compensation for consulting with a company about their newest new technology tool. Rachel gives Chris some tips about asking for compensation and strategies she uses in negotiations.
 
If you would like to listen to Part 2 of this presentation, you can listen at talkingwithtech.org/episodes/twt-live-ctg-2
 
Key ideas this week:
 
🔑  If you have limited enthusiasm in your district for AAC, try finding teachers and/or staff who are excited about using technology in their curriculum and start working with them first. 
 
🔑  What motivates a person can change over time. Periodically, do a preference assessment with your students to maximize motivation.
 
🔑  Have students give you directions on what to do (e.g. drink water) using their device - a lot of times, students are told what to do all day, and turning the tables can be motivating
 
Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!
 
To listen to this episode, search "Talking with Tech" in your podcast player of choice or go to www.talkingwithtech.org/episodes/twt-live-ctg-3

TWT Live: Closing the Gap - Part 2

This week, the TWT team presents part 2 of Talking with Tech Live: Closing the Gap! This week, Rachel and Chris discuss several topics with the audience, including personal core /key vocabulary, the importance of literacy, and overcoming barriers to high-tech AAC in school districts. 
 
If you would like to listen to Part 1 of this presentation, you can listen at talkingwithtech.org/episodes/twt-live-ctg-1
 
Before Part 2, Rachel and Chris discuss PECS in greater detail, including why motor planning is so important when comparing PECS to other AAC options, the consensus among experts that Chris and Rachel trust about PECS vs. more robust AAC, and why choosing robust AAC has the least chance of harming the client.
 
Key ideas this week: 
 
🔑 Without the benefit of a motor plan, using PECS to communicate can be more fatiguing than using more robust AAC. For some of Rachel’s clients, making limited progress on PECS made the family resistant to other AAC options later on.
 
🔑 When making a difficult decision between strategies as clinicians (e.g. PECS vs robust AAC for a client with some verbal skills), we should choose the intervention with the lowest chance of doing harm. If we assume the client will will need AAC in some form forever, the time spent teaching PECS could have been better spent learning motor plans on a robust AAC device.
 
🔑 If we are trying to help teachers and admins embrace robust AAC, you can point to the abuse and neglect statistics for people with disabilities. Teaching language through robust communication systems gives students a better tool to future abuse and neglect in the future.
 
Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!
 
Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

TWT Live: Closing The Gap - Part 1

This week, we share Chris and Rachel’s presentation from last year’s Closing the Gap called “Brainstorming Solutions to Real-Life AAC Questions”. During this week’s Part 1 episode, Chris and Rachel share about evaluating evidence-based practices, when to consider “verbal” clients for AAC, how to determine when someone is ready for AAC, and more!
 
Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss ABA therapy and why working with ABA therapists can be very helpful in some cases, but difficult in others. Rachel shares about working with an ABA team that refuses to follow suggestions about working with her client’s AAC device, and how that has impacted her client’s progress using AAC. Chris also shares his three questions that he asks himself before employing a strategy like AAC:
 
Is it research based?
What are professionals saying?
What are the people who are using the strategy saying worked for them?
 
Chris notes that, in particular, the last question can be very important. Chris wonders whether the people who are getting ABA are saying “thank you” afterwards for the intervention.
 
Key ideas this week:
 
🔑 Consider AAC when someone has a high level of scripted phrases - AAC can be a great way to build novel generative language skills. Build vocabulary skills with more abstract language concepts.
 
🔑 Just because someone has speech some of the time doesn’t mean they have speech all of the time.  AAC can be a great backup for people who have inconsistent difficulty with expressive language.
 
🔑 There are no prerequisites for high-tech AAC - people learn to use AAC when they are given the time and the oppertunity to learn it.
 
Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!
 
Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!

Megan Roberts: Research Supporting Parent-Implemented Interventions

This week, Rachel interviews Megan Roberts, an Associate Professor and SLP at Northwestern University. Megan started the Early Intervention Research Group, where she researches early parent-implemented interventions for children with hearing loss, autism, and developmental language disorders. Megan has lots to share about her research behind parent-implemented interventions, early behaviors that are a predictors of autism, and how to approach conversations with parents about their child's possible autistic-like behaviors.
 
Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss a listener’s email about a difficult situation with an administrator. When the listener requested a high-tech AAC device for a minimally-verbal student, her school administrator told her she needed to give him low-tech AAC, because there was no way to get the student high-tech AAC. Rachel and Chris talk about how this administrator was stepping out of their role, and how Rachel and Chris would approach the situation to push back against this.
 
Key ideas this week:
 
🔑 Megan’s most robust predictor of autism in her assessments have been the presence of contact gestures, e.g., the person uses another person’s body part as a tool.
 
🔑 When we notice possible signs of autism in a young child and want to discuss this with parents, focus on identifying the behaviors that might interfere with learning rather than the “autism” label. Then, you can “wonder” about those behaviors with the parent, how they might impact the student, and how these maladaptive behaviors might be suppressed via intervention.
 
🔑 Girls with autism can present very differently than boys with autism early in their development - we need more research to better define what the differences are.
 
Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!
 
Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!