In this episode, Sarah shares her travel experience to Florida (during the Omicron surge, unfortunately) and what she learned about AAC at the 2022 ATIA conference. The first part of this episode is a chatty account of the travel experience, so if you just want the tips, skip ahead to 18:34.

Full Show Notes: www.slphappyhour.com/show-notes/117

Time Stamps
0:00 Introduction
2:57 Why AAC? Why now? (Sarah’s work transition)
7:11 Pandemic Travel
18:34 What I Learned at ATIA
32:39 Wrap Up

Key Takeaways
Don’t assume the child isn’t attending to modeling
Teach, don’t just model
Oftentimes, parent training IS the intervention
Use least to most prompting hierarchy for AAC
Find ways to offer more communication opportunities throughout the day
Use Canva to design open ended activities (presentation mode)
Ask fewer questions and offer more statements (instruct, don’t question)
Choose what vocabulary to target based on observation & a spontaneous language sample - what are they doing now to communicate?
Reduce expectations and increase engagement
RAPP Reading Strategy - read the text and use an AAC model, ask a question and provide an aided AAC model and wait 5 seconds, answer the question and proved an aided AAC model and wait 5 seconds, provide a brief verbal prompt like “your turn” or “show me”


Parent Handouts Bundle https://bit.ly/3I3XmmT

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