Kids and Christmas lists...

What would Christmas be without a trip to see Santa when you are a child?  Many of my young friends who use speech generating devices enjoyed this time honored tradition in the weeks up until Christmas. One young girl told Santa "I want a iPad puzzle", "I want Dad", another young boy told Santa, "I want iPad", and yet another youngster told the jolly old elf to bring her "pizza".  One of my  teenagers asked for a DVD. What do all these requests have in common, besides being made by children?  They were all made by children using their speech generating devices, including the Vantage Lite by Prentke-Romich Company.  With these devices, the boys and girls were able to share their Christmas lists with Santa and their families, despite the inability to speak verbally the way that most of use do.  One young friend uses his Dynavox V device to sing Christmas carols and play video clips of Christmas cartoons- making him a big hit with his friends

 So, however you say it, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

International AAC Awareness Month is October

October is International AAC* Month:

Highest Performance Communication – Best Life Experience


The following information is taken directly from the website:http://www.aacawareness.org/ and highlights why honoring those who use augmentative alternative communication and the people who support them is so important.

Why is AAC Month important?

•8 to 12 people per 1,000 experience severe communication impairments that require AAC, but many of them do not have access to AAC (ASHA)

•“It appears there may be a serious shortage of knowledgeable professionals capable of assisting families with effective AAC use.” (Niemeijer, Donnellan and Robledo survey)

How will you celebrate?  I am going to highlight some of the written work created by my friends using AAC on my website. Also, I am working with some of the schools I consult with to have their AAC speakers recite school news for the building. At the highschool level, we have peers who are helping program and provide opportunity for our students year-round but will highlight some of them in the school paper.

The ISAAC AAC Month task force has some more ideas!

•Work together with people who use AAC to share information, to organize and conduct training and events (festival, fair, seminar, book or poetry reading, Silent Tea or Coffee Break, AAC quiz, communication technology expo)

•Link new AAC users with experienced AAC users for mentoring

•Invite a speaker who uses AAC, arrange a poetry reading or AAC-led singalong

•Host a film on AAC with discussion afterward including people who use AAC

•Sponsor a public reading of the Communication Bill of Rights (and film it to share)

•Plan a Power of Communication Relay and information fair to raise funds for communication devices – See Faye Warren’s video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ati_34FcEAs

•Visit, read, and share the online AAC Writing and Video Collections by people who use AAC to communicate in the “Sharings” at www.aacawareness.org.

•Participate in the 4th Annual 24-Hour AAC Chat on Skype, Facebook and Twitter (date and times to be determined); post, read, share on International AAC Month Facebook page; post, read, share tweets on Twitter (Twitter hashtag #AACchat)

•An invitation to the People Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication to submit stories

Contact info@aacawareness.org for more information

* AAC means Augmentative & Alternative Communication – other ways to speak, write and take in information and conversation for people with speech impairments or disabilities – like electronic talking aids, computers, touch screen devices, speech generating devices, boards and books with pictures, words and letters, Talking Mats, Communication Passports, eye-gaze systems, partner-assisted scanning, facilitated communication training, gesture and sign language.