At the beginning of this year, multiple people in my district began discussing communication for children with autism. The early childhood program is primarily using picture exchange communication with their students. However, once these same students enter elementary school, the elementary-high school SLPs begin using core vocabulary as our primary communication modality. At that… Read more
Viewing posts tagged with: PECS
Low-tech AAC: Picture Exchange (Pros and Cons)
Please note before I begin this post that I am aware that PECS is a specific and trademarked system. I have been through the formal training, however, like most, I have adapted it and can no longer officially call it PECS. Over the years, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with picture exchange. I have gone… Read more
Getting organized for play-based therapy!
33% of my students with speech IEPs are working on very basic 1-3 word utterances (verbally or non-verbally). One of the many ways that I work on their speech goals is to engage them with play-based speech therapy. What is play-based therapy? I use my own approach to therapy, loosely based on Floor Time. A… Read more
Expanding Sentences and Vocabulary
I love my expanding non-traditional Picture Exchange therapy! I love it when I get to work with my life skills kiddos on adding descriptive words to toys that they already enjoy. And then even adding play too! I use activities like this when students need visuals in order to speak more than 1-2 words. I… Read more
Gingerbread Man Under and Over
Chapel Hill Snippets makes the best basic concepts books. I love using them with my Life Skills students, so I decided to return the favor (thank you Ruth!!!). Oh, and you can benefit too I guess! Get this almost free (sorry! I recently found out that I can’t give out Boardmaker pics for free, so… Read more
Did somebody say bacon?
Did I mention that I’ve gone Paleo? Never heard of it? Well, clearly you don’t live in the Pacific Northwest! It’s all the rage here. Although my husband has been talking about it for over a year, I started at the beginning of the school year. I eat meat, veggies, fruits, some nuts, oils. And… Read more
Valentine’s Art with AAC
I had so much fun this week creating Valentine’s projects with some of my life skills students. I was originally inspired by this pin on Pinterest, but considering that I only had 15 minute therapy slots and what we were really working on was communication, our creations are not quite as gorgeous. What I did… Read more
No Boardmaker? No problem!
Due to a nasty combination of old laptops in our district, plus old Boardmaker CDs that are somewhat incompatible with said laptops, many special educators in my district have given up on trying to use Boardmaker. Don’t get me wrong, I love Boardmaker and use it almost every day, but truthfully that is mostly out… Read more
Plant AAC Bingo
Going with the theme idea I have recently incorporated into my therapy, I am switching around circle time with my Life Skills students. I am working on basic vocabulary (this month with a plant theme) while teaching them to play a group game, “bingo”. Most of these students are unable to find “3 in a… Read more