The classroom seen in the video is in no way a communication based classroom, forget an AAC classroom with a focus on core words. Here are my personal beliefs about an AAC classroom: every student has multiple means of communication which are ALWAYS available to them (we do not take away the Dynavox duing lunch, the Tobii during gym, The Vantage during art or the Go Talk during PT! Ever!) there is a low tech back up to every high tech system, i.e. all the core boards of the high tech devices have been printed and put into a book, just in case the environment is language rich in the language   read more

Que Vuelen Las Mariposas (The Butterflies Flying) is a cause and effect game for touchscreens, interactive whiteboards, the mouse, head or eye trackers. The butterflies also fly away one by one and return if a switch is set to "tab". Touch a butterfly and it flies away (and then flies back). Teacher directed you could work on colors via the site. The link comes from Juegos Atención Temprana.   read more

As promised here are some stories of our first week with the Tobii P10 in our classroom. Our student is currently using a 12 location board with care take to have yes, no and go back in the same location on each board (like nearly all students she is a very motor memory based communicator). The first few days of the trial we did not add any new boards inspite of some student nagging, "I am frustrated. What I want to say is not here!" I (the teacher) did lots of explaining around that both things are true, that she is frustrated because she is learning all the new boards, which is very hard   read more

Tico is a free, open source symbol (or text) based dynamic display AAC program for the Windows operating system. The Tico Application is part of the collaborative project between the Department of Computer and Systems Engineering from the Higher Polytechnic Center of the University of Zaragoza and Public School Special Education Alborada. Tico's software and hardware for individuals with physical and or cognitive disabilities. When in Editor (what in Boardmaker would be Design Mode) boards can be created and re-arranged as needed. Currently the software requires recorded speech (like a Dynavox   read more

If you don't currently work in a latex free environment it is likely that you will eventually. Natural Rubber Latex or NRL contains a protein that can cause severe allergic reaction in people who are genetically susceptible (e.g. those with eczema, other allergies, etc). An allergy to NRL is different from an irritant rash or contact dermatitis, an allergy is a may include a rash, even a severe rash, but is also likely to include sneezing, watery eyes, swollen lips/throat, hives and possibly anaphylactic shock, which can cause death. Each time a person with a susceptibility is exposed to latex   read more

I consider myself dedicated and nearly never think about leaving the field. I know that one day I will move from the daily ins and outs of classroom teaching on to perhaps a doctoral degree and then pursuit other dreams in the field. However what would make me do that? (Note to my employer and more importantly the parents of my students and my colleagues, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, no worries.) Still what would make me actually leave the classroom, the thing that makes me get up in the morning with a smile on my face? alternative assessment - I have experience with both the Massachusetts   read more

Today was the first day of a 4 week trial rental of a Tobii P10 eye gaze communication device for a student in my class. This has been a long time in coming for this student. There have been many sessions with every maker of every brand of eye gaze AAC device on the marker. There has been some pretty intensive low tech intervention around eye gaze along with ongoing discussions, data collection and educational planning. There were web based trainings, practice with the evaluations software and two face-to-face introductory trainings with our local Tobii rep Chris (who is spectacular). Time   read more

A new mid-level AAC device from Enabling Devices this talking digital picture frame might be a nice second or third step into AAC on the way to a high tech scanning device. This device can have one to twelve 25 second messages with auditory or visual scanning using the attached switch. The device retails at $250.00.   read more

The CALL Scotland Blog has a fantastic review of the TaptoTalk App for the Nintendo DS Lite, DSi or DS XL, which is the program that turns a Nintendo DS into a handheld AAC device. Check it out if you want to know more about the pros and cons of the program: CALL Scotland TaptoTalk Review   read more

The last days of January I took ill. Very ill. Intensive Care Unit for days ill. I was in the hospital for 10 days in a country where insurance companies see to it no one stays in the hospital longer than 2 days that says something. I missed 2 weeks of work and the third week was a school break for everyone, lucky for me, because I needed that time to rest and go to what felt like too many doctor's appointments. So first off, I am fine now. However, during that time I missed some milestones. Such as this blog's 1000th post and 600,000th visitor. Turns out iPads for Our Rooms, written   read more