AAC Parents Google Group

Re: Explaining "moving" in pictures

2009-11-22T07:20:05Z

Britt, I am wondering if Sebastian has a favorite story with anyone in it
has moved? I am off to bed now but will think about this and get back to
you. M-C

Re: parent teacher conference...input needed

2009-11-21T20:40:39Z

We have decided not to even introduce my daughter's ACC into her new school until we can get Class Room Suite 4 under control. Why CRS4? it is more academic. Our speech consultants that we see 2 times a year suggested that we use one for academics and Vanguard for social.

CRS4 can be used for many types of children so the teacher is more willing to use it. The teacher taughter her first class last week using CRS4, which is on my daughter's computer she brings from home, because the school has not installed CRS4 on the school computers. The teacher was so excited because it worked so well for the autistic kids plus the non verbal kids.

Re: parent teacher conference...input needed

2009-11-21T18:13:37Z

Sorry, I may not have caught all of this.

At the Closing the Gap conference, I went to the Communication Circles seminar with Carolyn Musselwhite and Jane Odom. They were talking about children who are not as understandable and how, when they formed these small groups of desired/motivated peers and the peers explained (gently) that they did not understand them (during these games and fun activities) and that they understood them better when they used the device, the kids used the device a LOT more (to the point of proficient usage) . Now, if your goal is to continue the motivation to improve spoken clarity, perhaps a communication circle that is focused on improving speech could be the goal.

Re: parent teacher conference...input needed

2009-11-21T17:59:18Z

Hi Amy,
We just had parent -teacher conference day the other day at our school. I always ask how Melanie is doing with her Dynavox. She uses it with great ease to access the computer to do all her schoolwork, but does not want to use it for communication, which is pretty much the whole purpose of having it :) Melanie wants to use her speech. From what you have said, she has much less comprehensible speech than Kendra does. Her teachers and therapists always agree that Melanie doesn't want to use it because she sooo much wants to be like everyone else. It is just one more thing that sets her apart from her friends.

Explaining "moving" in pictures

2009-11-21T17:13:47Z

Hi everyone,

my oldest son is moving to his own flat in two weeks. Any suggestions how to explain this in pictures to Sebastian?

Best regards, Gull-Britt

Re: ASHA and the AAC inst. and Amy ?

2009-11-21T15:47:28Z

To add to what MC was saying, Trisha prefers signing to using her device
and I'm ok with that to a point. But for those who do not understand her
signs or her verbalizations she needs another way to communicate, hence the
communication device. We work on the device to help her learn it but we

ASHA and the AAC inst. and Amy ?

2009-11-21T12:22:38Z

Amy,
Could it be that Kendra just wants to be like all the other kids? Doesn't want to stand out as being different? Is this the reason she doesn't want to use the eco in school? I think we all know the school isn't a fan of the eco for what ever reason. Reading your post I get your struggles with the school and stuff (I think any way).

parent teacher conference...input needed

2009-11-20T23:44:29Z

apparently, Kendra got the highest score on the common testing in her
class, for reading. Although they say she reads at a second grade
level, which I can attest to. This scenarios suggests 2 things to
me. She can comprehend and manipulate the grade level materials, when
they are read to her. It also suggests that their tesing methods

Re: Report card....grrr

2009-11-18T16:00:02Z

Wrong E address

To: "AAC Parents" <aacparents@googlegroups.com>

yes, I ask her, What category or subject matter are you talking
about? If I am directing her to the device, I always ask what part of
speech it is. Once we know that, we get some ideas of what words she
is trying to say.

Re: Report card....grrr

2009-11-18T15:56:14Z

I don't expect any of them to learn or know Minspeak. I would just
like to 1. actually have the Eco in front of her and on, at all class

Re: Report card....grrr

2009-11-14T10:32:07Z

Amy, Instead of telling them to use minspeak maybe you could
say........thinking out loud gee I wonder if we could use her eco and see if she knows
what catalogue it is under and that might trigger he thoughts to find the
word? Our son goes to Landmark and right now what they are teaching the

Report card....grrr

2009-11-13T22:56:40Z

I don't really mind her report card, 4 Bs and a C-. That is all
regular classes, except language, which she is working really really
hard at.

Goal: Kendra will use her aug. device to repair communication
breakdowns in the classroom and speech room 6/10 times. IEP progress
report: and I quote " Minimal progress- She does not like to use the

Re: IEP meeting

2009-11-11T22:17:30Z

Yah..............one for the good guys.....all the team members! M-C

Re: IEP meeting

2009-11-11T18:21:02Z

Thought I would post an update about our IEP meeting. It went well and we
accomplished many things with some that we need to follow up on in the next
week or two.

I went in with the requests for:

more OT
getting the power cord to her laptop replaced as it has a short in it
more direct 1-1 session for signing

Re: IEP meeting

2009-11-10T21:26:20Z

Our warranty expires Jan 3, so i figured it was a good time to send
the Eco in to get the pesky mic problem we have fixed. Only now, they
sent us a loaner, and guess what? I duplicated the problem on the
loaner device, proving this is a prgoram problem, and not a hardware
problem. At least know I have somewhat isolated what keys to NOT hit