Forum
Help young AAC users
Do you want to help new, young AAC users? There is a Facebook group started by Amy at ACOLUG (a mailing list). She has requested mentors for new and aspiring AAC users.
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I created a private group on Facebook, for kids using AAC devices to have a place to hang out on the web. It is AAC Kids Chat.
I would like some adult users/mentors/parents, willing to help encourage device use, tell your story of what it was like growing up with AAC, teach parents how to do something on a device similar to yours, give tips and tricks, prompt and cue, or even just chat with these kids, no matter what age. You can tell some cool things you use your devices for. I have found out, over the summer, just 15-25 mintues a week of device usage can make a big difference in their knowledge of their device. Makes me wonder what they have been doing for the last 4 years at school, where little progress has been made.
If you would like to help me out with this project, please let me know.
Thank you, Amy
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So, if you feel like helping out, please join the Facebook group.
Hi Amy
My name is Juliet, I'm a student speech and language therapist at Trinity College, and I am working on an undergraduate final year project looking at how people are using AAC devices in a creative way. It could be anything from writing prose and poetry, drawing, gaming, some people are using them to participate in dance. I would be really interested in hearing how kids use their AAC devices in ways that go beyond using them functionally. Do you think anyone in your group would be interested in posting something about that on this site or on your facebook site?
thank you
Juliet
Juliet, Hello, this is Amy. Although I didn't post the original comments here, and I happened across this site accidentally, I am glad I did.
You are welcome to come to the AAC Kids Chat site. I have a 10 year old who is amazing. She does not use the Tobii, but uses a different device, in some interesting ways. I created the chat on Facebook, but I am not getting much support in it's use. The fact that a month ago, I had to bribe my daughter to use her device to "talk"/post on Facebook, and now that she sees a practical use for it, amazes me. Now that she has figured out her device helps her say what she wants to say, without asking someone how to spell almost every word, has motivated her to want to use it a little more.
Our newest project we started yesterday. We are using visual scenes and pages for our device to create photo albums. Her current fave fad she has in the tv show "The Nanny". She searched the internet for her favorite picks from the show. I am creating visual scenes, with each character's name on each page, so she can flip through the photos and use her device to talk about them. I also am creating pages, with a different number and size of buttons on them, to sort of make scrapbook pages of each item, Like I made a page with just Maxwell and Fran on it, and one of just the kids, etc etc.
Amy, for the visual scenes you might want to use our new Tobii SymbolMate. It is an application for making paper based communication pages. You can download a 30-day trial by going to:
http://www.tobii.com/landingpads/symbolmatesummer.aspx