Closing the Gap 2012

So here we are at CTG presenting 'Jumpstarting AAC: From light tech to iPad to devices'.
I've never been behind the scenes, so to speak, at a conference before! It's definitely a learning experience!
Long, long, long hours of preparation!
Technical issues!
Then a long day of standing and talking!
And you know what? I am loving every single second of it.


We talked about our program and the amazing progress our students have made.
We discussed the integration of communication and best seating within the confines of a Conductive Education program.
And all the while I was conscious that it all sounded too good to be true! And let's face it if I hadn't actually been the one teaching the program I may have found it hard to believe too!
Hopefully I managed to convince the people who came that this is not fiction, this is real and it works!
Tomorrow I'm helping set up the booth and at an iPad workshop.
Wednesday Pati and I are presenting an hour on scripting before I have to fly back to NYC!
It's all to and I don't want it to end! LOL

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Location:Normandale Blvd,Bloomington,United States

New semester, new students

With a group of new students entering the school we have begun using a newly developed communication book. As these students are all 5 years old we are using 6 symbols on the page rather than 12.
We are introducing sequencing in stories and our social scripts and the students are responding very well so far.






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Location:NYC

AVA Camp Day 4 Continued...The Dance

Wow! Anyone who knows me knows I do not dance...however how could I possibly refuse multiple invitations from the adorable Cory? Before I knew it I was whirling around the dance floor and I'm sure, making a complete fool of myself lol!
Two of the highlights for me were watching the Dance-Off! A circle on the dance floor which allowed each of the campers to showcase their dance moves. Once again I was blown away by the talent of these campers. There were some really great dancers!
The second highlight was an imitation of John Travolta and Olivia Newton Johns song Summer Nights, performed by myself and Daron! We even brought a tear to J-Macs eye it was so moving, LOL!




I can't wait to see what our last day will bring!
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Location:E Lauderdale Dr,Whitewater,United States

AVA Camp Day 4

It's warming up here in Wisconsin and camp is progressing and becoming more crazy by the second!
This mornings language class included choosing awards for our fellow campers and games!
Our group were guessing what sports personalities they had written on paper that they couldn't see! Each team member answered questions to ascertain who their sportsperson was!
After lunch we talked about goals for the coming year and I was impressed and astounded by the mature goals set by each of the campers. Goals such as finding a job, applying to college, being a better boyfriend, improving communication skills and power chair driving skills.
This group of campers have high expectations for themselves and this gives me great hope. I love that they are able to believe in themselves and I look forward to seeing how each of them develops in the coming year.
We watch a movie this afternoon, "Only God Could Hear Me", check it our here on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=2r9pvtNTx4k&feature=youtube_gdata_player




Tonight is the dance.....looking forward to more fun, communication and of course a good dose of craziness!
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Location:E Lauderdale Dr,Whitewater,United States

AVA Camp Day 3

Language class this morning was working on Hollywood movie skits!
Our group had Twilight and each camper was given a character and lines in the script. The campers had to create props and then act the scene out in front of the other campers!
It was great watching everyone create their lines then practice acting out the script. We saw scenes from Harry Potter, Twilight, Finding Nemo and Toy Story. All the scenes went really well and got laughs, the campers all added their own unique personalities to the performances. It made the idea of a performance using our communication systems at Standing Tall seen totally achievable!!!
The afternoon was a talent show and was an absolute hoot. The campers did everything from a top ten list of reasons to return to camp, a dance, stand up comedy and a fantastic rendition of YMCA by some of the camp councilors!




The evening was The Amazing Show! Magic and comedy that was funny and the campers had a blast!
Night time brought on more games and a mammoth round of UNO ensued! Again each of the campers was responsible for their own moves, communicating using devices and vocalizations to indicate their choices. Once again I got more ideas about how to allow my students to have more control over their activities and integrate their devices and communication systems. So many possibilities, so many opportunities, so much potential!
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Location:Lauderdale Dr,Whitewater,United States

AVA Camp Day 2

Today the campers get a personal interview with Jon Feucht the camp Director. He lectures at UW Whitewater and can give them advice about college life for individuals with disabilities; the pitfalls, the services, accommodations, organizing staffing etc.
His personal experiences are invaluable to the campers and offers them support and advice.
Our morning activities today focus on accessing the Internet. E-mails, Twitter, FB and texting.
The campers are introduced to abbreviations and emoticons and taken through the do's and don'ts of texting, emailing, using FB and Twitter.
This transitioned into a Hollywood quiz (that's our camp theme) and creating our own Hollywood handprints!
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Authentic Voices of America End of Day 1

We're exhausted, but in a good way!
The rest of the day at camp was filled with activities and more importantly opportunities for communication.
Lunch time everyone orders lunch in their own way! Then they sit together at tables and have conversations with each other and with the staff and helpers there. The tables are loud and lively and there is a lot of laughter!
This afternoon was swimming! An activity less about devices (for obvious reasons :0)) and more about fun! But there was no letting up in the laughter!
Dinner followed a similar pattern to lunch, more talk, more laughter, more noise and lots of food!
The evening activity was bowling and I don't think I have ever been in a more competitive environment LOL! On the whole there was sportsmanlike conduct but I'm sure I heard a few colorful phrases being thrown around the bowling alley!!!




I can hardly believe we have only been here one day!! The campers here are inspirational, the staff are some of the most motivating and dedicated I have ever had the pleasure of working with!
I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!
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Location:E Lauderdale Dr,Whitewater,United States

Authentic Voice of America

It's camp week and Gregory, Daron and I are all up in Wisconsin at Whitewater for the Authentic Voices of America Camp.
The Camp Director is Jon Feucht. Jon is assisted by a talented and unique staff of professionals, some of whom are AAC users. Campers are counseled and mentored by persons with disabilities who are living active, productive lives.
Here's our week!
Day 1:
After some excitement with an unexpected fire drill we are in our language class!
We've created shirts for the end of camp and now we are playing Catchphrase. Each camper has a movie to describe using their device and their teammates have to guess it.
Greg's is trying out his eye gaze as well as his scanning this morning and is doing great!
There are some amazing campers here, they are driving their chairs independently with head arrays and accessing a range of devices with direct select, eye gaze and scanning!
I am blown away by the skills I am seeing here already and it's only the first morning!




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Digital books

One of the most challenging things for our students has been independently exploring books! Even if they managed to get their hands on a book physically, their impaired motor skills mean that they are not able to turn pages!
The next challenge they face is the reading itself! Many of our students are still reading at a preK or Kindergarten level even though chronologically they are at a much higher grade level. While it is still important for them to work on their actual reading level there is also a need for them to be able to access age appropriate materials.
There are more and more digital books available on line now and many free sites, just check out the books on these sites before you give your students access.
One of the things I most love about giving the students access to the books is the fact at they can explore at their own pace. They can look at a picture or page for as long as they want to.
Also having speech with the books means the students do not have to rely on anyone to read to them the book to them. More independent seems to mean more desire to interact with the books and this is definitely something we want to encourage!
Here are some examples of the sites we are currently using:
Free sites
Tarheelreader.org
Scribble press app
Paid sites
Onemorestory.com
Googling accessible books will provide you with many more sites.
Then with a switch box and jelly bean switch the students can have access to many books.




The Scribble Press App has also allowed us to create and publish our own books and this has led to an increasing library of books that the students connect to on a very personal level!
Below is a video of one of our students accessing a book via her laptop computer.

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Celebrating the Jubilee

With three British conductors at school we decided to extend the patriotism and celebrate the Diamond Jubilee!
We organized our own indoor 'street party', complete with trifle,Skips,Quavers and Hula Hoops, and British bunting. We learned about the Queen, and some of the things she has accomplished in the past 60 years. And we did British arts and crafts projects!

We also created a time capsule. Our school is entering a new era as we expand with we classes, teachers and conductors.
Each of the students were asked to write a letter to their future selves. Using their communication systems and books they wrote their likes and dislikes, and their thoughts and feelings about themselves and their school.

Statements included:
I like playing with children.
Sometimes we do weird things in school but it's lots of fun!
I like having my passé mur so I can talk!
School is fun but at times I don't like this school.
I like to eat with my friends at school.

Communication Game

As a way to encourage accuracy of communication and increased knowledge of the communication system in an atmosphere of fun without the fear of making errors we created a simple communication game.
Using a home made games board the students are given scenarios that they are required to formulate answers to.
Examples of these scenarios include:
"if someone greets you in the morning how do you respond?"
"your head hurts, how do you tell someone?"
"you want to make a phone call, how do you ask to do this?"
The students then navigate independently through their communication book or use their electronic device to respond to the scenario. If they are able to correctly communicate what is asked of them they get to move their game piece along 2 spaces, if they require verbal direction or guidance they move 1 space.
After the round is over the teacher models a way of communicating an answer that the students may not have thought of. This means that they get to see many different ways of communicating similar information.
The students enjoy this game and already they are demonstrating an increased awareness of what is expected of them.
Our goal is to give them practice at communicating common wants, needs and phrases effectively so that they can communicate these to anyone, including people who may not know them well.
The video below shows today's game where the students were asked to state what they would say if a conversation they were having was winding down!

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Location:NYC

Weekend News

Monday mornings are a great time to report back on the weekend. For the most part the students are using pre-set phrases from their conversation pages. These include 'I think' statements, 'feelings' and activity pages created from parents lists of activities the students like to do outside of school.
The challenge now is to make this an interactive/reciprocal conversation.

While creating statements of three or more sentences is now becoming natural for the students; responding to their peers, asking questions or making comments is still heavily modeled.

The class teacher will respond using phrases from the students books. This models how the students can answer appropriately. We are working on this first comment stage before encouraging further responses.

Even this first stage of commenting on a phrase from another student is a challenge. This is understandable as in the past most communication with our students has been questions directed at them, requiring the simplest of yes/no comments or choice making. With such a limited expressive vocabulary they have been unable to continue a conversation beyond that initial response.

The increase in vocabulary and interactions they are now provided with via their communication book and/or device is opening up their choices and developing their expressive vocab. I am interested to see how they begin to respond to interactions over the coming months as we decrease the modeling and increase the number of interactions within the conversation!



Using the communication book to interact.



Using electronic devices to communicate.

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Location:NYC

Music lesson with an adapted instrument

Today is 'Fun Friday'! And today we were having a music lesson. We now have an adapted musical instrument in school called Beamz.
Check out their web site http://thebeamz.com/
This instruments allows my students to add musical instruments and vocals to background beats just by moving their arms, hands, head, legs etc through light beams in the bars on the side of the instrument.
My students here struggle to grasp instruments and then manipulate them successfully. This amazing instrument allows them to create music, record their own compositions and interact independently. And as you can see from the picture below, have tons of fun!




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Location:W 69th St,New York,United States

Journal Writing

Journal writing has developed over the past year.
Using a PowerPoint photo album which we update regularly. The students choose a picture they would like to write about.
When we initially started this activity they were free to navigate anywhere within their communication book to create their journal entry. As they have become more proficient they are being encouraged to use their sentence starters more often.
Sentence starters are short common phrases that begin sentences. They increase the speed with which sentences can be generated and decrease the number of navigations required to produce a sentence. They also introduce different tenses so the students can talk about past, present or future events
Examples of sentence starters include:
I like, I am, I want, I am going, I went.
The video below shows a student writing about a photo of herself in fancy dress!

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Location:NYC

Differentiation, it's all the same

As I watched a preparation for standing program today which included students from two classes I realized two things.

1. It's remarkable how such a diverse group of students can all work successfully within the same CE environment

2. Our Communican program has truly employed the same differentiation processes as our CE program

Now this shouldn't really come as a shock to me! After all as director of the program my primary goal, when integrating Communican into our environment, was to ensure we continued to employ the CE philosophies.
But it was just so nice to see the conductors creating a space where the students individual needs were met within the group; and to know that this was continued on into the Communcian program was inspiring.

There are many aspects to the Communcian program that may not follow a more 'traditional' view of CE. However I am more and more confident with each passing day, each success and each development that we have managed to maintain enough of the CE principles and philosophies to have begun to develop an incredibly successful and productive program.
One I hope all involved will agree they can be truly proud of!






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Adapted Art Classes

We are lucky enough to have a resident artist at the school here. Alba Somoza is a working artist and teacher here in NYC. She also happens to have cerebral palsy, uses a power wheelchair and a communication device similar to the kind some of my students are using!
She has been coming to the school each month to teach adapted art projects to the students!
She spends some time training the para professionals to be effective art partners and she has the students direct the entire art process. It has taken some time for the adults facilitating to take that step back and simply follow the directions of the students. But with the help of our Communican communication books the students are taking the reins and loving it!
The result? Finally we are seeing the students true artist talents shining through!












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Social scripts

One of the key components of the Communican program is becoming confident with social communication, a very motivating experience for the students at the school here.
Finding ways to repeat social scripts without letting the activity become mundane is one of the many things that make this program so much fun for creative teachers.
This week class 2 has been working on a social script to help students link greetings to extending conversations, using their new friend, puppet 'Pauly D'.
We find that the students will respond far better to puppets and avatars than their teachers, and who can blame them? There's only so many times you want to hold a greeting conversation with your teacher!




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Location:W 69th St,New York,United States

The future

I spent the week of spring break in Cincinnati with my friend watching him use his ECO to communicate. He blew me away! After only 2 years of practicing and learning the device and his access methods he is so incredibly fast. In fact he was faster using his scanning method than I was accessing the device using direct select.
As well as being incredibly proud of how independent he has become over the last two years, (he is now able to access the Internet, FB, send emails and now also text from a cell phone), it also made me think about the prospects for the students at our school!
While being able to express your wants and needs is incredibly important and a great place to start the communication process, to be able to envision our students interacting with the world at large through the Internet as fully as any 'typically' developing individual is more exciting than I ever imagined!
Contacting friends on FB, arranging dates, chatting about the latest fashion or news events, texting each other and participating so fully in the on line world can ease the frustrations their physical bodies so often put upon them when trying to interact face to face. On line we are all equal!


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Location:NYC

Technology...

So we are gradually introducing more technology into our communication and academic environment here!
The intention is to eventually get all the students access to communication through high tech devices, as appropriate for each student!
Our Communican communication book is designed to be produced in a digital format as well as a hard copy form and as such can, in theory, be loaded onto any electronic device. That along with voice output grants each student their own literal 'voice'!
We have a range of voice output devices from voice output switches and laptops to high end devices from a range of companies!








As with all tech we have own ups and downs but all in all it's so exciting for both us and the students to see the communication and literally hear the students voices!

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