AAC Family Friday!

Next week is the final AAC family week----let's make it a giant one :) You can start sending in your pictures now (and it's fall festival/Halloween time---at least in the US---lots of costume potential!) to: uncommonfeedback@gmail.com

 We are trying to keep Becca's word book nearby at all times while at home.  That means letting it get dirty during meals.  In this picture, she is using it to request graham crackers during lunch.

 Spot the talker! (C was 'making cookies')

Doing a little talking on our dolphin watching cruise!

 Jess and her dad, chatting at home! Jess's mom blogs at: http://www.youdontsayaac.com/

 We carved pumpkins over the weekend. The talker got a little messy, but it was so much fun! 

My daughter's language has exploded. We started with Speak for Yourself ten months ago with two words open- eat and drink. Soon we added in more and the words kept on coming. We add in anything she shows interest in, anything we're talking about, and we just model, model, model. She's now 2.5. Last month, she passed the milestone of 700 words in the talker. Roughly 500 of those get modeled or used each week. The progress was very slow at first and I wasn't sure I'd made the right decision but it is, without question, worth it. 

 "Pool, orca, pool, orca, swim, jump" . . . what better place to add and model new words (Orca) than Sea World!  (Roo, 5 years old, from Houston using Speak for Yourself

 "New baby coming soon!"

Isaac, age 5, at a local farm stand interacting ("hi goat") and feeding their animals.  Isaac uses Speak for Yourself and has the Trident Kraken case.

 Here's a photo that represents what AAC means to us. Here is Mateo using using his Dynavox Maestro with Picture Wordpower 100 to talk with, love, admire and antagonize his big sister Madeline all at the same time. We love spending time together as a family -- sometimes in crowded restaurants. When his voice can't be heard over the noise, Mateo simply shows us his screen. He is a passionate independent communicator. He loves his high school where he participates in the drama program and runs on the cross country team. He sings the National Anthem at his high school's basketball and soccer games.

 Mateo with his friend Sara taken at Camp ALEC during a literacy session. 

Mateo's mom is an SLP who works in a hospital and in private practice---and she is also the co-director of Campt ALEC, a literacy camp for children and young adults who use AAC. She blogs at: www.voices4all.wordpress.com

Camp ALEC will return to Indian Trails Camp in Grand Rapids, MI, August 14-20, 2016, and more information can be found here: www.campalec.wordpress.com

Lemmy using his talker before bed, with little brother Linus watching and using his own iPad. Both are using Speak for Yourself.

This is Cady standing in her FunPod in the kitchen and chatting with me while we make supper!

Our contribution this week: This is Mini, heavily coated with flour (as was the table, floor, and chairs) after a play dough making speech session that went a little awry.