#AACfamily Friday: Week 1!

Every Friday is October is #AACfamily Friday!

These photos, information, and links were submitted by AAC users (of varying ages, on many different systems) and supporters of AAC users. Being part of an AAC family presents a unique set of celebrations and challenges, and it's great to come together and peek into the lives of other AAC families!

Next week's #AACfamily photo post has a theme! Please see the information at the bottom of this post for details.

(if you share this, or other AAC photos on social media, throw on the #AACfamily hashtag so that we can all connect with and support each other!)

In no particular order . . . 

Graham and his Dynavox going to prom. -from Randi of Say It With Symbols (Facebook page here)

Shaun telling his Great-Grandma that he lost his first tooth with Speak for Yourself.

Engineering the environment for aided language stimulation 

Neither rain nor sleet will stop Bree's voice!

Felix on his way to speech therapy

AAC and the Wonder Pets save the day! 

He's excited about the new words that were just added to his talker, an iPad mini running Speak for Yourself.

Nicole painting with her talker (running Proloquo2Go) beside her.

Elanor (2.5) talking to herself! (with an iPad and iPad mini running Speak for Yourself) 
(See more at her mom's blog and Facebook page)

If I teach my doll to ask for a snack, then I can get 2-one for her and one for me!

 Cori is a 23 year old ausistic occasional user of AAC.

(using an iPad mini with Speak for Yourself)

Mirabel (age 3) using Speak for Yourself with help from her 5 month old sister.

When one AAC device just isn't enough! Harry, from Adelaide, Australia, is using a PODD book and the Dynavox Compass app on his iPad air. 

The breakfast bar of an SLP who loves AAC!

Nico rocking out for AAC awareness, with the guitar that he got for his birthday and his trusty talker at his side.

Ludovic, 4 years old, is a new PODD user whose family is modeling everywhere-even at the beach! He is one of the first children to use PODD in France.

Clarissa with her talker at lunch. (an iPad running Speak for Yourself)

Family dinner, AAC style! 2 sisters use their devices (a Dynavox Maestro for one, Proloquo2Go for the other) to join in the dinner conversation.

Ricky Buchanan runs ATMAC.org and is multiply disabled. She uses these cards whenever talking gets too hard.

Cadence, 2 years old, using her talker . . . 

 . . . and getting her point across. (using Speak for Yourself)

Even goats love AAC!

High interest AAC supported vocabulary books.

How many types of AAC can one CDA (Communication Disorders Assistant) update at one time? (A Springboard, an iPad running Proloquo2Go, and PCS cards for a student using PECS!)

Samantha and her Tobii in music therapy . . .

  and with her sister,Allison , who is learning how to model on the Tobii . . . 

 and at the lab getting her blood drawn . . . 

and apple picking!

Westin saving the day with help from his talker (an iPad running Proloquo2Go)

The makings of a lockdown bag, to help a girl with Rett Syndrome keep her anxiety down when the school is in lockdown mode, with Tobii eyegaze in the background.

Maya and Will, chatting via an iPad and Speak for Yourself!

Daniel learning to ask for help . . . 

and  multitasking-telling Mommy about the characters on TV and drinking juice at the same time!

 Tia Sara, 8.5 years old, lives in Slovenia (where the AAC community isn't very large). She uses Boardmaker with Speaking Dynamically and a computer with head switches. For yes/no she is using the low tech communicator Helpitalker, but she also has a communication binder and sometimes an iPad.

 Tia Sara's switch set-up . . . 

 and more of her communication options . . . 

and with the iPad, too!

Ice cream is an ice breaker for conversation! (Check out Jessie's mom's blog and Facebook page)

A "Down by the Barn" support running on the GoTalk app, made by Angela of OMazing Kids!

Eve (4), who usually uses TouchChat with WordPower, feeding a big bear! She is pictured here with her PODD book.

 Ressie, who is 4 years old, using her talker-an iPad running Speak for Yourself . . . 

 which has been with her for many celebrations . . . 

even at her parent's anniversary dinner (see the talker in the upper right corner?)!

 Abby,17, uses a Tobii C12 eye gaze device. She needs to use it all the time, but doesn't use a wheelchair (so no wheelchair mount), table mounts were not always the right height and easy to knock over, and rolling mounts were big and a tripping hazard. She shouldn't have to choose between  walking and talking---so they came up with a walker mount!

 These pictures were taken at Camp Communicate, a camp in Maine for AAC families.

And this picture was taken in a treehouse!

And one video submission:

Mateo addressing the school board using his Dynavox, sent in by his mom Tina, who blogs over here!

For next week's AAC family post, I've got an idea for a theme: I'd love to see pictures of AAC users out of their homes! Let's show how we travel with AAC, how AAC goes everywhere---to the grocery store, playing in the backyard, in the car, at school, etc. Anywhere that's not in your home! Therapists/professionals-show off your offices/classrooms/gyms (that have AAC present or AAC bulletin boards, etc).

If you send in pictures for #AACfamily week 2, please include: any caption/link you want me to use, your (general) location, and the type of device your child is using. I love seeing all of the different ones! Pictures can be emailed to me: uncommonfeedback@gmail.com and must be received by 8:00pm EST on Thursday night to be included :)

AAC Awareness: TBT: Open Letter to Parents of a Child with Speech Delays

This is the first Throw Back Thursday post for AAC Awareness Month. The post I'm sharing today is probably my most popular AAC post: "An Open Letter to the Parent of a Child with Speech Delays."
In this letter I make the case for access to AAC (right now) and provide a bunch of action steps and resources.

Without early access to AAC, we wouldn't know Maya. First and foremost, she wouldn't be able to connect with us, boss us around, tell us about her day, talk about things she loves (and things she hates). It was our job to provide her with the tools that she needs to communicate, the same way that it would be our job to make sure that she had a pair of glasses if her vision was impaired.

On a different note, she also wouldn't have been able to show us how bright and clever she is, and our expectations (despite every best effort) would not have been as high as they should have been. She would not have been placed in a classroom that is academically challenging, and she would not have a way of "proving herself" to new teachers, therapists, and staff. And if this is where you tell me (or yourself) that nonverbal kids shouldn't have to "prove" that they are capable of learning academically rigorous material any more than verbal kids should have to prove it . . . well, you're preaching to the choir . . . but you're also kidding yourself. Maya has to prove her cleverness every time she meets someone new. And sometimes she even has to re-prove it, especially as her behaviors sometimes indicate that she isn't paying attention, doesn't care, and isn't learning . . . until she suddenly reaches over and taps out a correct answer or connection or observation on her talker, and they are reminded.

It's on us to make sure that our kids get access to the AAC that they need. This post may be of some help.

An Open Letter to Parents of a Child with Speech Delays

AAC Awareness Month: The Introduction

October might be my favorite month of the year. I love the multicolor leaves, the edge of cool in the air, salted caramel mochas, all of it. And, as a bonus, it’s AAC Awareness Month!

AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication, if you’re new to this) is actually a topic that could use some increased awareness. People may be unable to speak their thoughts for a wide variety of reasons; and while some people use AAC 100% of the time, other people can use verbal speech for much of the time but need to switch to AAC when their ability to speak becomes inaccessible, which also happens for a variety of reasons. My first introduction to AAC was in learning about Stephen Hawking, but “that guy with the computer voice in a wheelchair” was kind of all I knew . . . until I had a child who couldn’t speak.

In celebration of AAC, and in the spirit of raising awareness, I’ll be doing a month of daily AAC related posts. In the spirit of maintaining the illusion of organization, each day will have a theme and there will be a lot of sharing of external resources. Here’s the breakdown of what you can expect each day:

More Resources Monday  . . . AAC articles, links, and resources from around the web

Take-a-look Tuesday . . . AAC related videos to check out

I-Wrote-something Wednesday . . . a new AAC related blog post from me (I know the title's a bit of                                                                a stretch. Alliteration is hard.)

Throw Back Thursday . . . an re-run of my most popular AAC pieces

#AACfamily Friday . . . a compilation of pictures sent in by AAC users (and supporter of AAC       

                                         users) (Please join in! More information here.)

We-have-a-life-too Weekend . . . in which nothing gets posted here, because we are too busy. (But 

                                                        there will still be AAC stuff shared on the blog's Facebook page 

                                                        over the weekend!)

An easy way to spread the word about AAC is to talk about it on social media, and here are a few FB background pictures that I saw going up yesterday, in case you’re interested in grabbing one:

from me

 from PrAACtical AAC

from PrAACtical AAC 

And a little profile pic, too:

 from PrAACtical AAC

Two announcements:

1. If you remember a great AAC article, website, or blog post that you read, one that really taught you about AAC or shaped your opinion on complex communication needs and AAC, please share it with me (here, on Facebook, or via email: uncommonfeedback@gmail.com) I’m on the hunt for the best of the best to compile and pass along!

2. If you’re on Facebook, now would be a good time to follow our blog’s Facebook page, where I will be sharing other AAC stuff that comes across my newsfeed. It gets updated a bit more frequently than the actual blog does, and there are some great conversations that happen there, too.

Happy AAC Awareness Month!