AAC RESOURCES-Part 5

Our last entry on the topic of AAC Resources Online looks at http://visualaidsforlearning.com/

This is their site description:
Visual Aids for learning is a company that develops images to streamline and support learning; empowering people to participate and achieve success and independence.

Again, FREE STUFF!! You know how we love free stuff :-)

Here you will find free downloadable visuals to help learn everyday activities.

Topics include:
School
Early Childhood
Adolescent
Home
Toilet Training
All these topics come as complete packs. Each pack is in Printable Document Format (PDF) and must be read by Adobe PDF Reader (Version 6.0 or later)..

A big plus is that materials from this site maybe shared/distributed via print or email. YAY!

Would you like to see a sample before you go to their site? Here is the visual for "assembly"


All the images can be downloaded in a high resolution jpg format, which make them resizable to fit whatever project you are doing! I’m sure you’ll find many uses for these, especially if you don’t have Boardmaker.

We hope you have found the sites in this series helpful and that you will add them to your storehouse of resources.

Please share with us any site(s) that you find helpful in your work.

There is nothing as delightful as a giggle from a child.....make your kids giggle this week!

Leah and Dean
www.2galsspeechproducts.com

AAC RESOURCES ONLINE-Part 4

The first piece of “speech therapy” software I think I ever owned was Picture It.
So I can honestly, truthfully and with first hand experience say Slater Software is a reliable company who produces a good product.

Our focus on this site today can best be summed up with these two words:

FREE STUFF!

Not only can you purchase a quality product from them but they generously offer several worthwhile activities, papers and presentations for FREE.

Leah and I Especially like:
• Papers and Presentations
• Free Stuff-presented by Month
• Picture It Tutorials

Since this is NOVEMBER Iʼll just show you the list of things they have available for this month:
November Samples

Bullying 3 pages, 775 KB, PDF
Thanksgiving Table Setting 1 page, 568 KB, PDF
Bats 4 pages, 628 KB, PDF
Holiday Salad 2 pages, 209 KB, PDF
Holiday Salad Wordbank PixWriter v3 Mac setup, 3.8 MB, Zip archive
Say Hello Day 2 pages, 217 KB, PDF
PixWriter with emergent writers 6 pages, 3.7 MB, PDF
Veterans Day Lesson 4 pages, 452 KB, PDF
Patriotic Wreath 3 pages, 204 KB, PDF
Election 2008 7 pages, 800 KB, PDF
Thanksgiving Day - Poem by Lidia Maria Child 6 pages, 296 KB, PDF
Video Store Social Story 3 pages, 208 KB, PDF
Veterans' Day 4 pages, 252 KB, PDF
Mom Soldier Social Story 5 pages, 312 KB, PDF
Dad Soldier Social Story 5 pages, 316 KB, PDF
Handwriting Animals 2 pages, 84 KB, PDF
Animal Sounds Questions 1 page, 124 KB, PDF
Match Animal Sounds 1 page, 92 KB, PDF
Thanksgiving Social Story 6 pages, 532 KB, PDF
Checklist-Your Backyard (from Simply Science Animals vol.1) 5 pages, 336 KB, PDF
Experiment Hot air balloon (from Simply Science Energy vol.1) 3 pages, 200 KB, PDF
T-turkey for the table 3 pages, 172 KB, PDF
Pizza Hut, Cleaners PixWriter Macintosh, 3 setups, 4 KB, Stuffit archive

See! And they do that for every month. The months are archived, too!

Here’s what the Papers and Presentations List looks like:
Papers and Presentations

No Problem! Just Give me a minute! I'll Make that with Picture It!
25 pages 5.4MB
Becoming a Conventional Writer 10 pages 856KB
PixWriter -Working with Standards by Jean Slater, 10 pages 760 KB
Retelling - the Overlooked Skill 4 page 248K
Write today, write tomorrow, write to learn! by Jean Slater, pub. by Closing the Gap,
5 pages 708 KB
Picture Assisted Literacy - FAQs 4 pages 304K
Principles for Picture Assisted Literacy 1 page 220 KB
Symbols - Literacy vs. Communication 10 pages 516 KB
Research on Pictures and Text Effectiveness 5 pages 140 KB
The Write Way to Learn 8 pages PDF 112 KB

Well, I think this is enough to help you decide if you want to take a look at this site or not ;-)

Next week will be the last of these AAC Resources. Then we’ll begin our series on online Autism resources!

Don’t get so bogged down with your work that you forget to just have fun with your kids!
Until next week,
Leah and Dean
www.2galsspeechproducts.com

AAC RESOURCES-Part 3

Good Morning!
The third Online AAC Resource we want to bring to your attention is Prior Woods Middlesbrough School in theUK

http://www.priorywoods.middlesbrough.sch.uk/

When you get to their home page click on “Resources.”

Quoting from that page: “.... From here you can download a wide variety of material including worksheets, curriculum documents, lesson plans and simple programs, which you are free to adapt and use in your school, college or home.”

First, we have to apologize for the fact that a couple of their wonderful resources are no longer available. That aside, this is still a very user friendly site and we are so grateful to the good people of UK for sharing with us.

What will you find here? Letʼs see.....

INTERACTIVE TALKING BOOKS- They have shared eight books that they and their
students have made. They are available online or as a download for PC and MAC.
Plus, they give you a Big Book Template. How nice is that?

USEFUL EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS- Ian Bean, a former ICT teacher for them, is the creator of these programs. They can be used with a variety of switches and input devices; touch-screens and pointing devices. Most work with Intellikeys or Concept, and with interactive white boards such as Smart. You have a choice of 18 different educational activities.

They are currently updating their Lesson Plans and Teaching Ideas Section. I would certainly check back periodically to see if itʼs working because, if it is as good as the other sections of this website, then it will be fantastic.

Leah and I will see you next week. Remember have fun with your kids in therapy!

Leah and Dean
www.2galsspeechproducts.com

AAC RESOURCES-Part 2

Good Morning Everyone! Are you ready for a new week and some more great info on AAC? Today we are going to take a look at what Polk County Public Schools in Florida have online that we can use. Copy and paste this url or use the link at the beginning of this blog: http://www.polk-fl.net/staff/resources/ese/resourcesboardmaker.htm You will need Boardmaker to utilize this site.

I will also add that they do include some things as pdf as well as the bm in their offerings :)

Here you will find:

Weblinks to more boards--which is just that links to other sites that have boards you can use.

How To....resources such as: How to make an interactive board; Import photographs; Social Stories

Visual Strategies--a power point; examples of visual strategies; visual aids; structured teaching strategies for students with Autism; and so on.

Adapted Books--resources for and of adapted books

Picture Resources--self explanatory

Behavior Ideas-- a very good assortment of pictures and boards for learning school behaviors and procedures

Folder Fun, Sequencing & Cooking, Feelings, Pre K Ideas, Songs and Music Activites, Alphabet, Math, Middle School Access Science,

As you can see, you’ll find lots of good stuff here!

Leah and I can’t begin to thank all the people and SLPs who have contributed to this site for offering us this information. What a difference it makes in our work day. A big THANK YOU goes to Polk County Public Schools!

Make this a fun week for your kids in therapy!
Dean and Leah
www.2galsspeechproducts.com

AAC RESOURCES-Part 1

Halloween is over, your kids are hyped up on sugar, and the holidays are just around the corner. It is a busy time of year for everyone, so maybe some information about websites that can be used in therapy is just what you need. In the coming months we are going to share with you some fabulous online websites that you can immediately put to use in your daily therapy. Rather than making this one huge blog, I wish to take it slow and introduce you to one website each week.

We begin today focusing on resources for AAC. This will be a five part series where we will tell you about five very practical and useful resources you can find online. Let’s begin with Jefferson Parish Public School System in Louisiana. The link to this website is found at the beginning of this blog or you can copy and paste the following url :

HYPERLINK "http://speech.jppss.k12.la.us/speech-aac/" http://speech.jppss.k12.la.us/speech-aac/

I want to give the SLPs in Louisiana a big “ATTA BOY” for all the information on this website. It is a GREAT resource for us!

Here is what you will find there:

Adapted Stories

Worksheet Activities

Basic Skills

Tip of the Month

Engineering the Classroom

Overlays for Devices

Games and Songs

Folder Activities



Is this not an amazing website? I’m sure you will find the next four weeks of resources just as informative.

Have a great week with your kids!
Dean and Leah
www.2galsspeechproducts.com