#TalkingAAC 2024
Pre-Conference Workshops
Join us November 6, 2024 from noon-4pm at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing, Michigan for one of three fantastic pre-conference sessions! Pre-conference sessions are being offered in person only for only $80. See full descriptions below. Register at https://talkingaac2024.sched.com/.
The 2024 pre-conference session options include:
The 2024 pre-conference session options include:
- Building Bridges from Emergent to Conventional Literacy Instruction by Lori Geist
- Empowering Families With AAC in Early Intervention by Tabitha Jones-Wohleber
- "Nothing About Us Without Us": Build Your Supported Decision-Making Toolbox by Erin Sheldon
This interactive pre-conference session will offer an instructional framework and practical approaches to bridge from emergent to conventional reading, writing and language instruction for learners with complex communication needs (CCN).
The session will feature an open-source implementation model focused on improving the literacy skills of students with extensive support needs and CCN. The model includes professional development and instructional resources to support teachers and classroom professionals to implement evidence-based practices in literacy. Building Bridges extends the work of related projects, Project Core and Tar Heel Shared Reader, with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (Grant #H327S190005).
Presenter Bio: Lori Geist, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Dr. Geist is a certified speech-language pathologist with an emphasis in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Prior to joining the research faculty at UNC, she worked in direct service, consultation, and product development, with her efforts concentrated on intervention approaches that target communication, language, and literacy outcomes for individuals with complex communication needs. Her research interests center on leveraging technology in the delivery of effective intervention. She is an investigator and director on multiple research projects, including Project Converse (PI), Building Bridges (co-PI) and Project Open (co-PI).
The session will feature an open-source implementation model focused on improving the literacy skills of students with extensive support needs and CCN. The model includes professional development and instructional resources to support teachers and classroom professionals to implement evidence-based practices in literacy. Building Bridges extends the work of related projects, Project Core and Tar Heel Shared Reader, with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (Grant #H327S190005).
Presenter Bio: Lori Geist, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Dr. Geist is a certified speech-language pathologist with an emphasis in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Prior to joining the research faculty at UNC, she worked in direct service, consultation, and product development, with her efforts concentrated on intervention approaches that target communication, language, and literacy outcomes for individuals with complex communication needs. Her research interests center on leveraging technology in the delivery of effective intervention. She is an investigator and director on multiple research projects, including Project Converse (PI), Building Bridges (co-PI) and Project Open (co-PI).
Long perceived as a last resort strategy, AAC tools are a useful early intervention to support language learning for many learners and are absolutely essential for some. As AAC foundations align with language development, early intervention is a great time to bring AAC into conversations with families. Providing supported aided language learning experiences plays a key role in equipping families to be informed decision-makers for their children as well as empowered communication partners.
This session will engage participants in discourse about strategic use of AAC tools to move families through the early stages of learning about and developing a commitment to AAC. Implementation strategies that families can use with young children across home and community spaces will also be shared. But, of course, understanding a family's priorities, resources, skills, and values is key to engaging in responsive, skill-building practices and conversations.
This session will focus on building connectedness with families to guide them on their AAC journeys, through coaching, collaboration, and shared goal-setting to help families identify early successes and establish habits for AAC learning across life’s activities.
Presenter Bio: Tabi Jones-Wohleber, MS, CCC-SLP
Tabi Jones-Wohleber is an AAC-focused SLP who currently works with families through WV Birth to Three. She worked as a Team leader on an Assistive Technology Team for 16 years. Tabi is a contributor to PrAACticalAAC Blog, created the widely shared Model as a MASTER PAL training series, and is a co-creator of Stepping Into AAC. She has authored chapters on AAC implementations in various texts. Tabi has worked with Angelman Syndrome family organizations in multiple countries and presents on AAC-related topics at local, state, national, and international conferences.
This session will engage participants in discourse about strategic use of AAC tools to move families through the early stages of learning about and developing a commitment to AAC. Implementation strategies that families can use with young children across home and community spaces will also be shared. But, of course, understanding a family's priorities, resources, skills, and values is key to engaging in responsive, skill-building practices and conversations.
This session will focus on building connectedness with families to guide them on their AAC journeys, through coaching, collaboration, and shared goal-setting to help families identify early successes and establish habits for AAC learning across life’s activities.
Presenter Bio: Tabi Jones-Wohleber, MS, CCC-SLP
Tabi Jones-Wohleber is an AAC-focused SLP who currently works with families through WV Birth to Three. She worked as a Team leader on an Assistive Technology Team for 16 years. Tabi is a contributor to PrAACticalAAC Blog, created the widely shared Model as a MASTER PAL training series, and is a co-creator of Stepping Into AAC. She has authored chapters on AAC implementations in various texts. Tabi has worked with Angelman Syndrome family organizations in multiple countries and presents on AAC-related topics at local, state, national, and international conferences.
When students are still learning to use language and AAC to communicate, it is common for families and school teams to make decisions for them instead of with them. These students may leave school without meaningful experience participating in the most important decisions about their own lives, such as where they will live, who they will live with, and how they will spend their days. The more emergent students' skills, the more explicit support, instruction, and planning they need to participate in decisions.
Around the world, governments are implementing new safeguards and mandates to protect the human rights of every child and adult to be involved in their own decisions. At the same time, educators struggle to plan big transitions for their students and to support students and parents to maximize their participation. Parents experience massive stress from the burden of wondering if they are making the best decisions for their child, for everything from medical care to school placement to adult planning. Teaching all students to participate in decisions is an essential life skill to ensure their voice is heard, that they can evaluate their adult services, and advocate for what they need to live their best life.
This session will work to address the needs of both students learning to use AAC and the adults who support them. We will explore simple tools and strategies that can be used across the lifespan, with even the youngest and most emergent students. Participants will leave with exciting new AT solutions to support their students to participate in planning, as well as a framework to help them systematically plan how they make and evaluate decisions, both for and with their students. Each part of the framework applies a different aspect of supported decision-making and is implemented with its own set of long-established person-centered planning tools and insights from the literature on decision-making.
Participants will leave with a rich toolbox of resources to help them support decision-making for all students. We will practice using simple, practical, evidence-based tools such as Talking Mats with a proven track record to maximize participation in decisions. These resources will help you elicit and gather information about what is most important to your students, what is working and not working for them, and what changes they may like to see in their lives. Even better, these tools help us document this information so that everyone supporting the student can be on the same page and respond consistently and respectfully to how the student participates in decisions. These tools will be particularly helpful to anyone with transition-age students, but no student is too young or too emergent to increase their involvement in decisions!
Presenter Bio: Erin Sheldon, M .Ed.
Erin Sheldon earned her graduate degree studying the needs of students with significant disabilities included in regular classrooms. Erin is a literacy and vocabulary specialist for AssistiveWare. She has authored multiple book chapters, articles, and internet modules on AAC implementation. Erin applied the framework and tools in this session in her own family’s successful legal case to protect their adult daughter’s right to supported-decision making as an alternative to guardianship. Maggie and her family challenged the Ontario government before its Human Rights Tribunal and successfully changed government regulations that required guardianship for adults who could not demonstrate decision-making capacity.
Around the world, governments are implementing new safeguards and mandates to protect the human rights of every child and adult to be involved in their own decisions. At the same time, educators struggle to plan big transitions for their students and to support students and parents to maximize their participation. Parents experience massive stress from the burden of wondering if they are making the best decisions for their child, for everything from medical care to school placement to adult planning. Teaching all students to participate in decisions is an essential life skill to ensure their voice is heard, that they can evaluate their adult services, and advocate for what they need to live their best life.
This session will work to address the needs of both students learning to use AAC and the adults who support them. We will explore simple tools and strategies that can be used across the lifespan, with even the youngest and most emergent students. Participants will leave with exciting new AT solutions to support their students to participate in planning, as well as a framework to help them systematically plan how they make and evaluate decisions, both for and with their students. Each part of the framework applies a different aspect of supported decision-making and is implemented with its own set of long-established person-centered planning tools and insights from the literature on decision-making.
Participants will leave with a rich toolbox of resources to help them support decision-making for all students. We will practice using simple, practical, evidence-based tools such as Talking Mats with a proven track record to maximize participation in decisions. These resources will help you elicit and gather information about what is most important to your students, what is working and not working for them, and what changes they may like to see in their lives. Even better, these tools help us document this information so that everyone supporting the student can be on the same page and respond consistently and respectfully to how the student participates in decisions. These tools will be particularly helpful to anyone with transition-age students, but no student is too young or too emergent to increase their involvement in decisions!
Presenter Bio: Erin Sheldon, M .Ed.
Erin Sheldon earned her graduate degree studying the needs of students with significant disabilities included in regular classrooms. Erin is a literacy and vocabulary specialist for AssistiveWare. She has authored multiple book chapters, articles, and internet modules on AAC implementation. Erin applied the framework and tools in this session in her own family’s successful legal case to protect their adult daughter’s right to supported-decision making as an alternative to guardianship. Maggie and her family challenged the Ontario government before its Human Rights Tribunal and successfully changed government regulations that required guardianship for adults who could not demonstrate decision-making capacity.