Pre-conference Workshops

The ISAAC Conference 2016 Pre-conference Workshops are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, August 6th and 7th, at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto, Canada. These workshops offer the unique opportunity to explore a number of specialized topics before the main conference.

Access to all Pre-conference Workshop materials in their respective Dropbox folders is now open and publicly available.

Please note that these materials have been made public with the permission of the presenting author(s).

To access the materials for each named submission, please open the links below. Simply click on the hyperlink, and your web browser will provide you with read-only access to the submissions folder on Dropbox.

  • AAC Practitioners in the 21st Century: Leveraging Our Efforts through Social Media and Digital Technologies: click here
  • The AAC-Aphasia Framework: Where do we go now? click here
  • What’s up in Apple Apps? click here
  • Supporting Vocabulary Development in Students Who Use AAC: Practical Approaches for Educators and SLPs: click here
  • Communication and Learning Strategies for individuals with Rett Syndrome
  • Taking the Initiative: Supporting Spontaneous Communication in Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: click here
  • Debunking the Myths about Using AAC with Children and Adults
  • Thinking about Research? Single-subject Experimental Designs: Strategies, Quality Standards, and Pitfalls to Avoid: click here

Saturday, August 6th 2016
Morning

Carole Zangari and Chris Bugaj
AAC Practitioners in the 21st Century: Leveraging Our Efforts through Social Media and Digital Technologies

Designed for busy professionals, this pre-conference session reviews practical ways that AAC practitioners can use selected social media venues and online tools to extend their reach. Participants will learn about tools to build interactive activities and images, expand their knowledge of digital curation, and discover new resources for disseminating information. Digital tools for teaching, data collection, assessment of learning, and providing feedback will also be addressed, along with options for free and low cost tools. Case examples showing the use of these tools in clinical and academic settings will be used to illustrate the utility of this approach.

Kathryn Garrett and Joanne Lasker
The AAC-Aphasia Framework: Where do we go now?

The AAC-Aphasia Framework (Garrett & Beukelman, 1992; Garrett & Lasker, 2005) was developed to help match potential AAC interventions to the different ability levels and communication needs of communicators with severe aphasia.  This workshop will address the following questions:

  1. What is the Framework? Why was it developed?
  2. What types of communicators with aphasia does it focus on?
  3. Does the Framework have validity? Has it been adequately validated?
  4. How widely has it been adopted?
  5. How can the AAC-Aphasia framework inform therapy?
  6. Limitations and drawbacks to the AAC-Aphasia Framework
  7. Looking Ahead – Research and Application

 

Afternoon

Jane Farrall
What’s Up in Apple Apps?

Recently, the number of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) apps available for iPad and iPhone has been decreasing.  Many of the poorer quality apps are leaving the store, leaving a higher percentage of quality apps than previously. Many consumers are now identifying critical features they want in an app, fuelled by discussions on social media and a stronger voice from researchers, therapists, and from parents and individuals with complex communication needs as consumers. This presentation will cover a range of the “good APPles” – those which are full of rich juicy content, with ripe vocabulary backed by research and glossy with good support.

Carole Zangari and Gloria Soto
Supporting Vocabulary Development in Students Who Use AAC: Practical Approaches for Educators and SLPs

Whether they are beginning communicators or have more advanced language skills, students who use AAC must acquire new vocabulary in order to succeed in school and become effective communicators. This presentation reviews current research on semantic development and discusses a framework for meaningful vocabulary intervention. Strategies and activities appropriate for teaching core and academic vocabulary will be addressed. Resources for vocabulary instruction appropriate for students using AAC across preschool, elementary, and secondary grades levels will be shared. Case examples will be used to illustrate ways in which robust vocabulary intervention can be addressed in clinical and educational settings.

 

Sunday, August 7th 2016
Morning

Linda Burkhart
Communication and Learning Strategies for individuals with Rett Syndrome

Individuals with Rett Syndrome face a variety of challenges to communication and learning.  Severe dyspraxia makes it difficult for them to move their bodies according to their intents.  Neurologically driven hand stereotypies often make them appear severely cognitively impaired.  Reaching these children’s underlying cognitive abilities is difficult.  How do you help them to juggle the motor coordination, sensory processing, communication, language, and cognition needed to effectively communicate their thoughts? How can we begin to look at assessment as a dynamic process that is integrated into instruction through meaningful and purposeful contexts? How can you modify communication systems and classroom materials to be accessible?

Pat Mirenda
Taking the Initiative: Supporting Spontaneous Communication in Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Despite widespread use of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), many minimally verbal students with autism fail to initiate even basic requests in the absence of adult directives. In many cases, this lack of spontaneity is the result of instructional errors during PECS implementation. The first part of this session will identify the most common of these errors and offer suggestions for remediation.  The second part of the session will discuss the need to move “beyond PECS” in order to provide opportunities for students with autism to initiate messages through the use of core and fringe vocabulary displays.

Afternoon

Rose Sevcik and MaryAnn Romski

Myths are widely held but false beliefs. This workshop will provide an overview of myths that have hampered the use of AAC with both children and adults with disabilities. We will provide evidence to refute the appropriateness of these myths and present strategies for how to debunk them.

Ralf Schlosser and Oliver Wendt
Thinking about Research? Single-subject Experimental Designs: Strategies, Quality Standards and Pitfalls to Avoid

Single case experimental designs are a rigorous methodology for evaluating the efficacy, effectiveness, and efficiency of AAC interventions. This half-day pre-conference workshop will highlight strategies for planning, implementing, synthesizing, and appraising single case experimental designs. In doing so, participants will gain knowledge regarding recent quality standards that warrant consideration at the planning stage. Furthermore, strategies for avoiding common pitfalls will be shared, drawing from both positive and negative illustrative examples.

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