ISAAC hosts many informative and well-attended webinars each year.

Registration for live webinars is open to everyone.

All webinars, unless otherwise indicated, are recorded and will be made available for later viewing. Most are archived for members only. You can see the members only archive here.

Become a member of ISAAC to watch all of ISAAC’s webinars!

Upcoming webinars

The Time When Tea Met Whiskey and an AAC Podcast Was Born

Thursday, February 27, 2025

6:00 – 7:00 p.m. EST

Presented by: Chelsea Hagen and Joanne Picard

About the presenters:

Chelsea Hagen lives on a peaceful acreage near Breton, Alberta, where she writes, advocates, produces artwork, and is involved in projects that highlight the advancement of AAC—all the while using two head switches to communicate, write, and create. She’s a storyteller at heart and co-hosts Whiskey and Tea on AAC, a podcast where communication meets sassiness and nonsense (and possibly some strong opinions).

She’s also an artisan, creating various art and craft projects for Noggin Art by Chelsea. She’s a university student, chipping away at her BA in English. She mentors young AAC communicators at the University of Alberta’s AAC camp and runs a book club for ISAAC International. She is also the co-founder of the Sexy Robot Voice Army, which sounds mysterious but is really just a fun group of AAC friends.

Her true love is writing. She’s had work published in poetry books, blogs, and magazines. She’s also written two short films, one of which made it to the Toronto ISAAC Conference Film Festival, which was pretty cool. Right now, she’s working on getting her children’s illustrated book published.

 Her goal? To make writing her full-time career. In the meantime, she’ll keep juggling everything else and hoping her tea doesn’t run out.

Joanne Picard, also known as Jo, was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. She is a long-time feminist and activist who incorporates humour into everything she does. Currently, Joanne is studying Political Science with a special interest in the role of gender in politics at the University of Alberta.

Joanne draws from her personal experiences as a disabled person to passionately advocate for presuming potential, equal access to communication, and the importance of inclusive education. Her advocacy work is deeply connected to the NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US movement, which seeks to ensure that policies and decisions directly impacting the disabled community are made with their meaningful participation and input. Joanne uses eye gaze technology to access her communication device, which she calls her Sexy Robot Voice.

 Joanne’s special interests include raunchy rap music, spicy books and creative cocktails.

Moderated by: Karen Congram

Webinar description:

What happens when two best friends who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) decide to create a podcast? Uncensored, brutally honest banter between two polar opposite friends – like a cocktail of bitching, laughter, and hilariously real talk – shaken, not stirred.

Join Chelsea Hagen and Joanne Picard as they share the humorous story of their friendship! They will discuss their motivations for launching their podcast, share their experiences as AAC users, and perhaps even offer a few cocktail recipes.

Participants will:

1. Learn to identify ableist language and actions that AAC users frequently encounter.
2. Learn how to empower AAC users to take a leading role in shaping AAC education and research.

Time-ordered agenda:

 5 minutes:  Introduction of Speakers and topic (Moderator)

 5 minutes: Objective and Overview (Moderator)

10 minutes: We will introduce ourselves (Presenters)

15 minutes: How and why we started our podcast (Presenters)                                      

10 minutes:  Things we think you should know about AAC users (Presenters)

 5 minutes: Conclusion and summary (Presenters)

 5 minutes: Q & A (Presenters and Moderator)

Disclosures:

Financial:

Joanne is an inclusion advocate and Outside Pin team member with Dr. Shelley Moore.

Non-financial:

Chelsea is a board member of ISAAC Canada.

To register for this webinar click on the following link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gBdQ38O0Qiuiqo8MPs6TPA

Bridging the Gap: Nonspoken Methods in Autism Language Assessment

March 18, 2025

7:00 p.m – 8:00 p.m. EST

Presented by: Angela MacDonald-Prégent

About the presenter:

Angela MacDonald-Prégent is a speech-language pathologist and researcher specializing in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for minimally speaking autistic children. She holds a Ph.D. from McGill University, where her research focused on enhancing communication of children on the autism spectrum through AAC.

Webinar description:

In this presentation, we will explore how to better understand the communication abilities of minimally speaking autistic children. Traditional language assessments often miss out on the full range of these children’s vocabulary because they don’t account for nonspoken methods of communication, like gestures or communication boards or speech-generating devices.  

Our study modified an existing assessment tool to include these nonspoken methods. We found that by doing this, we could capture a much richer picture of the children’s vocabulary. This approach not only increased the number of words we could identify but also highlighted the importance of verbs in their communication.  

Our findings suggest that using a more inclusive assessment can help us better support and understand the unique ways these children communicate.

Participants will:

1) Learn how traditional language assessments can be adapted to better capture the vocabulary of minimally speaking autistic children.

2) Learn the importance of including nonspoken methods of communication, such as gestures and communication boards, in language assessments.

3) Learn the role of verbs and nouns in the vocabulary of minimally speaking autistic children and how these findings compare to typically developing children.

Time-ordered agenda:

 5 minutes:  Introduction of Speaker and topic (Moderator)

 5 minutes:  Objective and Overview (Moderator)

5 minutes:  Introduction to the study

• Purpose and Background
• Explain the scarcity of language assessment tools adapted for minimally speaking autistic children.
• Discuss the importance of including nonspoken methods of communication (e.g., gestures, communication boards) in assessments.
• Present the main research questions

10 minutes:

Methodology 

• Participants
• Describe the demographics
• Explain the criteria for inclusion in the study.

 AAC Intervention

• Briefly outline the 12-week caregiver-mediated AAC intervention.
• Describe the low-tech AAC systems used (e.g., communication boards, picture symbols).
• Explain the modifications made to the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) to include nonspoken vocabulary.
• Discuss the data collection process and how caregivers reported their children’s vocabulary.

15 minutes: Findings

• Increase in Expressive Vocabulary
  • Present the significant increase in reported expressive   vocabulary when nonspoken communication is included.
  • Use charts or graphs to illustrate the average increase of 14 words. 
• Lexical Composition
  • Discuss the prominence of verbs and nouns in the vocabulary of minimally speaking autistic children.
    • Compare the findings to previous studies and typical development.

7 minutes: Discussion:

• Implications for Clinical Practice
  • Explain how the findings support the use of comprehensive assessment tools in clinical settings.
  • Discuss the potential benefits of using the modified CDI tool for better understanding and supporting minimally speaking autistic children.
• Future Research Directions
  • Suggest areas for future research, such as validating the modified CDI tool with larger samples and different populations
  • Discuss the importance of developing and norming assessment tools specifically for autistic children.

 3 minutes: Conclusion and summary:

• Summarize the main points of the presentation.
• Reinforce the key takeaways

Disclosures:

Financial:

Angela MacDonald-Prégent has no financial interests or relationships to disclose. She does not receive any financial compensation for the AAC-modified CDI: Words and Gestures or any assessment tools discussed during this presentation. 

Non-financial:

Angela MacDonald-Prégent has no non-financial interests or relationships to disclose.

To register for this webinar click on the following link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_dz7oj-3tTOmB3mlG6n6ztg

Information about ISAAC webinars