Show Notes
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that “communication” encompasses so much more than language we speak, hear, or read. While language is one form of communication, humans communicate in numerous other ways with their body, eyes, hands, sounds, actions, and more.
“AAC, or Augmentative and Alternative Communication, refers to any form of communication that we use. So not just our mouth words. It could be our gestures…It encompasses forms of communication that supplements or replaces spoken language,” says Pam Cunningham, an Assistive Technology Consultant at Wayne RESA. Pam, joined by Amber Wade and Laura Begley, also Assistive Technology Consultants, helps us understand this simple, yet important concept on Wayne RESA’s podcast, Getting to the Core.
October is AAC Awareness Month, so we hope you will join us as Pam, Laura and Amber describe the ever-important role of assistive technology in ensuring Wayne County students are heard, understood and supported to their fullest potential.
Wayne County school staff interested in learning more about how the Wayne RESA Assistive Technology Team (WATT) can provide consultation and equipment for students can visit our Assistive Technology page where they can also contact WATT to begin a consultation.
Transcript
[MUSIC)
Announcer: Welcome to getting to the core, a Wayne County Regional Education Service Agency podcast. We invite you to join us as we discuss a variety of educational topics that hopefully, plant a few seeds that get to the core of our mission: Leading, Learning for All.
Kyle Gnagey: Welcome back to season three of getting to the core. My name is Kyle Gnagey, and I am joined by three of our assistant technology consultants here at Wayne RESA. They are part of our special education and early intervention services department. Joining me today are Laura Begley, Pam Cunningham and Amber Wade. Thank you all for coming here today. I just wanted to start out by saying "What brought you to this point? How did you guys become assistive technology consultants at Wayne RESA?"
Laura Begley: Thanks, Kyle, for having us. We're so happy to be here. So I, Laura, am a speech pathologist by trade and augmented an alternative communication is kind of my jam. And so, just from working in the schools and working with students, I wanted to cast a stone out there and make the largest ripple I could to help make the biggest impact. And so I kind of stumbled my way through, and I landed up here, and I am so happy to be where i'm at.
Pam Cunningham: and I'm Pam, and my background is in teaching. I have been doing it for quite a few years. I was a teacher and then became an assistive technology consultant in another county. After having a few students who used augmentative communication back about twenty years ago, which it looks a lot different now. So that is how I, you know, became passionate about helping students succeed using assistive technology.
Amber Wade: Yeah, I'm Amber and I've been at Wayne RESA for a year now, and prior to coming here I was in a local district, and I was a classroom teacher. I provided, ESY services to students that had complex communication and physical needs. And then I was a physically an otherwise health impaired teacher, consultant and co-teaching instructional coach, so making sure students have access, physical access, general accessibility. And being out in the least restrictive, environment, is my passion. So, being a part of this is of technology and instructional technology. There are big parts of my background which led me here to RESA.
Kyle Gnagey: Great. Thank you for that. My um... I heard Pam mention augmentative communication, so I thought I would just ask a really basic question and start defining what what we're talking about so... What is augmented and alternative communication? What does that mean?
Pam Cunningham: So, I can answer that. AAC, or augmentative and alternative communication refers to any form of communication that we use. So not just our mouth words. It could be our gestures, and we'll talk a little bit more about that, as the podcast goes on. But it encompasses forms of communication. We can supplement or replace that supplements or replaces spoken language. So, if you think of like Stephen Hawking was probably the most widely recognized AAC user But, in the US alone there are about five million people that use or could benefit from AAC.
Laura Begley: Did you know that October is actually AAC awareness month? The International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, ISAAC established this by their lead project Committee back in 2007. Today, It is now recognized around the world, which is pretty cool, that internationally, we're all celebrating this one unique component, right, that really only affects about two percent of the population. But that's still a lot of people. If we're thinking worldwide And the goal of AAC awareness month is to just raise awareness and inform the public that there are so many different ways that people can communicate. And a lot of this can involve devices, right? So, a computer or um a tablet, right? And it in in the month of October, a lot of the vendors actually put their AAC applications on sale. So, this month a lot of the applications that maybe you could buy for three hundred dollars are on sale for a hundred and fifty, which is a huge savings when we're thinking about these individuals that already have a lot of other needs too.
Kyle Gnagey: Wow. Yeah, I actually uh, I had no idea that I was AAC awareness month, and I had no idea five million people could benefit like you said it was two percent. That's a lot larger portion of the population than I'd realized. So, that's very cool. Wait. So, what are like other examples? I know you mentioned devices, but like what are other examples of AAC?
Pam Cunningham: So, some other AAC examples would be like sign language, or gestures, or the use of like picture symbols, text to speech. Think of on your phone is another form of communication that you know would l'd be augmentative communication for someone who doesn't have a speech, voice or speech generating devices like you would think of when you see the like the device Stephen Hawking uses. Now, there's some in the mainstream media even that show AAC users.
Kyle Gnagey: Interesting. Yeah, I mean, I am aware of uh, like having seen videos of Stephen Hawking speaking. And Obviously, that's some kind of a speech generated device. And um, I've certainly heard my computer say things before. Um, but yeah, and like we, we hear our navigation voices sometimes in the car and things. But yeah, I mean, what exactly are speech generating devices then? And where? Where are they found typically?
Laura Begley: So, speech generating devices a little bit different than like the voice in a car, the navigation system, right? ,Because that's like computer talking to you. But the speech generating devices for me to take my own words and talk through the computer, right? Or an iPad or a specific application, right? And using that electronic device in a unique way. And there's a variety of different access methods, so it could be with I gaze or finger stylus or a mouse, or an alternative mouse, even like a joystick. Some people can use a head pointer or a head tracker even.The way an assistive technology team that Amber, Pam and I are a part of, so you could also call us WATT. We have a variety of these devices and programs in our lending library inventory that Wayne County school staff can borrow for their students who have a moderate to severe disability.
Amber Wade: Yeah, we provide consultations to the IEP Teams across the county to make sure that students are getting what they need, and to help give our teams a starting point, because there is so much technology out there, that it's not always easy to figure out exactly what a student may need. Um, so we kind of help provide those consultations to like, guide our school staff to finding what's going to work best for that student. And through that we use what's called the set framework uh which stands for student, environment, task and tool. And this framework was created by Dr. Joyce, Abala, who's a very big guru in the field of assistive technology. And if you look up research involving AT or anything like that, you'll find her name associated with a lot of the things across nationally and internationally. So, through that framework we we talk about the students and the features about that students, their strengths. Um, where they needed additional support. We talk about the environment. Where are students going to need to use that equipment? Are they going out to Gen. Ed? Are they in the center-based program? Are they going to specials, the cafeteria, field trips? We're gonna talk about all those different environments. We'll talk about what specific task our students um are looking to do so If it's an AAC consultation will probably be asking more questions about how they communicate, why they need to communicate, the different types of communication. And then from there we'll get to the tools, and we do that last because we want to do that feature matching. We want to make sure that whatever features that student needs, match the tool. So, we don't get attracted to the shiny, really cool new product that's out, that a lot of these tech companies do a really good job of selling their product. So, we want to make sure by using that framework we can do that feature matching process to make sure the students get what they need not just what's the cool, new, shiny thing that's out.
Kyle Gnagey: That's really great. It sounds like you really take the time to make sure to understand the need, and to get to know the child. And really, you know, customize the solution that you think will help them be most successful. The shiniest brand new, all the features. But that might not be I think that's really that's really great. So, and you have this library that all of many devices that that the Wayne County teachers can and borrow as needed. But what happens after you, you know, recommend and or offer a device like, what? What does it look like once that they have the right device for that trial?
Laura Begley: Yeah. So when in when the school staff put AAC in place. There's a lot of misconceptions about that, right? But the best thing that in in the world of best practices, right? The best thing they could do would be to model. It's the most important thing for AAC users right. If you think about learning a new language. If you think about learning French. You have to speak French to learn French, and you have to hear people speaking French in order for you to learn French When we put an AAC in place for our students, we really need to reframe our thinking so that we start to think of the AAC system as another language. And so that way we have to immerse our students in that language. And so, all of the staff have to then model its use right modeling isn't like say this say that. It's me actually using the device to communicate with adults in the room with the students in the room with the AAC user themselves right, And it just really supports their overall learning and how to best structure the language, how to find the words and pictures on the screen, because we're talking about students that might not have literacy skills yet right? And so, these pictures and symbols on the screen they can't necessarily read or know what it means right? If you think about a newborn baby. They're babbling, and we respond to their words and sounds as if it's intentional, and they know what they're saying right? So, when my son said Ma, I was like yes, I'm mom, I'm Mom, right, and so on. Our AAC users then touch something on the screen, we say, yes, you said more. Okay, I'll give you more. What do you want more of? Right? And we show that's using context.But then we also respond as if every touch is intentional.
Amber Wade: Yeah, and we have to just presume potential for our students. We presume that they have the potential for infinite greatness that they're going to be able to be autonomous communicators one day, and then we're supporting that journey. We need our school staff to know that there are no prerequisites to AAC, you don't need to able to do this first, and then you move up to this, and then you move up to this, and that's just not the case when it comes to AAC. and putting it into place. There's no pre prerequisites, and the best time to put AAC in place is as soon as you think a student may benefit from AAC. There's no such thing as too young. Um! We have heard of kiddos that are eighteen months old, starting to use AAC. Two-year-olds that are learning full robust communication systems. So that's never too early to get a student started on AAC. And it's also never too late. But we have to presume potential for our students.
Pam Cunningham: And so, in that presuming potential, sometimes we'll hear that people somebody says, Well, but that's going to it hinder their natural speech development, And that is a myth. Many people still believe that it could hinder it. But research has proven that it's not the case. If anything, AAC supports that language development. We're all multi-mute modal communicators, And we here at Wayne Assistive Technology Team provide regular training and support to staff across the county to help ensure that student’s communication needs are being met, and I might want to add that you, you know, just check out our website on the Wayne RESA Web page.
Kyle Gnagey: Absolutely. Um. Well, I just want to thank each of you for for coming today and talking about this very important work. I have Uh, and it this means a lot to me. It's near and dear to my heart. My son is autistic, and also has used some AAC in the past. I can definitely see as a parent, there's something special about witnessing your child know that they were heard and understood. And that really has helped the building of the trust and the communication, and he now can come home and tell me what he did at school. But you know we there was definitely a time in this development where we were you know, just we were accepting that he may never speak, but because of the work that you do, Children like my son are able to learn to speak. So I do have to give you that personal thanks, because...
Laura Begley: Yeah, Thank you! and in that speaking thing right, that's the mindset that needs to shift because it's the language component that we all need right. It's that ability to make connections and relationships and engage socially with other people, because communication is not a compliance task, right? It's not say more. Request this, do that right. It's about that connection.
Kyle Gnagey: Absolutely, and I learned as a parent what you probably know very well in your background as a speech pathologist, but speech is more than just, you know, that the spoken language there's like a receptive part of it, as well as the expressive, and it's hard to know. Sometimes when um you have a nonverbal child, whether they do understand. Uh, but just can't. They don't have the motor functions to actually speak a word, or is it a receptive language problem? It's much more complicated, I learned, than I ever had any idea. And then, you know, once they, or at least with my son, he began to master the receptive and the expressive. And then there's the whole pragmatic language, right? Because for a long time he was just using Echolalia and repeating things. But that was his way to communicate. And but then there's the whole like pragmatic language can be actually formulate that creative talking u and tell me about his day as opposed to just, you know, repeating something he heard on a favorite TV show. So It's a vast spectrum of needs.
Laura Begely: There's so many components and assets that can really impact what, even the type of AAC system that a user could benefit from, like Amber was talking about with those features, right? But it's just so much more than well, " Here's this cool, shiny new toy or piece of technology, and i'm gonna to put it in front of them, and they're going to be able to talk to me, right? It's... we have to learn how to use that language, learn how to navigate the system, learn how to charge it, even learn how to adjust the volume. So that way I’m not shouting across the room something that maybe I should whisper, right? But there's just a lot to it, and I could talk about AAC and language learning really all day if I if you let me, right? My husband's sick of it. But, It's definitely a passion of mine.
Kyle Gnagey: Well you all do very, very important work. I am very grateful for it as as a parent and of course, as a co-worker, and I just want to thank you all again for taking the time to kind of talk about this work and the great things that you're doing in Wayne County. And, please keep up the great work it's badly needed.
Pam Cunningham: Thank you, Kyle
Laura Begely: Thank you.
(MUSIC)
(Announcer): Thanks again for listening to "Getting to The Core." To access previous episodes, along with transcripts and additional resources visit RESA.net/podcast.
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
