This week, Chris interviews Lory Chrane, an AAC Specialist and Professor at Abelene Christian University. Chris and Lory talk about how Lory has tried to improve pre-service teaching by involving as much experiential learning as possible, especially in the area of AAC instruction. Lory also describes a mission trip to Uganda to work with Hope Speaks, a nonprofit that supports people who have communication challenges and SLPs in Uganda. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel connect to talk about...
Oct 27, 2021•46 min•Ep. 198
This week, the TWT team presents Part 2 of Chris and Rachel’s coaching call with Anya Ashouri, an SLP and AT Specialist for a Non-Public School. In this half of the coaching call, Chris, Rachel, and Anya discuss how to decide what the next AT strategy to work on with students will be, the benefits of providing visual supports to everyone all over the school, how to monitor the quality of implementation in the classroom, and how to get students more excited about the writing and editing process. ...
Oct 20, 2021•51 min•Ep. 197
This week, the TWT team interviews Anya Ashouri, an SLP and AT Specialist for a Non-Public School who had questions about identifying students in her school who are complex communicators but were not given AAC to communicate. Anya describes how she came to learn that her school needed more robust AT, the steps she took to train herself on AAC and AT, and asks Chris and Rachel for advice on getting admin and parent buy-in for robust AAC. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel talk about a journal...
Oct 14, 2021•45 min•Ep. 196
This week, Rachel interviews Anu Garla, a mother of Oliver, a boy with autism and cortical visual impairment who uses AAC to communicate. Anu describes her journey getting a diagnosis, how she started working with Rachel, why coaching with Rachel really jump started progress for her son, and advice that she has for other parents who are starting on an AAC journey (e.g. little “homework” assignments for parents can help). Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss a recent presentation that R...
Oct 06, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 195
This week, Chris interviews the incredible India Ochs! India is a brilliant social justice advocate, lawyer, educator, and board member for USSAAC and ISSAC who is also a lifelong AAC user. India describes her incredible journey with AAC, how she has used her many skills to advocate for social justice, why she volunteers so much of her time to the disabled community, and what she sees are the impacts of systemic racism on the field AAC (e.g. lack of vocabulary words to talk about racism). Before...
Sep 29, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 194
This week, Rachel interviews SLP and AAC Facilitator Laura Hayes! Laura recently did a presentation on AAC in the Cloud on AAC “stimming” and how we can best support AAC users who choose to press a button or series of buttons repeatedly. Laura shares that, If a person using AAC is “stimming”, ask yourself “how can I shape what we are doing” (e.g. teach a lesson on the word they are pressing) rather than just trying to extinguish the behavior. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss a list...
Sep 22, 2021•54 min•Ep. 193
This week, we hear from Part 3 of TWT Live - Closing the Gap 2020. This week’s portion of TWT Live has lots of helpful ideas for communication with families, coaching, motivating students, advocating for high-tech AAC with clinicians who always start with PECS, and more! Before the interview, Chris shares about his recent experience as “Shadow the Labrador”, a mascot at a local school. He and Rachel discuss why we need to be the zaniest person in the room sometimes to get people motivated to tal...
Sep 15, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 192
This week, the TWT team presents part 2 of Talking with Tech Live: Closing the Gap! This week, Rachel and Chris discuss several topics with the audience, including personal core /key vocabulary, the importance of literacy, and overcoming barriers to high-tech AAC in school districts. If you would like to listen to Part 1 of this presentation, you can listen at talkingwithtech.org/episodes/twt-live-ctg-1 Before Part 2, Rachel and Chris discuss PECS in greater detail, including why motor planning ...
Sep 09, 2021•53 min•Ep. 191
This week, we share Chris and Rachel’s presentation from last year’s Closing the Gap called “Brainstorming Solutions to Real-Life AAC Questions”. During this week’s Part 1 episode, Chris and Rachel share about evaluating evidence-based practices, when to consider “verbal” clients for AAC, how to determine when someone is ready for AAC, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss ABA therapy and why working with ABA therapists can be very helpful in some cases, but difficult in other...
Sep 01, 2021•46 min•Ep. 190
This week, Rachel interviews Megan Roberts, an Associate Professor and SLP at Northwestern University. Megan started the Early Intervention Research Group, where she researches early parent-implemented interventions for children with hearing loss, autism, and developmental language disorders. Megan has lots to share about her research behind parent-implemented interventions, early behaviors that are a predictors of autism, and how to approach conversations with parents about their child's possib...
Aug 25, 2021•43 min•Ep. 189
This week, Rachel interviews Amanda Soper, AT Specialist, SLP, and Professor at Gallaudet University. She supports, among others, people with cortical visual impairment (CVI) who also use AAC. Amanda shares from her experiences working with CVI, including: how she teaches vocabulary, the importance of reducing visual complexity in the environment, talking through navigation, and the three main red flags for CVI: You notice there is something not quite right about a child’s functional vision. The...
Aug 19, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 188
This week, Chris interviews school-based AT Specialists Amy Fleischer and Melissa Petersen! Amy and Melissa share lessons they have learned about putting universal supports in place, including universal core boards in Melissa’s district. They discuss many of the reasons why Melissa wanted to put a universal core board in place, how her district decided on what words to include, and the improvements she has seen in overall AAC implementation since that time. You can view the website she made for ...
Aug 11, 2021•49 min•Ep. 187
This week, we share Part 2 of Chris’s interview with Jayme Grant. Jayme is an Educational Technology and Assistive Technology Specialist in Beaufort, South Carolina who wanted to interview Chris about AAC and Assistive Technology. In Part 2, Chris and Jayme discuss obtaining funding for AAC and AT, shifting away from a direct therapy model for AAC users, monitoring progress, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel finish up answering some questions from one of our Patreon users about ch...
Jul 22, 2021•52 min•Ep. 186
This week, we share Part 1 of Chris’s interview with Jayme Grant. Jayme is an Educational Technology and Assistive Technology Specialist in Beaufort, South Carolina who wanted to interview Chris. The resulting interview is packed with useful tips and ideas for improving AAC assessment and implementation! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss more questions from a Patreon user about how to change the mindset and culture surrounding AAC in her district. Rachel and Chris talk about coachin...
Jul 14, 2021•51 min•Ep. 185
This week, Chris interviews his long-time colleague, Mark Nichols, an AAC/AT Specialist who is the Senior Director of Universal Design and Accessible Technologies at Virginia Tech. Chris and Mark talk about the differences and similarities between higher education and K-12 for universal design and AT, the types of technologies that are often very useful in higher education, how to determine how much a university supports inclusion and assistive technology, and more! Before the interview, Chris s...
Jul 07, 2021•58 min•Ep. 184
This week, Rachel interviews “ The AAC Coach ” Kate McLaughlin! Kate and Rachel discuss resetting our expectations surrounding what progress looks like for AAC users, the importance of layering small AAC habits over time to get big results, how to create more effective goals for AAC users, and more! This episode is packed with lots of practical ideas and tips – you won’t want to miss it! Before the interview, Rachel and Chris talk about Rachel’s recent Hawaii vacation and respond to an email sen...
Jun 30, 2021•49 min•Ep. 187
This week, Chris interviews Meryl Schnapp & Mark N. Brown, AAC Implementation Coaches with Chicago Public Schools. They discuss how the position of AAC Coach was created in their district, why it is so helpful having coaching as a separate position in a school district, what they have learned from instructional coaching research, and more! Before the interview, Chris talks with Rachel about participating in the recent Greatest International Scavenger Hunt ( GISH ) mini-hunt. Chris shares som...
Jun 23, 2021•59 min•Ep. 186
This week, Chris interviews Heidi Hosick Joyce, an SLP and specialist in both AAC and Autism Spectrum Disorders. Heidi and Chris discuss some of the differences between coaching in sports and coaching AAC communication partners, including "reflective coaching" - helping someone to change what they are doing at the level they are capable of. They talk about the importance of building a positive relationship, giving positive reinforcement, and using "I wonder" phrases to encourage self-reflection ...
Jun 16, 2021•56 min•Ep. 185
This week, Chris interviews Tonya Williams-Walker and Beth Poss about improving equity for AAC users. Tonya is an Instructional Specialist, AAC Specialist, AAC professor, and SLP. Beth is an author, SLP, AAC Specialist, and Director of Educational Programs for LessonPix. Beth, Toyna, and Chris discuss the meaning of equity, how equity is different from equality, ways that we can improve equity for AAC users, and how they have adjusted their own practices to confront biases surrounding people wit...
Jun 09, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 184
This week's interview is with Chris's long-time friend and fellow assistive technology specialist, Mike Marotta. Mike is a specialist in inclusive design, and he joins Chris to discuss how accessibility features for common devices like iPhones, iPads, Chromebooks, and Android phones can be used to meet assistive technology needs. They talk about which features they like the most, adding captions, universal logins for accessibility, how to decide on which tools to offer people, and more! Before t...
Jun 02, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 183
This week, Chris interviews Karen Janowski! Karen is an inclusive technology and assistive technology specialist who is also co-author of Chris’s new book, Inclusive 365. In the interview, they discuss some of the many ways that we can support literacy for all and make classrooms more accessible to all students (e.g. audio supports, digital texts that can be read aloud, etc). Before the interview, Chris shares about a former student he has worked with who is moving to a new situation that does n...
May 26, 2021•58 min•Ep. 182
This week, Rachel has an informative and engaging interview with author, YouTuber, dog trainer, and part time AAC user Brittany Dube! Brittany shares about why she is a part-time AAC user, how parents and others can better support part-time AAC users, and how we can show AAC users the respect they deserve in conversation. Before the interview, Rachel shares a fascinating story about one of her clients who has improved his verbal speech by watching others model AAC, even when the client doesn’t u...
May 20, 2021•53 min•Ep. 181
This week, Chris interviews Colleen Warn, Director of the Center for Assistive Technology for the NYC Department of Education. Chris and Colleen discuss how we can make assistive technology more equitable, especially for racially/culturally diverse students and students with a lower socio-economic status (SES). They talk about how their Center for Assistive Technology has pushed to teach teachers and staff about AAC, how they have changed the referral process to be more equitable, and how they s...
May 12, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 180
This week, we present part 2 of Chris’s interview with Amy Fleischer and Corinne Nelson! Amy and Corinne continue with their questions about changing their district to a “specific language system first” model of device selection, and how it can be adapted to best fit the needs of their school district. They also discuss whether PECS should be a prerequisite for getting a device, ideas for rolling out training on modeling, and more! Before the interview, Rachel discusses a recent conversation she...
May 05, 2021•55 min•Ep. 179
This week, Amy Fleischer & Corinne Nelson talk with Chris about moving their school district to a Specific Language System First” approach to AAC device selection. There is currently no set standard in Amy and Corinne's district for device selection, and many students go get an outside AAC evaluation before getting a device. There are many different AAC apps being used at different sites for a variety of reasons, and this has led to disagreements about which app to use, confusion about the d...
Apr 28, 2021•48 min•Ep. 178
This week, Chris interviews Kim Albrecht, host of the LOMAH podcast and mother of two teenage daughters, one of whom is a minimally-verbal AAC user with autism. Kim shares about how her family came to embrace AAC for her daughter, the importance of siblings and peers modeling AAC, the idea behind the LOMAH podcast, her upcoming podcast series on literacy instruction for people with disabilities, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel share an excellent idea from TWT listener and Patreo...
Apr 21, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 177
This week, we hear from Chris's interview with Mary Van Donsel & Anne Kuhlmeier, Speech-Language Pathologists and educators who have put on a successful AAC camp for many years. Mary and Anne talk about how they got started with AAC camps, how they train families and campers, the specialists they get involved, and how they train the counselors to support the campers during the week. Mary and Anne also discuss what keeps everyone focused and moving along, how they avoid camper burn out, and h...
Apr 14, 2021•59 min•Ep. 176
This week’s interview is part 2 of the coaching call with Nikki Stempien! Nikki is an SLP in the schools who was looking for guidance on AAC implementation for a student with autism and complex communication needs, including how to increase buy-in for high-tech AAC and strategies for coaching communication partners! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel talk about the concept of “education before restriction” where people suggest locking students out of areas of their AAC device rather than tea...
Apr 07, 2021•41 min•Ep. 175
This week, Chris and Rachel have a coaching call with Nikki Stempien, an SLP in the schools who is looking for help supporting AAC for a student with autism and complex communication needs. This child previously had high-tech AAC but there wasn’t much implementation and the device was abandoned. Her primary form of communication now currently gestures and a basic picture-based system. Nikki is looking for guidance on with how to create buy-in for the high tech AAC device, how to go about selecti...
Mar 31, 2021•54 min•Ep. 174
This week, Chris interviews Jennifer Edge Savage about using AAC with Alexa and other voice assistants! Jennifer is an occupational therapist by training who is currently a consultant with Saltillo and teacher in the area of assistive technology and AAC. She covers some of the many ways that voice assistants can be used by AAC users independently using their AAC device, including purchasing items, playing TV/music, making calls, and more! Before the interview, Chris and Rachel ask the question “...
Mar 24, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 173
