AAC and Story
Apps: Let’s Get Personal
A 2-Part Webinar from the SWHD Balanced Literacy Club
February 9th, 2017 and April 6th, 2017
Storytelling can be used as
a means of information transfer while developing social closeness and beginning
discourse skills. This session will
provide ideas/strategies to expand on narrative and storytelling skills that
help the AAC communicators (including switch-users) establish and/or maintain
relationships. Using personal photos as
the context, we can encourage/shape communicative functions of commenting,
describing, and labeling in addition to information transfer.
Good “About Me” books
contrast what is special about the individual while encouraging comparisons
with others. “I have blue eyes” can draw
others into conversation about who else has blue eyes, or “What color eyes does
mommy have?” Use stories to teach others
how to interact with the individual, identifying and describing how this person
uses body language or idiosyncratic forms of communication to indicate
agreement/enjoyment vs. rejection/negation.
Consider co-construction of an “I say ‘yes’ like this” book. Make recordings and videos to share with
others how and why we use the word “yes.”
Narratives describe events
across time (Soto, 2006). The ability to
participate in sharing a full narrative develops over time out of experiences
with basic discourse experiences (conversations, play, shared readings). “My Day” narratives can be used to share
information about events across the school day.
With scaffolds in place such as visual schedules, students can be
involved in co-constructing narratives that can give interpretive meaning
(e.g., art = good, fun). These can be
quickly recorded into a communicative system with a page for “my news”
(Zangari, 2013).
Finally, learning to tell a story, even if it is someone else’s story,
helps build discourse skills. Learn how
to pause and then move to the next line in the story. Switch-users can learn to go forward and
backwards using the “Turn Pages” recipe in the Switch Control menu. Use fun
apps to add pictures, videos and/or sounds (Musselwhite et al., 2012).
Part 1 of this webinar will highlight and demonstrate Tarheel Reader and
Pictello, offering tips for authoring and personalizing stories. We will examine story structure and elements
that can support students who are new to AAC as well as those who are more
independently able to navigate their systems. Strategies for shared reading/writing of
stories will also be offered, including instructions for reading Tarheel Reader
stories off-line (and out loud) using the Pictello app. AAC apps = TouchChat, Proloquo2Go and LAMP
Words for Life.
Part 2 will explore the idea of using multimedia to author
personal/custom books in the GoTalk NOW and Explain Everything apps. We will briefly review text elements and tips
for organizing personal photos for those participants who were unable to attend
Part 1. Options for sharing stories
through social media or other Web 2.0 tools (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox) will
be explored. This session will also
address AAC apps TouchChat, Proloquo2Go, TotalTalk AAC and LAMP Words for Life.
REFERENCES:
Buell (2016). Setting up Recipes
for Switch Access for the iPad. Caroline’s
Tip 2 for 2016, www.aacintervention.com
Soto, G. (2006). Narratives of Children who
Need AAC: Assessment and
Intervention
Considerations. ASHA Convention. Miami.
Zangari (2013). Narrative
Skills for People with AAC Needs.
OTHER RESOURCES:
Beukelman, D. with Fager,
S. and Ball, L. (2006). Use of AAC to enhance social participation of adults
with neurological conditions. AAC-RERC State of Science Conference.
www.aac~rerc.com.
Beukelman, D. and Mirenda,
P. (2005). Message management: Vocabulary, small talk, and storytelling. In D.
Beukelman & P. Mirenda. Augmentative & Alternative Communication:
Supporting Children & Adults with Complex Communication Needs. Third
Edition. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing, 15 – 34.
DeCoste, D. (1997). The
role of literacy in augmentative and alternative communication. In S. Glennen
and D. DeCoste, Handbook of Augmentative and Alternative Communication. San
Diego: Singular Publishing Group, Inc., 283-333.
Dietz, A., McKelvey, M. and
Beukelman, D. (2006). Visual scene displays (VSD): New AAC interfaces for
persons with aphasia. Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative
Communication, 15 (1), 13 – 17.
Garrett, K. and Lasker, J.
(2005). Adults with severe aphasia. In D. Beukelman & P. Mirenda,
Augmentative & Alternative Communication: Supporting Children & Adults
with Complex Communication Needs. Third Edition. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes
Publishing, 467 – 504.
Lasker, J. and Beukelman,
D. (1999). Peers’ perceptions of storytelling by an adult with aphasia.
Aphasiology, 13 (9-11), 857 – 869.
Light, J. and Binger, C.
(1998). Building Communicative Competence with Individuals Who Use Augmentative
and Alternative Communication. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.
Meyer, L. (2006). Approaching Communicative Competence Through Storytelling T/TAC Conference June 2006
Musselwhite, C. and Hanser,
G. (2003). Write to Talk-Talk to Write! Second Edition. Litchfield Park, AZ:
Special Communications/Life Skills & Technology for Independence.
Musselwhite, C. and Wagner,
D. (2006). Poetry Power! Jump-Starting Language, Literacy, & Life.
Litchfield Park, AZ: Special Communications/Life Skills & Technology for
Independence.
O’Mara, D. & Waller, A.
(2001). Joke telling as an introduction and a motivator to a narrative-based
communication system for people with severe communication disorders. Computers
and Fun-The 2nd British HCI Group One Day Meeting.
http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/writetalk/yorkfinalversion.asp.
O’Mara, D., Waller, A.,
Tait, L., Hood, H., Booth, L. and Brophy-Arnott, B. (2000). Developing personal
identity through story telling. Write:Talk web site.
http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/writetalk/finalieepaper.asp
Rush, E. (2005). Supporting
communication through shared reading. Part 2. Enabling Devices Newsletter #7
(Sept. 2005). http://enablingdevices.com/newsletter_7.aspx.
Schlosser, R. and Lloyd, L.
(1993). Effects of initial element teaching in a story-telling context on
Blissymbol acquisition and generalization. Jnl. of Speech and Hearing Research,
36, 979-995.
Senner, J. E. (June/July
2001). Emergent writing activities for dynamic display AAC systems. Closing the
Gap, 20(2), 6-7.
Shane, H. (2006). Using
visual scene displays to improve communication and communication instruction in
persons with autism spectrum disorders. Perspectives on Augmentative and
Alternative Communication, 15 (1), 8 – 13.
Shank, R. (1990). Tell Me a
Story: A New Look at Real and Artificial Memory. New York: Charles Scribner’s
Sons.
Stuart, S. (2000).
Understanding the storytelling of older adults for AAC system design.
Augmentative & Alternative Communication, 16 (1). 1 – 12.
Soto, G. (2005). Narrative
skills of children who use AAC: Assessment and intervention considerations. AAC
by the Bay. San Francisco, CA.
Stuart, S., Vanderhoof, D.,
and Beukelman, D. (1993). Topic and vocabulary use patterns of elderly women.
Augmentative & Alternative Communication, 9 (2), 95-110.
Waller, A., O’Mara, D.,
Tait, L., Booth, L., Brophy-Arnott, B. and Hood, H. (2001). Using written
stories to support the use of narrative in conversational interactions: Case
study. Augmentative & Alternative Communication, 17 (4), 221-232.
BOOKS BY AAC
USERS
Bauby, J-D.
(1997). The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death. New York:
Vintage Books.
Jean-Dominique
Bauby tells his own story (written by using an alphabet board and eye blinks)
of having locked-in syndrome after suffering a massive stroke at age 43.
Brown, Christy.
(1982). My Left Foot. Cambridge, MA: Applewood.
Brown eloquently describes his
difficult birth, the hopelessness of his doctors, and the persistent love of
his family, especially of his mother. He relates in detail that profound moment
when, at age five, he inexplicably grabbed a piece of chalk from his sister's
hand with his left foot and, with great difficulty and incredulity, traced the
letter A on a piece of slate. For the first time, his family knew for sure that
his intellect was intact. And for the first time, he could start to communicate
with them.
Browne, Brooke (2007). The
Little Butterfly Girl (available from Amazon) is a fairy tale written by a
young woman with cerebral palsy. Also,
check out Brooke's Butterfly Touch: Creative Storytelling Services. Learn about Brooke’s story and sign up your
group for lessons on how to tell your story
https://brookesbutterflytouch.wordpress.com/my-story/
Fried-Oken, M.
& Bersani, H. (2000). Speaking Up and Spelling It Out: Personal Essays on
Augmentative and Alternative Communication. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes
Publishing Co.
A collection of
first-person accounts of how living with AAC has affected the lives of people
with disabilities – includes essays, poems, and interviews.
Koppenhaver,
D., Erickson, K. and Yoder, D. (Eds.). (2005) Waves of Words: Augmented
Communicators Read and Write. Toronto: ISAAC Press.
An
international collection of stories of people achieving literacy despite the
challenges of their complex communication needs.
Sienkiewicz-Mercer,
R. & Kaplan, S. (1989). I Raise My Eyes to Say Yes. Houghton Mifflin.
Ruth
Sienkiewicz-Mercer was born in 1950. She has never spoken a word; never walked,
never fed herself, never combed her own hair. Trapped in a body that is
functionally useless, her mind works perfectly. This is her story.
Tavalaro, J.
& Tayson, R. (1997). Look Up for Yes. Kodansha America.
A memoir of Julia
Tavalaro who opened her eyes after spending seven months in a coma. Nobody in
the hospital ward to which she had been consigned even noticed that she was
alert. Paralyzed and unable to speak, Tavalaro had no way of making them take
notice. She spent the next six years languishing in her bed, and although able
to hear everything around her, she was unable to communicate. Tavalaro is able
to recall her past in minute detail and weaves her memoir from threads of the
past, her present, and her poems that transcend the two. Look Up for Yes is the courageous story of a woman struggling to
find her voice and make it heard.
