Talking With Tech AAC Podcast

This week, we share Rachel's interview with Vicki Haddix and Janine Peca! Vicki Haddix is an AAC Specialist and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Memphis who teaches their course on AAC for the Communication Sciences and Disorders program. Janine Peca is an autistic adult who recently went through Memphis’s CSD program and is now an SLP. Vicki shares about making pre-service educat...

This week, Chris interviews Shelley Anderson! Shelley is a music therapist who works for a private practice in Ft Wayne, IN and runs a business, Notes 2 Live B y, that teaches basic communication through sign language and, more recently, through assistive technology. Shelley shares about the ways that music can be used to teach language to everyone, including AAC users, including how music can be...

This week, we present Part 2 of Rachel’s interview with Alma Partida (@aacforyouandme on Insta), Sarah Lee (@aac_together), Melissa Tapia (@hablame_de_language), and Maria De Leon (@code.switch.slp) about Bilingüe AAC , a platform that supports evidence-based, culturally affirming Spanish AAC. In this segment of the interview, the Bilingüe AAC team provides lots of useful information, including re...

This week, Rachel interviews Alma Partida (@aacforyouandme on Insta), Sarah Lee (@aac_together), Melissa Tapia (@hablame_de_language), and Maria De Leon (@code.switch.slp) about Bilingüe AAC ( www.bilingueaac.com ), a platform that supports evidence-based, culturally affirming Spanish AAC. They discuss many aspects of bilingualism and AAC, including core word considerations and strategies for fami...

This week, Chris interviews Ceci Fetterolf, a high school senior who created core word videos and linked them using QR codes for her school capstone project. Ceci shares about how she came up with her project and decided on the core words to make videos about, and also how she created books for students that simplified math concepts, like shapes.    Before the interview, Chris gathers with Karen J...

This week, Chris has an amazing interview with Benjamin Bennett, an AAC Specialist for the Escondido Union School District near San Diego, CA. Benjamin has a wealth of information to share, including his school’s move from doing traditional AAC evaluations to a model that is more focused on the considerations of the whole team. Benjamin has lots of questions about the strengths and drawbacks of th...

This week, we present Rachel’s interview with Laura Taylor, a Special Education Teacher and AAC Specialist with a years of experience teaching language and literacy to people with complex communication needs. Laura has done amazing work utilizing the Pragmatic Organization of Dynamic Displays (PODD), a form of AAC that, at least in the early stages, focuses on teaching communication functions alon...

This week, we hear Part 2 of Dr. Meredith Gohsman's interview with Chris and Rachel! Meredith, Chris, and Rachel reflect on the meeting they attended at the last ASHA convention about ASHA AAC Certification. While previous meetings they attended were more concerned regarding ASHA AAC certification, at ASHA the crowd was more in favor of the certification. Meredith, Chris, and Rachel remain concern...

This week, Chris and Rachel interview Dr. Meredith Gohsman about her research into how much progress using their device AAC users made during a 4 week AAC camp. Each AAC user received aided language stimulation and was prompted using the least-to-most prompting hierarchy. Meredith’s results indicate that, after 9 sessions of AAC Camp, there was no change in the students receiving language instruct...

This week, we present Small Talks VI! “Small Talks” are short clips recorded with a previous guest that highlights one strategy or one idea in seven minutes or less. In this episode of Small Talks, we hear from Andy Smidt, India Ochs, Lory Chrane, Mark Nichols, and Tali Kellerstein!    Before the interviews, Chris and Rachel discuss Chris’s “design challenge” he helped create for some 5th graders...

This week, Rachel interviews Dr. Jeffrey Ebin, an inventor and ER doctor at the University of Houston who created a FREE eye-tracking communication board ( communicatonboard.io ) that requires no more equipment than a camera (e.g. on a phone/tablet) and a web browser! Jeffrey shares all about his interest in creating Assistive Technology solutions, and how helping a man who was paralyzed from the...

This week, we hear from Dr. Andy Smidt, a professor at the University of Sydney who teaches a number of courses related to communication and supporting people with severe intellectual disabilities. Andy shares about teaching pre-service professionals in unique ways, her “TEAM” taxonomy that can help write goals for emergent (presymbolic) communicators, and more!    Before the interview, Rachel and...

This week, we share Part 2 of Rachel’s interview with SLP and host of the SLP Happy Hour podcast, Sarah Lockhart! They continue their discussion of Sarah’s clients, including a nonverbal client who uses lots of scripts to communicate. Rachel shares ideas for how to choose targets for therapy, why we should be modeling language that is important to the AAC user, and how motivating materials during...

This week, Rachel interviews Sarah Lockhart, an SLP and host of the SLP Happy Hour podcast. Sarah had questions about providing AAC to a student who has limited spontaneous communication but used lots of scripts. Rachel and Sarah discuss the importance of supporting independent communication for echolalic students, how AAC benefits these students by providing visual word choices with auditory feed...

This week, Chris interviews Rebecca, a guest who requested to keep her last name anonymous. Rebecca is an assistive technology professional who supports a K-12 school district and was interested in putting together some information for her school board asking to increase the number of assistive technology specialists in her district. She and Chris break down some arguments for increasing the quali...

This week, we share Chris’s conversation with Mai Ling Chan and Jeanette Washington on making our presentations and trainings more engaging and effective! Chris, Mai Ling, and Jeanette are seasoned presenters, and they have a ton of useful tips that you can use to improve your presentations right away!    Before the interview,  Rachel shares about a client who was moved to tears by a sad video tha...

This week, Chris interviews Stacey Maijala, an SLP who recently started a new AT Specialist position in Michigan that supports 13 school districts and five transition programs. Stacey had lots of questions for Chris about creating a lending library for technology, providing AT and AAC to everyone through Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), informing teachers about Tier 1 resources (i.e. resour...

This week, we share Part 2 of Chris’s interview with Tracy Kovach! Tracy is an SLP and AAC specialist who has over 30 years of experience with AAC. She shares about helping Bruce Baker organize the Pittsburgh Augmentative and Alternative Language Seminar Series (PALSS), changes we should make to pre-service education (e.g. university classes),  how implementation might change with brain-interface...

This week, Chris interviews the Tracy Kovach, an SLP and AAC specialist with a wealth of experience working as an SLP supporting complex communication needs. She shares about working with AAC when it was in its early years, the important of training communication partners, how SLPs and other professionals can advocate for changes in their profession, and more!   Before the interview, Chris and Rac...

This week, Chris interviews Tali Kellerstein, an SLP and owner of The Speech Boutique ( https://thespeakboutique.com/ ) who recently presented at ASHA with Chris on incorporating games and communication! Tali shares about strategies she uses to incorporate games with literacy, letting the child’s targets drive what game you choose, and more!   Before the interview, Rachel shares about working with...

This week, we present part 2 of Rachel and Chris’s discussion of their experiences at ATIA 2022! This episode includes discussion of Rachel’s first experience with “AT Chat”; the benefits of learning in small groups during “Ed Camp”, the success of Chris’s “Cards Against Exclusivity” session, new strategies for using Canva in therapy, AT Maker Day, and more!   Links from this weeks episode:   Sear...

This week, Chris and Rachel discuss their recent trip to ATIA 2022 and some of their favorite takeaways. Rachel shares about being a ATIA first timer and how much she enjoyed learning from sessions with previous podcast guests Chris Klein, India Ochs, and Lance McLemore. Chris shares about his session learning about preparing people for transitioning out of school and into the workforce using the...

This week, we present part 2 of Chris’s interview with Dr. Kris Brock, an Assistant Professor at Idaho State University who shares his experience researching using animated AAC symbols to teach and represent verbs and prepositions.   Before the interview, Chris and Rachel share some of the resources that are being shared each week on the Talking with Tech Patreon page, including www.wombo.ai , myt...

This week, Chris interviews Dr. Kris Brock, an Assistant Professor at Idaho State University, and President-Elect of Idaho Speech Hearing Association. Dr. Brock shares about his fascinating research into using animated AAC symbols for verbs and prepositions to improve symbol comprehension and reduce the time it takes to teach abstract words. Dr. Brock shares why using animations can be so powerful...

This week, we present Part 2 of Rachel’s interview Jenifer Eaton & Marya Hoff, two BCBAs who own Rooted in Play ( rootedinplay.co ), an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) practice in Orange County, California. This week, Rachel, Jenifer, and Marya discuss dealing with rigid ABA therapists, why Jenifer and Marya’s ABA practice is different than some older methods, their thoughts on anti-ABA sentiments...