Episode 300: Talking With Tech's 300th Episode/1 Million Downloads Celebration!

This week, we share TWT's 300th Episode/1 Million Downloads Celebration! The whole TWT team (Rachel, Chris, Luke Padgett, Michaela Ball, and Monica Halchishick) gathered virtually with some of the coolest people we know (i.e. listeners and previous guests) to chat with us about AAC as we celebrate our our recent 1 millionth download! The TWT team and listeners share memories of making the podcast, stories of how the podcast has influenced their life, favorite strategies, possible future episode topics, and more!

Transcript of the Episode

Please Note: This transcript was generated using speech recognition & AI tools; it may contain some grammatical and/or spelling errors.

00:00:08
The podcast has officially started.

00:00:11
Welcome everybody. So Luke, introduce introduce Lindsay and your little one.

00:00:20
OK, so Luke Padgett, podcast producer. That is my little one, Emma, and my beautiful wife Lindsay, who's the assisted technology specialist for a local school district here.

Hi, Daddy.

00:00:35
That was adorable. Awesome.

00:00:40
I think, and those of you that were honest before recording, I said this already, I'm going to say it again. Luke, welcome to the podcast because this is the first time really heard your voice, we're seeing you on the podcast, so despite all the conversations over the years and the tremendous amount of work you've done, this is the first time we're hearing your voice.

00:00:56
And I've waited it as long as possible. No, I'm kidding. I appreciate that so much and this podcast has been a real work of love and passion. Yes, we're so grateful. We're just so grateful we have our whole team here.

00:01:10
We just before you guys all hopped on, we said it. I don't know the last time all four of us have been on a Zoom together. We're doing a lot of our work asynchronously because we're in different time zones and have different schedules. But I'm just excited to have all the work here because it really is a team effort for this podcast.

00:01:29
Michaela, do you want to introduce yourself?

00:01:31
Sure. Hi, I'm Michaela Ball and I'm the editor of the audio. And yeah, I'm excited to be here and see all these other faces. Chris. Rachel Who?

00:01:44
Who's joining us today besides the four of us who worked so hard on this podcast.

00:01:49
I'm sorry, Michaela, I think you're going to have to say that again because I kept clicking my against the microphone and so your earrings.

00:01:57
Mm hmm. Michaela will always be quick to tell us when we have some audio issues, like my big earrings or my hair clicking on things. And Michaela works with TV too, so that's where she gets a lot of her Her lovely practice, getting everyone's earrings off and everyone's mics ready.

00:02:20
That's true.

00:02:22
Michaela, do you still work in? I I guess I didn't know that I because I knew you were studying to be a speech psychologist. I think you graduated, didn't you? So. But are you still doing both?

00:02:31
Like it's a gig economy and I'm doing everything.

00:02:35
Right now I will day play on the television show that I was on, but only in the summer because right now I'm working as an SLP in my CF year at a out of school in my my school district where my kids go. So a little bit of both.

00:02:52
I think of those old Hair Club for Men commercials. I know I'm really giving myself there. But like, I'm not just. I'm not just a podcast audio engineer, I'm also a speech language pathologist.

00:03:03
Yeah, yeah. That was definitely one of those ones. The the Venn diagram of audio engineers and SLPS is very, very tiny. So we're very lucky.

00:03:13
I know, I'm so proud that we have a team full of SLPS. So it's not always the case when you're kind of creating content online. And it's just so helpful to know that, you know, Luke, our podcast producer, Michaela or audio engineer, they have that lens of speech language pathologist as they're deciding what to keep in or what to cut. And the context really matters in in situations like this. So it's awesome that we have a team full of knowledgeable SLPS.

00:03:42
So Luke, is it fair to say to you, you started practicing Speech Language Pathologist? You were going through your program when we first met, right? Like so you're a graduate as well.

00:03:53
So I started. I was basically in like my post back program when I reached out to Lucas originally to to help edit the podcast because he he.

00:04:07
Put out a little call on Reddit at one point. And so I just responded to a little ad and he'd had like 3 episodes out already. So so yeah, that. And I kind of jumped on because he needed some audio help. Although then I got a note from Michaela later on saying, hey, do you have anyone working on your audio?

00:04:24
Because it doesn't seem super professional. So that's what audio.

00:04:30
Levels are I guess maybe I shouldn't have Rachel here and Chris down here. OK, OK. I'm. I'm so grateful for the podcast, though, because that's I started listening to it because I wanted to make the jump into Speech language, Pathology. And I was like, I'm a filmmaker, how do I learn to talk like a whole other field by listening and learning all in one.

00:04:53
So thanks for having me because it's been a treat, you know?

00:04:58
Now it has. Working with both of you, I think has been amazing. I mean all three of you too, of course. You too, Rachel. But I mean, fun fact about the four of us is that Rachel and I have met in person and Rachel has met Luke in person.

00:05:13
But despite the fact that we have a million downloads and we are six years in, Michaela and I have never met Luke and I have never met in person. Rachel has never met Michaela in person. Michaela and Luke, you guys have never met in person. Yeah. Where this I feel like this.

00:05:28
The dynamic team that I just, I know, I totally love working with.

00:05:34
I think one of the coolest things is we did that. We started that before COVID.

00:05:38
Yeah, it's so true. Well, hopefully we'll all be in the same place at the same time, maybe in January. But yeah, it just goes to show that we can have these amazing relationships and it can be virtual, which is so cool.

00:05:55
So that's us. Like you said, Michaela, who else is in the room? Put it in the chat, feel free to unmute and jump on and let's chat. The there is no like agenda like go it's it's at 7:15 so we should be talking about it's just a party.

00:06:11
It's it's a party and also yeah we're we are so delighted and really touched to read all of the comments you put in the Google forum when you signed up for this event. We asked you how the podcast has made an impact and we'll have to read some of them maybe because or if you guys want to put your mic on and share what you know, your experience has been. It just is really special to hear what an impact we've made. And I think that we've reached thousands and thousands of of people and touched the thousands of lives is so exciting and it just really empowers us to keep kind of doing the work that we're doing and sharing all that we have shared and continue to share.

00:06:56
Hi, I'm Michelle. I work with Lindsay Padgett and I love your podcast and everything AAC.

00:07:05
Yay.

00:07:07
Michelle, have you been doing it for a while like I?

00:07:10
Was a speech pathologist.

00:07:12
Yeah, and passionate about an AAC.

00:07:15
Well, I've this is my 28th year as a speech pathologist and probably my, I don't know, Lindsay, what 5th year? Doing AAC with you.

00:07:24
I know so so Kirsten Regional. I, as an AAC specialist then, have support supported Michelle's school for five, yeah, five years.

00:07:33
Yeah, I love it. I'm addicted.

00:07:36
And.

00:07:36
Michelle has just been growing and growing and it's been wonderful. And then I I did see her, but it looks like she also popped off. We have another one of our Garden Grove SLPS and so I've tried to show them podcasts and because it it is true like you learn for through listening and just finding out viewpoints from other people and it's just been really great and and.

00:08:03
It's good to.

00:08:03
Sympathize with other people. You know, like every time somebody has a struggle you then you don't feel alone. Because sometimes we do on our on our little school islands and everything.

00:08:17
Tina, do you feel comfortable popping on Mike?

00:08:20
Tina looks festive.

00:08:22
And I think you've got some announcements maybe, I don't know, you want to throw us in on what's going on with the with the camp and maybe if people don't know, just give us a little background because Tina has been somebody that someday is going to be an interview on the podcast.

00:08:39
That would be awesome updates. We are, we are moving Camp Alec out West. We're going to be outside of Denver next year. We're super excited. We are still waiting on an announcement about the Camp Alec documentary.

00:09:01
Disney Plus is starting to work on their marketing for it now finally. So we hope to see our kids on Disney Plus soon. And I'm at a new position working directly with kids and not consulting anymore because I wanted to get back in there and I'm loving it. And you know, we are just super excited. We started listening to the podcast at work as a podcast club and loved it.

00:09:29
Highly recommend And I'm just really grateful for all the connections I've made as a result of listening in and reaching out to the people with questions and having more conversations. So thank you guys.

00:09:44
We zoom bombed your podcast club.

00:09:46
You did, which was amazing.

00:09:52
That was fun. That was so fun. Tina, quick follow up question. If someone wanted to start something like that, like a podcast club, do you have a structure around it? Do you have like OK this is the episode and I I come prepared with like 3 or 4 questions or is it more like just show up and talk about it?

00:10:09
You know we we somebody would pick the episode and then just prior to our discussion they would share out some just some bullet points of things we could talk about. And obviously our conversations would always, you know, we'd hit on those bullet points but then go off in a million other directions and that's when it's super fun. It was it's it it was a great great experience. I hope to start a podcast podcast club up in my new in my new position too to get more to get more disciplines involved right to get some OTS on board and some PTS on board and some teaching assistants and intervention specialists. So highly recommend.

00:10:54
Awesome. Awesome. It looks like Chris, Chris Klein, Chris Klein had to hop off. But Chris Klein has been on our podcast and yeah, he's awesome. I had a question.

00:11:08
I wanted to know because I know sometimes you guys get to ask guests, but I haven't actually ever been able to ask anyone here if there are any strategies that they've learned from the podcast or maybe like a strategy that they I wish we knew about. Just because I love. One thing I love about talking with tech is like not only do you get to listen to people that are like your AAC besties, but then you also get to have like a little gem to take away a lot of times that you can kind of file.

00:11:38
Away and use later. So I just didn't know if anyone had anything to share, if they would mind maybe like a strategy or something that they've gotten from the pod or that they'd like to share out. Great question, Luke. Don't be shy.

00:11:57
I've learned something every single time, even on a topic that's like completely not my area. And I'm like, I just still learn so much. So it's hard to put into words. It's like an honor to even, like be in a zoom call with all of y'all amazing, all of just y'all are amazing and I've learned so much, so much. I mean, one specific one recently was the episode and I forgot their name.

00:12:25
It's a double name, but to autistic adults who are part time AAC users, and they recommended like just not speaking when you're, you know, modelling and doing phrases instead. And that was just a really great another tool in the tool belt to use in some of those different situations.

00:12:44
Yeah, you're talking about Alyssa, Hilary, Zisk, and Lily.

00:12:46
Yes, yes.

00:12:48
Great episode.

00:12:51
I have a fun story about that, Rachel, I don't know if you remember, but I when I was listening because you did that interview right. And so I often listen to the interviews just like everyone else when Rachel does them and I think Rachel, you do that when I do interviews, we don't pre screen them or anything, right. So I was on my way to school and I'm listening to that and I'm, I'm like like everybody else that we hear. I'm like, yes, yes, yelling into the the radio. But I had to.

00:13:13
I got to a school and I had to stop and then I had to go and do this little presentation for some parents, get back in the car. And and as I'm listening to that, I literally had just said, you know, I don't really know of any research that says that you should or should not be saying words as you're modeling. In fact, if there's any, if your parents, if you're a doctor, if you're thinking about getting your doctorate, that would be a great doctorate thesis to do is someone models and someone doesn't by using their voice, you know, and got back into the car and they were then turned it on and that was the moment they said the same thing. And I was like, yeah, it's all right, all right.

00:13:54
Yeah, that's a great. That was a great episode and I I've actually started doing that with some of my clients and seen dramatic improvements to the point where I reached out to both of them and I said just so you know, like this has been a game changer. And Alyssa wrote back it it doesn't apply to all students, but for the students it does apply to, it can make a dramatic difference. And I was like, that's true. That's very true.

00:14:23
So like you said putting it in your tool tool belt or tool tool box for you know when it is relevant can be really powerful. Anything else it looks like Lisa says coaching so hard but so good. Someone Chris actually put in the form saw Chris and Krish is that our is that our celebrity couple name. I saw Chris and Rachel and Asha and it was amazing. And so someone was at Asha.

00:14:50
I don't know if that person's in the in the room right now but yeah we we we loved Asha. Our talk at Asha was awesome. It was on coaching.

00:15:01
So Lisa, are you doing coaching or whatever? And I have one just Lisa also bleeds over into. I don't want to say too much. I don't want to, you know, call you out Lisa. But you and I met at ISTI as well, so you also wear the Edtech hat.

00:15:15
Yeah, in in the good times. That's what happens in in the crazy years. I don't even know if I can see basic kids and do basic scheduling stuff. But that's why I'm here tonight, to be inspired and not think about the things that are hard. Just think about the things that are good.

00:15:30
I mean hard, like coaching is hard but it's it's so worth it and it's it's just like you almost have to bite your tongue sometimes to to ask the questions and listen instead of be like oh, you could just do this and it would be easier than that part is it's good. It's very, very good for me to keep reflecting back on that to like, OK, this is how I need to approach this. Especially because, you know, we have a lot of new, we have new programs popping up, new classrooms opening, and it's just a lot for people that are completely not thinking about these things as to how to do it. They're like here, you know, we need a device. I'm like, OK, what are you going to do with it?

00:16:15
And it's it's there's a lot, but I'm going to listen a lot because I feel like I'm going to be inspired by you guys. And I appreciate everything everybody here does, especially the people that we don't see who make sure the podcast gets out to all of us.

00:16:27
Yes, Luke, Michaela. That's you guys.

00:16:32
Well said. Well, Holly, let me introduce you before you go. Because Holly, if you've been in the Patreon, if you're a Patreon supporter, Holly is the our most active participant. So Holly, take it away. Thank you for being here.

00:16:46
I know if one more person in my life said and I say, well, if you listen to this podcast called Talking With Tech, you'd be changed. So I just try to stay super involved because it does mean a lot to me and I want to share how much I get from your podcast and get from the Patreon because you provide so much inspiration. And then I go and try it and I'm like, oh, that was fun, so.

00:17:14
Just.

00:17:14
Making it because I think in our day-to-day we forget that it can be fun and I think Rachel and Chris you just exude the fun and inspiration. So I go to work and I'm just charged every time. I'm more willing to take risks also. And I've never, you know, I've always been a little hesitant and now I'm at the high school, a high school setting, and everybody who's ever had a device ends up at the high school. So it's a pretty large caseload.

00:17:50
And so my biggest thing is when parents say they've never used it, like they've used it now. And I was like yeah because I'm you know just trying to inspire everybody Rachel I think every room has inspired don't require on every single door so thank.

00:18:10
You for that.

00:18:12
Every single visual you guys put out, I laminate and I post it everywhere. And so thank you. Thank you all my teachers all the I've been doing parent training. Now I've started with teacher coaching and then I think something was said about parent coaching and I was like, OK, I'm going to go do this. And so yeah, it's just I'm having a lot of fun and and I'm seeing the output from and everybody gets excited, especially students who have been on you know behaviors or.

00:18:50
They hit people or whatever. And I'm like.

00:18:52
OK, let's try this thing. I don't know communication it might help and and so it's exciting. So thank you.

00:19:01
Yes, Holly, thank you so much for sharing all of that. And I think a lot of people have shared that sometimes it feels so alone, like you're kind of just doing this work in a, like, in a single lane by yourself. And so to hear that you have felt inspired by, you know, our podcast and also to hear that you felt more confident because of, you know, listening to our episodes. I just like love hearing that because you think about each and everyone of you who are working in this field. You make such a big impact.

00:19:33
And the more you know and the more you try and the more you, you know, are dedicated to making a difference in some of our most complex cases, like the impact of that is so great. And so we just are so thrilled to hear stories like that. And yeah, it just makes my heart so full. I want to share really quickly Monica. So Monica is another call out because Monica is behind the scenes too.

00:20:00
Monica works has been working for my team for the last couple years and she's about to start full time with me, which I'm really excited about. But Monica helps with our social media and so Luke does, you know, our social media. But sometimes when we're pulling clips of some of our interviews and we're kind of collaborating with my social Media and talking with Tex, Monica. Has been a big help in that and you know, a lot of the resources that we've created and Monica has been a huge part of that. So I just want to say a super big thank you to Monica because she's behind the scenes doing a lot of work for our podcast and also just my own, you know, brand Rachel Madel.

00:20:40
It's just so great. So thank you, Monica. Monica's also been on the podcast. She was. She was on the podcast a couple months ago, I think, right?

00:20:48
Yeah, I think I interviewed Monica.

00:20:50
You do? Yeah. It was so cool. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Rachel.

00:20:56
It feels so special to be in some small way, you know, to kind of help get this information out there. It's really cool. And if anyone has any ideas, things that they like to see on social media, let us know. We are. We just roll with it.

00:21:13
And if there are things that are helpful, tell us.

00:21:17
Totally yeah. Monica sat and and and Monica and I created our our PECS myths and it's a resource that's free on my website if you guys don't know about it. It's like a 25 page resource about like SAP using PECS and here's why. But Monica and I sat and like for hours and hours and hours worked on that resource together. It's just one of the many things that we've done and you know that makes it that makes an impact.

00:21:42
It's like people are messaging me like I'm not using. Even someone in the the Google forum for this event says, like I'm advocating to my administration to stop using PECS. And so it's just like, it's so cool that, you know, all of this effort really transforms the work that we do and ultimately helps our students connect and learn how to communicate with AAC. So yay.

00:22:04
All right. I have the next question and that is what would you like to see more of? We have interviews lined up but those will eventually. We have a lot of interviews some scheduled and then people that we want to interview but we can we can steer the course of this river. So taking your feedback and say OK a little bit more for this, a little less of that.

00:22:26
This is a quick example something that's floating around in my head is like well we we launched those over the summer sort of like we Luke had the great term recasts. We were like what do we call them? Like Luke was like recast like yes Luke that's it. But these recast episodes of like these are like the four, the the fundamental core concepts. And that occurred to me as we were, as I was re listening to the core vocabulary.

00:22:51
We don't really talk about core vocabulary very often anymore on the podcast. And even the people we interview, we we sort of just move past that like, OK, everybody knows that, right? And so that is the I know, certainly in my in my head a question do we need more of that? Do we do we keep sprinkling that in or are we trying to talk about something else? What are you?

00:23:11
What are you? What are you interested in?

00:23:16
Yeah, it feels like those recasts are really good to send as like fundamental foundational understanding around AAC, which sometimes we can kind of go into the weeds and assume things like we know about core vocabulary, we know about modeling and things like that. So I guess the question is, do you guys want more of that foundation to send to communication partners, to teachers, to families? And if So, what should we, what should we do next? We've talked about so much. We've done this podcast.

00:23:45
This is our 300th episode, which is crazy.

00:23:50
This is Lindsay Padgett. I think I would love to see an episode. I don't know who would be the right person to talk on this or but an episode that talks about the learning progression because we get a lot of people like.

00:24:07
If if they're a a kindergartner or a toddler or something, and they're they're given a device, it's like we as speech pathologists or somebody we know, it's going to take a while. It's a it's a marathon, not a Sprint. But I think sometimes either the parents or the teachers might have different expectations like in two months if they aren't proficient then it's not working. You know, so something like hearing experts or people P different people's inputs that this is a long term commitment and what sort of progress can see early on that would you know tell you to keep going or things like that because it it is hard to sometimes get the buy.

00:24:54
In.

00:24:55
During that first year when they're doing all those things, they're they're exploring and hitting all the different icons in class and you know just kind of explaining that this this is a a long term project and we still can see project or progress even within that first year. Love that idea.

00:25:20
I I want to comment on that for a second. I suspect that the parents that need to hear that will hear it easiest from other parents. So one when you're thinking I don't know an expert who could talk about that is we need to find parents that can say when we I think we have a few but that can certainly be a focus of ours, is to how can we get other parents on and share that because then the message is like, well if they did it then I can do it.

00:25:46
Yeah, I love that. Alyssa. Alyssa Wern. Come on, Mike, be on this podcast. Alyssa's coming on the podcast for a formal interview.

00:25:57
Another one, you say this?

00:25:59
You say this, you say this, and yeah, no, I would love to. When when you're very busy, schedules allow.

00:26:08
I'm going to send the e-mail right after we get off this call.

00:26:12
Alyssa just again behind the scenes just all joking aside, I don't know. We probably 3 different conversations. There's Marco Polos that could have Rachel and I back and forth. I'm sorry. Are you inviting Alyssa or am I?

00:26:23
Who's? I think I'm going to do it. OK wait, did you say you were going to do it? I can't really. How many times have we gone back and forth about getting Alyssa on the vodka?

00:26:31
It's.

00:26:31
All good. I'm feeling the love. It's it's it'll happen when it's supposed to happen.

00:26:36
Alyssa is an amazing occupational therapist who does a lot of work in the AAC world and does a lot of presentations. Alyssa and I've actually presented together, which is really exciting. But yeah, we want to, we want to hear from the OTS. There's not OTS, Alyssa that do AAC stuff. And it's such an important piece, especially with our kids with complex bodies, alternative access, even just sensory, you know, regulation and things like that.

00:27:04
I feel like LSU brings such a unique perspective to the AAC conversation. So we're excited. We're excited to have you on floor.

00:27:12
Yeah and and definitely I I want to I I'm good at creating work for other people. But I think that the taking those recasts, I I put this in the chat, but it might sound better as an actual explanation because I find often that if I send everybody a podcast episode, they're like, oh, that's 45 minutes. Like if I'm a parent, do I have 45 minutes to like do a thing that's not going to get interrupted by my student. So I think, you know, I don't want to steal the UDL and 10 kind of motif. But I think if we could pull some resources that are like, you know, 10 minutes of core vocabulary or 10 minutes on modeling that's or even 5 that's like just short enough that a parent could listen to that while they're unloading dishwasher after their kids gone to sleep.

00:28:00
You know, like that it's that it's approachable for them. And then it could be a parent or could be a professional that you're pulling is that little snippet. But I think, you know, it would be a great way because I when I put out a new device, we'll put out a short wakelet of like a couple of things and sometimes I'll include, I always include your Chris, you're modeling. I'm going to forget the name of the company that does the little cartoon.

00:28:26
How tunes?

00:28:28
That one, the pow tunes, but you know having having a kind of diversity of voices that are short short snippet.

00:28:37
Short and sweet to the point. I like it. Manageable. That feels really good. Alyssa also Kimberly in the comments, just put she Alyssa also has a really great Facebook group.

00:28:49
Correct. Alyssa, do you want to talk about your Facebook group?

00:28:54
I can do that. So if you have or work with students, you have comprehensive literacy needs, if they're emergent literacy or conventional literacy. We kind of are working to break down the comprehensive literacy for all book and methodologies. We're on round Number six. We're like 6500 people internationally, which is crazy.

00:29:21
And daily I'm getting parents and professionals that are doing things and are finding success. And I think that's the biggest thing. You know, we can say a lot about social media and all the bad, but it's been really cool to kind of be a part of seeing parents, helping parents, professionals helping parents and and just kind of creating a cadre of of just like with AAC, you know, a lot of people need to see it, feel it, hear it in order to kind of feel like oh wait, this this thing is doable. So that's that's the aim for for the group.

00:29:55
I send your group to every single AAC family that I work with because I of course talk about literacy. And then the next step is join this amazing group. It's going to be so supportive in your journey and I I think it's great. I think it's a really great community that you've built Alyssa and so needed. That approach can feel very daunting and that book is very can feel like a textbook a lot of times.

00:30:19
And so breaking it down and then also like sharing everyone's experience as you're working through some of these steps and some these literacy goals, it's just so helpful to have that as a resource. So thank you for all of your work.

00:30:32
Oh, thanks guys. I again, it's it's a mutually beneficial thing because we know somebody can't have great literacy skills always if they don't have a way to communicate, and if they have a way to communicate but they don't have literacy skills, where are we going so?

00:30:47
Great, drop the mic. I'm looking through our chat right now. Leanna Fox Leanna, Thank you saying congratulations all the way from Australia. Leanna, what time is it over there? I'm like so bad at time zone conversions.

00:31:09
It's not too bad. It's 11:30. So yeah, it's the middle of the day. It's Friday.

00:31:14
OK, OK. It's just like so many days ahead. Amazing. Amazing.

00:31:22
Thank you. I have the privilege of flying around Sydney or flying around Australia a lot to run training. And so many times people come up to me and say, hey, did you listen to this thing? I'm talking with tech and I have to confess I'm not good at listening to every episode and sometimes.

00:31:37
I'm like, oh.

00:31:38
I'll have to listen to that one, but they honestly the impact is huge and so many people get so inspired and I just so enthused by you guys and we love it when you come and speak to our audiences. So thank you.

00:31:50
Yes, thank you. Amazing. Thank you.

00:31:53
For inviting us and Leanna, here's the thing to say, right, I'll give it to you. This is what you say. I'm not coaching. I'm consulting. I'm going to tell you when they say, hey, if you listen to talk to me Tech, you can say, of course I was on it.

00:32:05
This is my episode.

00:32:08
I'd like to pretend I wasn't on it because it was so long ago. And yeah, it sound like a beer. It's not what I'd probably say now. We all learn, don't we? We learn as we listen and we develop, so yeah.

00:32:21
So true. I know I go back to early episodes, Leanna, and I'm like, my thinking has evolved since then. It's it's, it's a good thing. It shows that we're growing and learning right.

00:32:32
Yep. Learning and growing. Yep.

00:32:36
Leanna is not the only one from overseas. Bob is from overseas too. Bob's in England, I think. Right, Bob.

00:32:44
Yeah, we had international reach. We will just yes, sorry I was I I joined because you know the e-mail said party. So I'm already started about an hour ago. We're not surprised.

00:32:57
Bob So.

00:33:00
It is a more civil 12:30 in the morning here Friday, Thursday morning, but but now it was. I was just going to echo what the answer I was in Bologna in Italy just over a week ago and talking with tech was mentioned there as well. And it's a good job of you sitting down as well because I was we had a, so I work for, I work in the assistant tech industry industry for Petroian Technologies, but also the parent of a of a not say young child, he's a young man now who uses accesses AAC. But I was in the sales meeting yesterday with with our team back at Petrolian and my boss was in Rwanda and talking with tech was mentioned Miranda, there'll be African AT can we say you are spreading inside us quite quite widely fast. So but yeah, I just want to raise a glass to you guys just an excuse to have another drink and say you know congratulations.

00:34:00
Oh, there you go. That's not as Peach. It's all Peach snaps, is it? No, this isn't. This is cherry juice.

00:34:09
Not.

00:34:09
Chocolate. All right. OK. He's like oh so boring. But no, I I look forward to.

00:34:16
I look forward to coming on to the podcast. I know we were trying to schedule something this year but it looks like looking like it's going to be pushed back to next year. But yeah I look forward to to to to coming on. And also you know I I do listen you know or or catch a podcast tend to be when I'm travelling or moving as it were so she's using the car on my my headphones. But yeah it's been great and you know continuing great work you're you're you're you're you're reaching some really you know some it's great it's a great platform professionals but you'll be surprised at how many parents you know put my parents bubble how that actually listen and TuneIn and gain you know a big insight into into how they can sort of like best support their about their kids.

00:35:00
So yeah, it's it's been cool. It's been great. And that was the pain of the way I was working. So don't worry, but I can stay up. Especially awesome.

00:35:10
Thanks, Bob. Sorry, Rachel, I stepped over you. What were you saying?

00:35:15
That always happens. I'm just kidding. I just said thanks Bob. I said thanks Bob, That was, I'll see you guys in the bar in HTA and yeah, in the first rank could be on Rachel, Chris, I'm sure you'll agree.

00:35:29
Anyone else from overseas? Maybe India or someplace like that?

00:35:35
Hey, good morning. From India, it's six right now, 6:00 AM.

00:35:42
Yeah and I just finished my first cup of coffee for today. Yeah it's it's it's I think like I mentioned on the chat it is just a such a it's it's I like I really enjoyed listening to podcasts and.

00:35:58
The kind of information that we as a team has been, have been able to absorb. So, so OK, quick introduction. I'm the CEO of Avaz. We make AC products that are used across the globe in multiple languages. So once we send out these resources to our parents in India, to even actually everyone.

00:36:16
Around the world and and and it's it's very fascinating because at least as a product creator you also you're because you're listening to experts and AC users.

00:36:28
You're able to get a sense of what people are actually moving towards and trends and kind of what are you talking about. And I also feel the kind of balance and perspectives that you bring about is very fascinating. Especially I would like to call out the the entire GLP and the that you try to balance. And I I found it very it's it's nuanced and then it's that's not easy. And so you kind of had to kind of balance that out and I found that to be very nicely done to just kind of give a shout out.

00:36:58
Yeah. So, so thank you. Thank you so much for kind of creating this and being on it for for so many episodes and so many years and many more to come. Hopefully. I would.

00:37:10
I though I have one question, two kind of the listeners, how many of you listened to it at like 1.5 X or 2X speed because.

00:37:23
When I met. When I meet.

00:37:25
Rachel and Chris and they speak so slowly in real life and then wait, I'm. It's a good question. It's a good question. Michaela. I wonder because sometimes when I listen back, I think I feel like I do.

00:37:39
You have to slow me down sometimes because I actually am a pretty fast talker.

00:37:44
Not typically, but I do have to say there was 1 instance when I was playing it and I'm like, do I have this speed up? Because I actually do edit at 15% faster than what is actually exported so that I can get through the content as quickly as possible and do as many edits in a short period of time, Right? But I had to stop myself and go, wait a minute, is that me or is that Rachel?

00:38:10
Well, it's like the one piece of, I guess I'll call it negative feedback. I get when I do speaking events is like she talks so fast, but then some people were like she went through so much, so quickly, I loved it. So that's funny. It's a good question.

00:38:25
You know, I never. When we have our conversations, I never feel like you go fast. That's not a thing that would jump in my mind. So that's good. Interesting to know.

00:38:33
All right, other feedback in the in the chat about people, what people want to hear more about, I saw there's some.

00:38:39
Good stuff in I'm going to have to export this chat because there's actually a lot of good ideas.

00:38:44
Holly says core descriptive teaching, core themes, morphemes plus phrase core prompting hierarchy. And then you said this is I think what you're what I'm about to read. Holly, you are not alone. When people say I like this AEC program versus the other one, I like this one more than that one and you're and you're not sure how to respond to that. Is that fair?

00:39:09
Was that that's that's something that happens to you?

00:39:12
Yep. And I feel like it's such a negative thing. And I'm like, that's how they talk. So get used to using that language. Like, I'm not changing it to make you comfortable, but I don't want to be rude.

00:39:28
Kim says I'd love to see more about working with kids who need AAC to clarify speech, those with apraxia who will never be full time users for a variety of reasons, but who need to learn social and pragmatic skills to repair communication breakdowns. Well, recognize them first. I know that's a really tricky balance when we're working, especially with children that have a proxy of speech. And I always say this when I'm working in on teams, is that, you know, when we're thinking about especially apraxia, it's like so imperative that children are looking at our mouths and watching us as we're producing those words. And so we're kind of giving them a word and having them imitate.

00:40:10
And it's just a high level of kind of support. And then with language, I'm doing almost the exact opposite. I'm like. Creating a situation that's really exciting to talk about, and then waiting and pausing and hoping that a child can formulate something. And so it's just like, it's really tricky to navigate, especially if you're working with a student and you have a goal for speech and a goal for language in AAC.

00:40:35
And so yeah, I definitely feel like that's a good topic to kind of keep navigating because it's not, it's not super straightforward all the time, especially if you're working with students who you know are primarily verbal communicators, like how do we weave in AAC? And yeah, it's it's a good, it's a good topic.

00:40:53
I think that's a great topic also because you hear so many myths surrounding. That's the first thing I hear is, Oh yeah, but they're verbal. They don't need AAC. So as many episodes that we can do, like, you know, debunking that myth of they could benefit it for some reason or another is great.

00:41:12
It's literally one of the A's.

00:41:15
Yeah, yeah, that's what I tell people. I'm like, but it's in the title. It's so true.

00:41:23
It.

00:41:23
Is it sure is?

00:41:25
I see one in here about expanding utterances that a lot of learners get stuck at. One or two. And how do we move to longer phrases? So I feel like we could talk about that for sure. How about using AAC on field trips, students with hearing loss and cochlear impanse?

00:41:47
See, there's still so much more work to do. We've got so many more years to go.

00:41:54
Chris that that just.

00:41:55
Triggered my memory when you said field trips but I this is very specific but maybe how do people handle taking it out to Reese like to recess and lunch and.

00:42:06
Things like that, because I feel like that's a barrier too, is people are always afraid like.

00:42:12
Oh, they can't take it to recess because they're going to break it or it's going to go down the slide or things like that. So maybe, you know, kind of moving to from a.

00:42:22
You know, using it in the classroom to expanding it to more generalized locations would be good also.

00:42:29
I've had teachers say oh, but.

00:42:31
I don't want to make him work out there. That's recess.

00:42:35
Yeah.

00:42:37
Yeah. Lindsay, just today, one of our students, she's so excited about having her trial device. And I saw her walking to put her tray, and she didn't have her AC device. And I'm like, hey, you know, you could bring it out to recess. And she's like, what?

00:42:51
You know, she has very impaired speech. I'm like, yeah, so tomorrow you could bring it out to lunch so you can talk to your friend. She's like, really, you know, like the expression on her face. So yeah, I would love to hear more about how to encourage staff to feel more comfortable or confident in what we're saying, that we can use these devices at recess and lunch. I mean, because they might want to talk when they're.

00:43:13
Yeah. Because that's another feedback hanging out with their friends. They said, oh, it's, it's lunchtime. They're not talking like they already kind of that predetermination of you know, that well they're they're swinging. They don't need to talk.

00:43:27
They do this. They don't need to talk and but that's always the adult feedback or something. It's not and then, but it's then the second you ask them, well, do you talk in those situations and Oh yes I do.

00:43:43
Right. You go into a cafeteria and it's like a lot of chatter. It's not quiet. It's not silent. Oh yeah, that's a good idea.

00:43:54
Lisa makes a good point here, Lisa says. Aaron Sheldon spoke at Asha about teaching core vocabulary in addition to modeling. Interesting concept it. What do you find interesting about it, Lisa? I'm curious if you go deeper.

00:44:07
So I never really thought about I, I I've been, I've been reading the Literacy for All book and I understand all the, you know, supporting phonemic awareness and letter knowledge and combining making words and stuff. But Aaron Sheldon presented Teaching Core Vocabulary that same way, as opposed to just the core word of the month. Like like really rigorously promoting and and cycling through on a frequent basis all these core words. And I was like, that's brilliant. I mean I'm still having a hard time getting some of my teachers to think that the core words of the week or that we're focusing on are going to fly.

00:44:44
So I don't know how this would work. But it I I need my special Ed teachers to really be thinking this is a great idea because that would be awesome. Just give so much more exposure. And the way Aaron modeled it all was not very. It wasn't because you tend to think.

00:44:58
I I feel like anyway some of the teachers I work tend to think you have to make the child respond in order to show that their understanding and all the modeling is just giving them all these experiences and giving them opportunity to respond but not requiring, as you inspire, don't require. And Aaron had actually a couple of different ways of looking at how kids were attending and how they were trying to make responses or responding. That was super helpful. I mean, maybe not for a parent or somebody not familiar to look at it because because it's a letter system, but for me, I was like, oh wow, we could really break that down and show how kids are making growth. Other than my I see it, how do I explain it?

00:45:43
It was really laid out nicely. So that was kind of cool. I I just had never thought about that before. It was super practical. Awesome.

00:45:51
Yeah. I mean, I think that it's it's really kind of to the notion that we have to sometimes explicitly teach core vocabulary for kids to understand it and then use it. I actually spoke with Aaron. I didn't get to see that session at Asha, but I did get to talk to her about that. She sent me her slide deck.

00:46:07
So I felt like I was kind of there. But yeah, I thought it was really well laid out. And if we can start thinking about core vocabulary through that lens, like think about the impact that could have on our students. And often times that's where my that's the biggest roadblock with my students is they have a whole lot of nouns and maybe some carrier phrases that they plug and play with, but they're just not using, they're not generating novel language with core language. And so how can we really, like, systematically, explicitly teach that?

00:46:36
So yeah, I think that's great. Maybe we'll have Aaron on and talk about it. I was like good interview.

00:46:42
We actually have never interviewed Aaron. Aaron's been on the podcast, in fact, but has never been interviewed. She did an interview with Karen Erickson, sent us the, the audio, and then we're like, when do we? When we. It was like A2 parter, right?

00:46:53
Luke I think we had, yeah.

00:46:57
Lauren Bonnett just left. Lauren sent us a really nice message in the chat. She said thanks a million for all you do to support AAC learning in our and conversation as a field. Your podcast is my go to for all things AAC and I always feel at home when I listen. If just you could hear me say yes, yes, yes.

00:47:15
This a million times over when listening. Thank you. Talking with Chuck is the best. Thanks, Lauren.

00:47:24
Emily mentions. Oh, I just had a light bulb moment. Do you have any episodes with ABA and AAC in combinations? Oh boy.

00:47:34
Great question. We did. We did.

00:47:38
It's it's like that's a great thing and also scary.

00:47:43
Yeah. Oh, I I did an episode. I'm like trying to think of the interview that I did. It was Mariah and Jennifer and I can't remember their last names at the moment, but I, I, I have a collaborative, I had a collaborative relationship with two BCBAS that was so beautiful and they did all the things that you would want communication partners and educators to do when they're thinking about AAC. So we talked about the collaboration, but you know as we know it can be a really big challenge and and roadblock in our field working alongside of ABA depending on what kind of ABA we're talking about.

00:48:23
So yeah, that feels like a hot button, hot button topic.

00:48:29
One that jumps to my mind too is the Darla Ashton episode, where Darla is also sort of straddling these two. And we I I remember asking her about, OK, what about the evolution of ABA? Like you said, you know Rachel, like with depending on the type of ABA you're talking about, it seems like there's a movement there to change ABA to be more neurodiversity affirming. So in the context of handling delicate topics, that is certainly one that we won't shy away from. We would continue to try and help handle in a very delicate way because we don't want to polarize people to be like well, it's this or that, OK, how can we bring these worlds together to to to benefit all the learners that we support?

00:49:13
Yeah. I mean, I I'm, I'd say that's the one professional I collaborate with the most. Or I I I'm trying to collaborate with because they have so many hours with the students that I work with. So we got to find a way to get along with you guys. Yes.

00:49:29
Thank you. Luke, Jennifer Eden and Mariah have. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

00:49:32
Yes, I remembered their first names, just not the last ones.

00:49:36
Luke, you say you want more, more adults? Tell us more.

00:49:40
Well, I think for adult transition, sometimes it can be difficult because when you're trying to provide meaningful services, especially like from the speech lens, you're trying to provide meaningful services, but at the same time you're sort of trying to also provide more independence. Hopefully that person is maybe made some more progress and maybe like looking at those you know for example we've got students that work in like our local hospital and or you know students that work in different areas but I'm you know, I know that.

00:50:13
That there are opportunities for people to use AAC devices, but I would just like to hear more because I'm always, you know, thinking about those students because you know, I work at high school, so we send them there. But I'm always thinking about those guys and you would love to provide you know or help you know at least.

00:50:30
Push that that knowledge forward regarding, you know, providing some high quality interventions for them. Because, you know, I think that, at least for me, my lens is so focused on education, I don't always think.

00:50:42
About that work piece, and I feel like it would be really valuable potentially.

00:50:48
You know, Luke, I think I that's one of the other things that's been rattling around in my head is that we we haven't really had a whole episode focused specifically on transitions at all and it's such a big phase. So I definitely take that as OK, who can we have on to speak specifically about that, but then everything you've just said as well.

00:51:08
I have an interview that's lined up. It was supposed to happen today actually, but I had to reschedule because of an IP meeting. So we are going to be doing an episode focused on adults. But I feel like I can definitely kind of hone in some of my questions to the idea of transitions. And I think it's important to think through the lens of these kids that we work with will eventually become adults.

00:51:31
And so like, what does that look like after they graduate from high school and how can we prepare them for that, you know, transition and what do we do? How do we change the therapy that we're doing to kind of support that?

00:51:46
Well, I remember having that aha moment where I always knew that, but I realized that I wasn't focusing on it that much. Like I was so much about language. And then I went to the Impact Voices conference and I was like, that was not about language. That was about getting jobs. And I was like, right, that's I have not talked about that.

00:52:03
I have not thought about that. There's just so much focused on kids getting language, then they could get a job. But it's all integrated together and it needs to be called out more explicitly.

00:52:14
And I know GAIL Van Tatenhoe on her episode was talking about a little bit about adults. I was thinking about that in the back of my head. You know, for example, like there's so much there that we could kind of explore I in addition to Rachel's interview.

00:52:30
Well, Luke, spoiler alert, everybody. Rachel and I just recorded a banter earlier in the week, I think, and we have an hot moment at the end of that banter. We're like, we got to talk about adults tomorrow. You're going to hear it again.

00:52:44
It's true. Oh well, yeah, Spoiler alerts behind the scenes, you guys. That's funny. Anything else that anyone wants to share? We're kind of coming in on the end of our time together and thank you guys so much for joining.

00:53:01
This has been really fun and I notice I see everyone's names and everyone who filled out that form. I was like, I feel like I know this person, like I noticed your name. So if you have sent us an e-mail, if you have commented something on social media, if you're a part of our Facebook group, if you've attended one of our sessions or webinars, like we know your name. We might not be able to attach the names to the faces and but we definitely they know you and appreciate you and without you know, your support especially for our Patreon, I'll give them a shout out right now. Without them we wouldn't be able to do this podcast.

00:53:36
So just thank you guys for being so amazing and so supportive. And yeah, it's just such a beautiful community here.

00:53:45
Yeah, thank you for listening and spreading the word and for the great feedback. You really help. So helps. So helps when someone comes up and meets us at one of these conferences and says, hey, your work meant something and changed something because we don't often hear it. You know, we're in our closets or our rooms.

00:54:02
You know, you can't seem to, I'm in the closet right now. You don't always know what the feedback is. You know, Luke and Michaela too, like you might even get the feedback that we get. So it's like I'm just here, you know, plugging away and I don't know that my work is mattering. But when you tell us that it does, it's like, yes, we got to keep it going and we got to make a little adjustment adjustments here and there.

00:54:23
So we so appreciate it.

00:54:26
Yeah, and we love getting your emails. We've had so many emails from you guys sharing your small wins and your big wins. So thank you for always giving us insight into how a specific episode or just our podcast in general has helped you navigate the world of AAC. And I love seeing and hearing success stories about how you were doing something and then you changed it and then something amazing happened. So please keep sharing those at our e-mail talking with tech@gmail.com and yeah, we never, it never gets old to reading those stories and and when you guys come up to us at conferences and things like that and share those things, it just, it makes a big difference.

00:55:05
And yeah, we just really appreciate it.

00:55:08
Lisa has a question. Are you all going to Atia this year? Well, interesting story. So Rachel and I are definitely going to Atia. We are doing a pre conference there.

00:55:18
We've done this will be our third pre conference at Atia, right, but.

00:55:24
Who else is going to be there?

00:55:28
I'll be there. I I got the pleasure to work on a different video and film project and I'm related to AAC. And so I'll be there with those individuals presenting and I'm so excited because that means I'll get this, meet Chris and Rachel in person. And Luke, we're going to have to connect on the West Coast. We're both pretty close there, so.

00:55:58
It's true, Luke. We're going to have to kidnap you and put you in a suitcase and take you to HIA with us and this is helping.

00:56:05
Keep it coming. Keep it coming. Come on. For my wife. It'll.

00:56:08
Be so fun.

00:56:11
Lindsay, we want to meet you too. So come along. It's in Florida. Come on.

00:56:15
I know we are.

00:56:16
Daughters in Florida now we'll leave Emma with the kid. We'll leave Emma with the with the brother.

00:56:23
Great stuff. Can you believe we've hit a million downloads? It's still like, it's crazy. I've been telling everyone I like, mention our podcast and I'm like, we just hit a million downloads. Like, it's just it's kind of surreal.

00:56:39
And what's really crazy is that that doesn't even fully capture all of our listeners, right? Like, I don't even download the episodes. And so it's just like a picture of who actually downloads our episodes. And so our reach is actually actually way beyond 1,000,000 downloads. And so that's even cooler to think about.

00:56:58
And we're excited to to get to 2 million with all of your support and you guys sharing and being such advocates for the podcast. So we keep saying it over and over again, but we're just so grateful and so excited to have celebrated with you guys tonight.

00:57:15
Thank you, everybody. If you're coming to Atia, we'd love to see you and Lisa and we'll see you there.

00:57:19
Lisa's like, yeah, I'll be there and everyone else will be there.

00:57:24
Thank you for all your participation for this million and we'll see you for the next million.

00:57:29
Awesome. All right, guys. Happy Holidays.