Episode 141: Krista Howard & Deanna Wagner: Creating a Successful Community AAC Group

This week, Chris interviews Krista Howard, an AAC Technician and AAC User, and Deanna Wagner, an SLP and AT Specialist, about supporting AAC users and family members in the community through Out & About. They discuss the Out & About program, the fun they have with AAC users and family members, Krista’s work as an AT Technician with Gompers, how Krista supports AAC and literacy, and Deanna’s experiences in Singapore with AAC. 

Before the interview, Rachel and Chris discuss dealing with parents who don’t want to provide assistive technology for their child because they see it as a “crutch.” Rachel talks about a dyslexic client who needed tools like Read&Write for Chrome and Grammerly, and how she brought the client’s parents around to supporting these important tools.

Key ideas this week:

🔑 Out & About selects activities each week that support the development of communicative competence (linguistic, operational, social and strategic skills) for AAC users and their family members.

🔑 The leaders of Out & About share the week’s planned activities ahead of time with its members, along with key vocabulary words. This gives everyone a chance to practice and familiarize themselves with key vocabulary beforehand. 

🔑 One popular Out & About activity is their treasure hunt! AAC users pair up with a partner, often a family member, to take a picture of an item that they can find within a particular category. Afterwards, everyone gathers to vote on which words best match which picture!

You can purchase the Out & About manual by Deanna Wagner, Caroline Musselwhite, and Jane Odom on TPT here.

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