October is Augmentative Alternative (AAC) Awareness month. It is also the month annually that I have to resubscribe to the website building program I use to write and host this blog. The overlap strikes me as appropriate. My blog has slowly migrated into a site that focuses on Nathaniel and his need for communication; it is meaningful that I yearly recommit to sharing that journey during AAC awareness month.

This week the augmentative alternative communication (AAC) activities in our homeschool focused on the words DAY, SORRY, TOGETHER, JOB. I selected these from the PrAACtical AAC August core words list one.  This was a bit harder set of words for Nathaniel and I. All were on a second screen of his app, Speak for Yourself. I was still needing to use the app's search feature to find the words on Wednesday. Thank goodness we only have to navigate two screens to find each word.

We are like every other AAC family.

Despite all the blog posts I've written this month about providing an AAC immersion educational setting for kindergarten at home for our son, we struggle daily. Sometimes we go long stretches of the day without modeling language on Nathaniel's device. There are times we have to search for the device to advert a communication frustration meltdown. Sometimes we leave the device in the car. Under the bed. In the other room. Sometimes we are too tired, too hurried, to doubtful that this will really work.

Like other AAC families, we need constant encouragement to keep on keeping on.

We need simple ideas of incorporating language into our lives that require little set up, little clean up, and no expense.

This week the augmentative alternative communication (AAC) activities in our homeschool focused on the words SAME, READY, IS, WITH. I selected these from the PrACCtical AAC's list of core words for July. My goal is do one fifteen to twenty minute activity per day that allows me to model the words and motivate Nathaniel to use his device and learn new language skills. I am currently trying to model three to five word utterances. In my examples below, I model all the words except those in parentheses. I have put this week's core words in all capitals to draw attention to them. Simpler modeling option would be to only model the targeted core word.

This week, our augmentative alternative communication (AAC) activities focused on the words THEY, BEFORE, LATER, MUCH. I selected these from the PrACCtical AAC's list of core words for July. My goal is do one fifteen to twenty minute activity per day that allows me to model the words and motivate Nathaniel to use his device and learn new language skills. I am currently trying to model three to five word utterances.

We are using PrACCtical AAC's list of core words for our July augmentative and alternative communication work with Nathaniel. My goal is do one fifteen to twenty minute activity per day that allows me to model the words and motivate Nathaniel to use his device and learn new language skills. There are twelve words in the list; that is a lot to take on all at once. I've found success with focusing on four words per week for three weeks and then having the last week of the month to mix it all up and revisit some of our favorite activities. The words we are worked on this week were FIND, COLOR, AND, and LOVE. Nathaniel loves to speak in one word utterances and let his communication partner do the work, but he more than capable of two to three word utterances; longer utterances are emerging. I tend to model between three and five word phrases and sentences. He is becoming aware of pronoun use, present progressive verb endings, and adding a plural s.

A few weeks ago, my nieces visited our home for their annual week of "Camp Rankin." We meet their family at the same park, halfway between our homes, each year to pick up and drop off the girls. Visiting a playground only once a year provides amazing insight into the changes in Nathaniel's physical abilities. In 2015, he kept his feet on solid ground. Walking on the uneven park surface carrying his tube feed in a backpack was challenging enough. In 2016, he was comfortable walking up a ramp to the lowest play area. His aunt and cousin were watchful spotters to his emerging climbing skills in 2017. This year it was hard for any of us to keep up.

Nathaniel pinched play dough bits off the ball I held out to him. He poked each piece into the Fun Factory press.  Diligently and silently, he worked at the task. Once the press was full, he pushed down on the lever. He watched the play dough ooze through the three holes moving blue snakes across the table. For the twenty minutes that he worked, I modeled language on his communication device.