All tagged Speak for Yourself

Let's Talk ATVs

Let's Talk ATVs

Kim Rankin
Homeschooling, AAC

Yesterday on the way to speech therapy, Nathaniel was telling me about ATVs.

He said, “ATV Nathaniel orange ride out that it go that”

I showed his speech therapist, and he came out of the session an hour later with the drawing shown in this photo. Amazing, huh? Look close. The rider even has a trach. Thank you R for making these connections with Nathaniel.

Today we started a predictable chart writing exercise to work on the syntax of how to say “I like (color) ATVs.” Of course I expected Nathaniel to say that he likes orange ATVs, but today he likes white ATVs.

New Literacy Practices In My Classroom

New Literacy Practices In My Classroom

Kim Rankin
AAC, Homeschooling

I mentioned in my last blog post that I wanted to be honest about some changes I am making after hearing Drs. Karen Erickson and David Koppenhaver’s teaching at the workshop: Comprehensive Literacy Instruction for Students with Significant Disabilities and Complex Communication Needs. Before I jump into another week, I do want to mention modifications that I am implementing immediately. If you have followed our journey and emulated any of my practices, I want to be up front about what we are going to do differently now.

Some Big "Little" Exciting News - Speak for Yourself on iPhone

Some Big "Little" Exciting News - Speak for Yourself on iPhone

Kim Rankin
AAC

In the middle of setting up our camping trip on Saturday, I received an email that rocked our world - Nathaniel's communication app was released for iPhone and we were invited to be beta testers.

In the time it takes to brown hamburger and open cans of beans to make chili, the app downloaded and I synced Nathaniel's vocabulary from a recent Dropbox backup. On the next trip carrying things outside, I sat down next to Nathaniel on the retaining wall from where he was watching his brothers cut wood. I handed him my phone with Speak for Yourself open. Inquisitively, he grabbed it, stared at the home screen for a minute, and then said "CHAINSAW."

Printing and Using Low Tech Talker Symbols - Part 2

Printing and Using Low Tech Talker Symbols - Part 2

Kim Rankin
AAC

I shared earlier this week how I print low tech version of Nathaniel's talker symbols. (Read here.) Just as a reminder, Nathaniel uses Speak for Yourself. The symbol set is called Smarty Symbols and I use Custom Boards to create printables. Most of the time, that has worked flawlessly for me. Occasionally, I can not find the correct symbol on Custom Boards. I have asked some questions behind the scenes of both SFY and Smarty Symbols folks and learned that yes, some symbols used when SFY was originally developed are not currently available. I use the following options when I am unable to find the SFY symbol on Custom Boards.

Printing and Using Low Tech Versions of Talker Symbols

Printing and Using Low Tech Versions of Talker Symbols

Kim Rankin
AAC

Vani, a speech therapist from Australia, emailed to ask how I print high quality low tech versions of Nathaniel's talker symbols. Hope this helps explain how I create and use them. Bonus! A free printable of some Speak for Yourself transportation symbols that fit in the Cariboo game, is included at the bottom.

Nathaniel uses the app Speak For Yourself (SFY). The symbol set for Speak for Yourself is Smarty Symbols. We use low tech versions of these symbols to drill our five weekly words, to offer a visual of word combinations, and for Nathaniel's visual schedules. The photo below shows a variety of these uses. This week's words on the the left, the other photos show some visual schedules.

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