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.

These Are a Few of My Favorite (Preschool) Things

These Are a Few of My Favorite (Preschool) Things

Kim Rankin
Homeschooling

I have been a stay-at-home mom for twenty-eight years. Next week I start my twenty-fourth year of teaching my children at home. Josiah was born into a homeschool family; he nursed through older siblings' math lessons and overheard first, second, and third grade reading lessons all the same year while playing in his high chair. He was the youngest before Nathaniel and is a senior in high school this fall.

Both Joe and I reap the benefits that he has never known family life apart from homeschool life. For us, there has always been a blurring of what is daily living as a Rankin kid and what is homeschool; Joe has always known his parents, and mother specifically, to carry the duel roles of parent and educator. There were no "before we started homeschooling" habits or relationship patterns to overcome.

Happy Second AAC Anniversary!

Happy Second AAC Anniversary!

Kim Rankin
AAC

Two years ago today we gave Nathaniel an iPad mini with an augmented communication app. He was twenty months old. There was much we did not know at the time. We knew very little about augmented communication or Nathaniel's long term communication needs. We did not know about key guards or child friendly cases or stands or modular tubing to hold the device at an easy access point. In some ways this might have worked in our benefit. In all our not knowing, we did not know how unusual it was to give a twenty-month old a high-tech, voice output device. We wanted to give our son access to words. Lots of words. All the words he would need to be fully twenty months old

Vacationing at Lakeside 2016: Augmented Communication and Pointing

Vacationing at Lakeside 2016: Augmented Communication and Pointing

Kim Rankin
AAC, Our Family

When Nathaniel was fourteen months old, our then speech therapist asked if he was pointing at things. She expressed the importance of pointing and joint attention in language development and stressed that these were precursors for further language growth. She advised that I should place Nathaniel, who was still new at sitting up, in the middle of the room with everything desirable out of reach. "Unless Nathaniel points to the object, do not let him have it. No toys until he points to them."

Nathaniel was perfectly content to sit quietly for full days without toys.

Three Years of Knowing Nathaniel

Three Years of Knowing Nathaniel

Kim Rankin
Our Family

Three years ago this morning we met Nathaniel.

He was hospitalized the last week in June for a virus, and one of his physicians came by for a visit. It was primarily a social call. During our conversation we reflected on how little we knew about Nathaniel three years ago. I remember vividly meeting her for the first time in July, 2013. I remember how patiently she explained the airway surgery Nathaniel would need. Though the medical team knew his airway was complex, they anticipated reconstruction. Surgery would be the summer after he turned three - this summer. They anticipated a week in the hospital. They had good reason to hope that he would live tracheostomy free and gain vocalization. Three years ago today we started down a journey of medical complexity that we thought was temporary. Everyone thought it was temporary.

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