Image 6: Kaytlin Westbrooke (SLP) meets with Collen Manly (parent) as part of a parent AAC training.
students’ AAC at home. Additional opportunities that can be provided to families include; parent-teacher conferences, team meetings and individual appointments. (See image 6) Our ultimate goal in providing these parent trainings is to empower families to take on the responsibilities and ownership of their child’s communication. We help support our families in seeking outside resources to acquire their own personal, fam- ily-owned, communication systems. Due to the fact that our devices are district owned, if a family moves to another district, that system is unable to go with the child. We never want to see a child go without communication and our district is fortunate to have a nonprofit organization that helps us support fami- lies in our district in seeking their own devices. Sophie’s Run at Lake Waukomis was started by a local family, Jim and Theresa Edwards, in memory of their daughter Sophie. Sophie was a stu- dent of the Park Hill School District who suffered from a variety of developmental and medical disorders including a communi- cation delay. Sophie’s family searched for a system that allowed her to be able to communicate for herself. They finally found an eye gaze system that was successful for her; however, Sophie passed away one week before her communication device was delivered. Her family founded this organization so no child would have to wait to communicate. To date, Sophie’s Run has started a loan library for the school district, awarded 92 families with personal communication devices, and provided various equipment necessary for students who are visually impaired to move on to secondary education. To find out more about So- phie’s Run at Lake Waukomis go to www.runsophies5k.com. With so many students accessing AAC devices, we have had multiple student success stories over the years. A preschool success story includes multiple students who began using AAC systems at the age of three years old. These students were invited to attend an event in a regular education
as we are able to project different vocabularies onto our smart- boards and use them as a classroom tool for all learners during group instruction. As students move through their education- al years, these tools are used in general education classrooms, specials, and on student laptops. These tools are allowing our students to demonstrate their knowledge in ways they would previously not been able to. Students are able to create writ- ten products and copy and paste it into many different forms for their teachers and families. Creating emails to families has been one of our most exciting applications for students elementary through high school age. (See image 5) In an effort to continue to build support for our students, we frequently offer a variety of types of training to our families. Family Night is an evening training that lasts about three hours and includes dinner and childcare. Parents are offered a variety of sessions to attend such as, beginning and advanced courses in AAC, and how to use AAC in the community. We also offer other relevant topics to families such as guardianship, setting up a trust, opening community-based services cases, and sensory strategies for the home. Sessions are presented by school thera- pists and community members. Evenings like this allow families to establish relationships with each other and build their own support networks. They also learn new ways to support their Image 5: High School students use Chat Editor to write emails to their parents everyday. Students utilize the picture icons, word prediction and copy/paste features in Chat Editor.
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August / September, 2019 | www.closingthegap.com/membership Closing The Gap © 2019 Closing The Gap, Inc. All rights reserved.
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