cluding reading, writing, social skills and expressive communica- tion. With the tools and resources we have acquired, we are bet- ter able to identify a child’s individual and academic strengths and use those to mold their educational pathway. In the future, for us as a district, we hope to expand AAC into more general ed- ucation classrooms and across all grade levels. We also want to continue to empower our staff members to promote AAC as the norm and embed AAC theories and instruction within all areas of the general education curriculum.
Image 7: Olive Bruders and her blue pig.
classroom. In this classroom, they were challenged, along with their peers, to state their names and one activity that they liked to do. Each of these students were able to independently navi- gate their devices and participate with their typically develop- ing peers to answer the questions without adult support. An elementary success story involves a student who recently acquired her very own personal device. She was on a weekend outing with her family at the local farmers market and spotted a man making balloon animals. This student was asked what she would like and she used her device to say “blue cylinder.” Her mom explained that the man was making animals, so she changed her statement to say, “blue, pig, thank you.” (See image 7) One of the biggest success stories involves staff members, not students. An elementary school librarian inquired as to why some of our students with special needs were not checking out library books. After some discussion about the known impor- tance to literacy, language development, communication and the limitations of these students, the librarian asked if she could adapt books to fit their needs. With support from the AT facil- itator for the initial five books, she then developed a library of adapted books using building funds and volunteer labor. The school PTA became involved and began donating to the cause. Others followed her lead. Starting the 2019-2020 school year, we will have four elementary buildings with adapted book sections with 150 books each. Through the growth of our AT program, our AAC program has expanded to include hundreds of students with a variety of needs. We have seen growth in all areas with our students, in-
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www.closingthegap.com/membership | August / September, 2019
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Closing The Gap
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