26 Oct: AAC Month 24-Hour Chat

The 3rd Annual 24-Hour AAC Internet Chat is October 26, 2011 starting 7 am Eastern Daylight Time, 12 Noon GMT, in celebration of International AAC Month. 

Details and links here:

Blog for 24 Hour AAC Chat on Skype, Facebook, Twitter and Everywhere

25 Oct: What More Can I Do?

Dr Katya Hill, Executive Director, AAC Institute, writes the October column for AAC Parents Corner, 'What More Can I Do?' I intend to quote her in my battle for comprehensive specialist assessment for my son, and to get his educators and therapists to shift their focus from mere functional / animal communication and 'content words' to core language, syntax and grammar.

Abridged quotes:

"Consider the comprehensive evaluation:

The driving principle of recommending AAC interventions for a child is to build language competence by monitoring gains in vocabulary, putting words together, using grammar, and using a variety of social language skills. Children need language to learn, and an AAC system has to provide for language in order for children to learn to reach their potential. T...he focus is language first, technology second!

Consider measurable language-based goals and objectives:

The principle of language first... keeps the focus on identifying language goals and objectives prior to discussing how technology can support meeting those goals and objectives. AAC software is significantly more essential to success then the hardware that houses the software. How the software represents language and allows a child to generate language beyond functional communication is the cornerstone to achieve the desired goals and objectives most parents seek."

Read the full article: 

http://www.aacinstitute.org/Resources/ParentsCorner/2011October.html

I am deeply grateful to Katya for putting these two points so succinctly in this article and more with Professor Bruce Baker in the feature length documentary 'Only God Could Hear Me', SHOUT has so kindly put the entire movie on YouTube for the whole of October in support of International Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC) Month.

Only God Could Hear Me: 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r9pvtNTx4k&feature=youtube_gdata_player

22 Oct: Voiceless speak in their own words

Unbelievable and inconceivable as it is that 32 years to the day since Anne McDonald secured her release to freedom from hell with the help of Rosemary Crossley, Annie's friend Leonie McFarlane was denied the freedom to give a presentation with Rosemary on the grounds that her parents didn't believe she could communicate. One good thing that has come from all this mess, is that there is now a thor...ough investigation going on to verify and validate the abilities of non-verbal individuals to communicate and the methods used, absolutely essential, not just from the point of view of realising everyone's right to communicate in general, but because it is only by facilitating and accepting their communications that the atrocious abuse those who cannot speak are dealt so frequently can be put to an end. 

Voiceless speak in their own words, Michelle Griffin, The Age, 22 October 2011 - the first anniversary of the passing of Anne McDonald.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/voiceless-speak-in-their-own-words-20111021-1mca6.html

Carer revisits battleground of Annie's Coming Out

"THIRTY-TWO years after disability activist Annie McDonald won the right to leave an institution, her carer Dr Rosemary Crossley is embroiled in another legal battle over the rights of the profoundly disabled.

Once again, the case rests on the ability of someone with severe cerebral palsy to use non-verbal communication to express her wishes. This time, it's Annie McDonald's childhood friend Leonie McFarlane, a 48-year-old who also spent her childhood at St Nicholas Hospital in Carlton.

The Department of Human Services has banned Dr Crossley from taking Ms McFarlane to Adelaide tomorrow for a PowerPoint presentation at a disability conference. This is also a tribute to Ms McDonald, who died in October last year."

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/carer-revisits-battleground-of-annies-coming-out-20110509-1efv6.html#ixzz1TCQSGz5a