This presentation for professionals who support AAC users was created and presented by Susan Malloy at AAC Bootcamp for Professionals for Easter Seals MA in August 2014

1. Core Vocabulary
AAC Boot Camp Aug. 2014
Susan G. Malloy, M.S., CCC-SLP

2. “The Language Stealers”

3. Make a communication board

4. Use your communication
board.
Find a partner
Select a book or do any other activity you can
think of.
One person will be the “non-speaking student”
(using the communication board she made) and
the other will be a “speaking adult.” Use the
communication board to interact as you do the
activity.
After 5 minutes you’ll switch places.
Have fun!

5. Comments?

6. Core Vocabulary
“Words and messages that are:
1. Commonly used
2. By a variety of individuals and
3. Occur very frequently.”
Which means you can talk to practically anyone about
practically anything using core words…
if you have enough of them!
Core vocabularies need to grow with the individual.
Beukelman & Mirenda , Augmentative & Alternative Communication, 4th Ed. 2013

7. Sources of core words
Developmental lists
Beukelman & Mirenda, 3rd Ed.
Benajee, M., Dicarlo, C., & Stricklin, B. (2003). Core
vocabulary determination for toddlers. Augmentative
and Alternative Communication, 19, 67–73.
Language sampling a/k/a Listening to what kids
say.
Existing core boards
E.g., http://www.vantatenhove.com/
Nancy Inman’s Word Power on Board and related
software (see TouchChat, Tobii ATI, PRC, and others)
Prentke Romich Devices—PASS and NUVoice editing
software

8. Basic Core Board

9. Simple core 24

10. Gail Van Tatenhove—The Pixon Project Kit and
online resources
Gail Van Tatenhove “Pixon” core board 112.

11. How many words to start
with?
Sometimes less is more….
BUT--

12. Most of the time,
MORE is MORE.
So start with
MORE words.

13. Why start with lots of words?
It’s what your parents did!
If you start with only “more” and “all done” you
can model three language functions:
requesting, acceptance, rejection.
If we only see and hear what we already know,
how do we learn?
Many AAC users have severely impaired
receptive language.
They need visual or multisensory cues to help
them understand speech.
More about that later….

14. How many words to start
with?
More than the student
currently uses.
As many as she can access
visually and physically.
If there are too many, reduce
the number.

15. How to tell if there are too
many words:
If the student’s visual attention is better with
smaller displays.
E.g., he looks away, pushes away the core word
page
If his messages appear random across activities
with a variety of communication partners.
If he doesn’t attempt to access the large core
word page but does use simpler displays.

16. One way to simplify

17. Some Modeling Strategies:
Use natural gestures and facial expressions that
the student can imitate—looking at nearby
objects, making eye contact, nodding, pointing—
to supplement the message.
Select words telegraphically
I, want, go, out
While speaking naturally
I want to go outside
When speaking and listening, be aware of
multiple meanings, e.g. “wet” can mean:
I’m wet, wipe my chin, it’s raining, something
spilled, etc.
Expand on the user’s message: “Uh-oh! Your
tray is all wet! Let’s clean that up” while pointing
to the core words.

18. To make the most of limited “real estate”
indicate the word or the picture, past or future.
Gail Van Tatenhove “Pixon” core board.

19. Word Power on Board (N.
Inman)

20. Put keyboard on reverse side

21. Things to notice:
Left to right syntactic organization
Color coding
Questions
Negatives
Other than pronouns, how many NOUNS ?
Where is “toilet?”

22. Gail Van Tatenhove—The Pixon Project
Kit and online resources
Gail Van Tatenhove “Pixon” core board 112.

23. Can you

24. Summarize a dissertation!

25. Core words in dynamic
display devices:
Word Power available with picture symbls or text only.
Tobii, DynaVox, Prentke Romich, Saltillo, TouchChat for
iPad.
One-Hit Unity (non-readers)– PRC only
Sequenced Unity – PRC only
Lamp Words for Life
Proloquo2Go—extensive core vocabulary pages that can
shrink to fit. Includes a good “dictionary” of nouns, verbs
etc.
TouchChat—the MultiChat vocabulary sets contain a
page of core words that can be expanded modified to fit
the user. Includes a good “dictionary” of nouns, verbs,
etc.

26. Core vocabulary in
communication books.
Keep the core words available on every page:
Use the left page for core and the right for
category/activity specific items.
Have one core page with little flip pages at the
top for category and activity based vocabulary.
PODD
PODD is an extensive core vocabulary
Organization is unique
Designed for generative communication and
perhaps sentence building in the more complex
versions

27. Try this:
Use a dedicated device or an iPad app, such as
Proloquo2Go, TouchChat with Word Power,
PODD (compass app)
Take a few minutes to try writing lyrics from a
song, describe a favorite book or movie, or a
sentence describing your favorite TV show.

28. Thoughts?

29. Revise your communication
board, and try the story reading
activity again.