Hi, my name is Jordan. I am a special education
teacher from the UK. I share my passion for everything
communication, sensory regulation and fun lesson
ideas for my classroom of disabled pupils aged
4 to 11. Each week I am joined by experts in
the field answering your questions and sharing
our knowledge and experience working alongside
our beautiful young people. Let's get started.
Hello everybody and welcome to another podcast.
Today I am joined by Cassidy. Cassidy is a speech
and language pathologist and owner of Around
the Spectrum Therapy, a private practice specialising
in neurodiversity affirming care for children
with complex communication needs. So you can
see why I wanted to get her on the podcast. She
has experience in early intervention, school
-based therapy and private practice. Cassidy
is passionate about supporting children through
child -led, strength -based approaches. She has
extensive experience working with Augmentive
Alternative Communication, or AAC as it's often
known, and coaching families and professionals
on creating meaningful communication opportunities.
Through her online profile speech with Cassidy,
where I found her, she provides education, resources,
and training to help others implement affirming
strategies that honour each child's unique...
Engaging the World. You can see after rereading
that why I wanted to have you on. I'm so excited
that you're here. Hello, Cassidy. Hello, thank
you for having me. I cannot wait to have you
on. This is my jam. I love speaking about this
stuff. And your account is full. Like every time
I see a post, I'm like, yes, exactly. So I have
lots of parents and teaching assistants or paraprofessionals
that listen to this. I have lots of mainstream
teachers that listen to this. They might not
know what AAC is. So do you mind explaining to
us what you mean by AAC? It's a good place to
start. Yes, of course. And I actually get this
comment a lot on posts that I make where people
are like, everybody uses acronyms and I don't
know what they mean. And I think sometimes it's
easy as professionals to forget what it's like
to not really know any of this kind of stuff.
So AAC, as you said, stands for augmentative
and alternative communication. And I personally
feel, especially online. You kind of see it,
and I'm guilty of this, of using that term to
mean a communication device. It sometimes gets
switched out for communication device, but that's
not really what AAC is. It's really all encompassing
of anything outside of. verbal speech so from
even using some signs you know gestures all of
that is alternative you know to verbal speech
using picture cards so some of that more low
tech based stuff some mid -tech stuff that has
a little bit of voice output but isn't as complex
as an ipad communication based device and then
all the way up through what most people know
as aac is those high tech communication devices
that people are using to communicate. And also
I think something to highlight with AAC and the
definition of it is that augmentative and alternative.
So it's not always just the alternative. It's
not, you know, okay, this child needs this to
communicate and that's the only way they're communicating.
A lot of times it is that augmentative. They
have some verbal speech, but are supplementing
it with any number of these, you know, alternative
methods. That's a great thing, actually. Do you
often use more than one with a person that you're
working with? Yes, all the time. It's very rare
that a child, I can't even think of any kids
in my preschool that just use one. So it kind
of just depends on the situation. You know, I
have families that the child has a communication
device, but maybe they also have some pictures
on the fridge of food that they like to eat.
And that's pretty quick and easy. I really love
using some of those buttons where you can record
a message in. So maybe they'll have one next
to the door to go outside. And so they can kind
of use a mix of whatever meets their needs in
that moment. I often get the question, I don't
know if you get this as well, don't they find
that overwhelming? I always tell parents, I think
we find it more overwhelming than the child does.
Yeah, I find the same. And same with like, I
don't know how many symbols is too many symbols
and how many photos is too many symbols, like
photos. And I just think, imagine if they weren't
there, then that would be overwhelming. Is that
kind of a similar? Yeah, and I think we never
think that when it comes to children who just
develop communication. Typically, we never think,
you know, oh, I'm using way too many words with
them. So, you know, I think really switching
our mindset to this is also for input, not just
for output. So they might not use all of these
words, but we are still giving them that input
of language. So it's important to have those
words. Absolutely. And I suppose maybe it comes
from. a fear of overwhelming them because maybe
these children find speech and demands and instructions
quite overwhelming leading to dysregulation so
maybe they've seen that and then don't want to
do the same with AAC. However, going visual first
may not have that same effect. Right, exactly.
And I think it also depends on the approach that
is taken as well, too, with anything. So if it's
a very demanding approach, they may seem overwhelmed
because they may just not be finding that connection
with communication with it. Yeah. So you mentioned
that it could be symbols. It could be photos.
It could be recordable sound buttons. It could
be iPads or equivalent. Is there any else I'm
missing? A Makaton or a sign language you said?
Yeah, just like any gestures. Yeah, there's a
lot of mid -tech options. And I don't feel like
those are used as frequently though. I mostly
use kind of those single message buttons, which
you'll see in classrooms and stuff as well too.
There's other things out there. They're just
not as easily accessible. They actually tend
to be kind of a high price range and they're
not robust. So it's kind of, you know, unless
like a school has them, it's not something of,
a parent is easily going to access can we talk
about that because these are things like especially
if we're talking about communication devices
there's a huge cost to that I don't know in America
sometimes it's through insurance is that right
in the UK it's very much out of the parent's
pocket or out of charity through charity and
donations and sometimes it's through referrals
through speech therapy but it's quite rare and
it often takes years so it seems unfair to wait
when you know that they're gonna be able to communicate
in that way so this is a clear barrier so if
somebody's listening and thinking I know I want
to do that I think my child would benefit from
it is there a good thing to implement straight
away that's a lot cheaper whilst you're waiting
there's definitely a huge area of need and I'm
very blessed that where I am it's not as much
a barrier as I've heard other people talk about.
There is WeaveChat is a completely free AAC app.
So if somebody does have access to, I believe
they're on Apple and Android products. So if
somebody does already have access to a tablet,
downloading that app, it's still very robust
and can be customized and stuff. So that can
be a good way just to kind of at least get something
to the child. I'm also a huge advocate for low
-tech supports. And this, I think people also,
you know, low -tech equals pecs. And a lot of
people aren't doing pecs and they use the term
pecs incorrectly. And it doesn't have to be that
very strict, rigid protocol. We can implement
a lot of low -tech supports that you just need
access to a printer and maybe a laminator in
order to offer some of those supports. But those
can be really great for kids. Yeah. And I guess
it's, you're still teaching them that pointing
and touching is communication too. And that's
a great practice for when they do receive their
device that, you know, they're kind of used to
that navigation through communication, I suppose.
They've already started their journey before.
Exactly. You've paid for this hugely expensive
device. I guess there's a reason I have spoken
to the Because I wanted to understand, like,
why is it so expensive? Why is this huge barrier?
There's so much that goes into it. It's incredibly
in -depth technology. And it is so great. And
it has to be quick. Because there can't be any
delay on when they've touched it. It has to have
lots of different voices. It has to, you know,
so many different systems. They have to buy the
licensing program for the symbols. You know,
once you start going into it, then there's every
reason why it is that expensive. We want it to
be good. We want it to be robust, don't we? We
want it to be updated. And a lot of these companies
also offer support outside of just, you know,
here's the device, but you know, they'll come
for in -person trainings or remote support. So
it's kind of like all of that is also encompassed
in the price of it as well. Which is so important
because they say you give like giving someone
a communication device is like giving someone
a piano and just expecting them to play it. That's
like kind of a quote, isn't it? And it's so true.
If you just bought an iPad and had the app on
it, then the child isn't going to be any... better
necessarily at communicating than they were before.
So what kind of things do you do to support a
child with a new communication device or with
a new AAC, I suppose? Well, I'm very thankful
that I work very closely with parents. So I think
sometimes this can be a little bit different
in the school -based setting. In some way, but
I just think training the people around the child
is much more important than trying to get the
child to use the device. I see a huge difference
in the progress with children communicating using
AAC when it's very obvious that the adults around
them are bought into it. Even if they're not
seeing maybe the progress that they're expecting
to be seeing, you know, right away, but when
they're really bought into it and are like, okay,
like we're doing this, I'm all in, I'm going
to learn about it. You know, making that mindset
shift of this might be something new, but I'm
going to learn with my child or with the child
that I'm working with. If it's in a school setting,
that's where I really see the biggest leaps of
progress is when the whole team. is on board
and everybody's on the same page and everybody's
willing to learn even if they have you know absolutely
no idea what they're doing so that's normally
my focus originally is just how do we make this
accessible for everybody else you know yeah we
want the child to use it and they're the focus
but if if we don't focus on everybody else first
the child's never going to use it most of the
time yeah it's so true so many times I put the
iPad in the school bag and send it home and I
know it's not going to come out again you know
for whatever reason sometimes oh but I know what
they are asking for or they just help themselves
and that's great like that's lovely we don't
want to restrict children so they have to ask
for it of course but I want you to use it I'd
love you to be modeling and using it you know
That would bring me so much joy, even if the
child never looked at it or touched it over the
weekend. But if the adult, whatever adult it
was, was talking to them about what dinner they're
having or what they're watching and commenting.
And that's what we mean by that, isn't it? It's
just the adult just using it, just exploring
it, playing with it, having it out so that the
child notices it maybe and is interested and
learns what it's even for, I suppose. Otherwise,
how would they know that it's any different than
any other? cause and effect toy and I like to
set that expectation up right away when I am
starting with a family that you know I kind of
always go for the most extreme you know your
child probably isn't going to touch this or maybe
they'll touch it and just touch a million buttons
right and so that way if the child does use it
in a way that they weren't expecting it's exciting
but if they don't use it in that way That's kind
of what they were expecting. I really tell families,
like, my goal is for you guys to learn this and
to not have it be a burden in your life or really
just to be a natural part of your life. Whatever
that looks like for you to start, you know, to
kind of decrease that overwhelm. But I find just
being upfront about those conversations makes
a huge difference because then families kind
of know, like, OK, well, what I'm seeing is normal.
Yeah, and it is unusual for a child to take to
it well, straight away. Often they don't want
anything to do with it or they stim on it or
they, whatever, you know, whatever it is, want
to press every button to find out what it is,
whatever it is. It's very rare that a child would
be given a device and the first time they say,
you know, isn't it funny? I want this. That would
be really unlikely. It would be amazing and so
exciting and awesome. but it is unlikely isn't
it so it's setting setting parents up to yes
they might not touch it or yes they might still
want it then when they see those things they
can be excited about those things knowing it's
okay rather than you know oh god we spent all
this money on devices and speech therapy and
and uh and he's just playing with it as a toy
you know that with without understanding that's
part of the process that could become quite frustrating
couldn't it yeah exactly I think it's a great
idea to get them set up for that. How do you
know what system to try? So we've said there's
loads of AAC out there. We've got a minimally
speaking child. What do we try first? What's
a good thing to explore? I feel like this is
a loaded question. As a speech therapist, I think
because I've had so many years of experience
with familiarizing myself with systems and getting
systems for children that it's almost like my
brain just like automatically processes all of
this information and is like, yes, this is the
one that I'm going to try. And sometimes for
me to be like, well, why, why am I thinking that
way? And being able to explain that is another
thing. And it really depends. Sometimes I do
like to look at, okay, is this child in a school
system? Are they in a classroom? Or is there
any familiarity with any sort of program? That
shouldn't be the end -all be -all necessarily
for choosing one. But if the entire classroom
is using one program. Maybe it's worth trying
that program and seeing if they're successful.
And if they're not, you know, we can switch gears
and try something else. But they might have better
support if we're going with what everybody, you
know, in the classroom is used to. Definitely,
I live in an area where there's a very high Spanish
speaking population. So I'm always looking at
the bilingual aspects of that. So TD Snap has
a really, really great bilingual component that
is you can switch very quickly between languages.
That is usually high on my list of priorities.
If I have a family that is bilingual, especially
a lot of the families here, one parent might
not even speak English at all. So if I want them
to use it, it needs to be in the language that
they are using at home, as well as the language
that the child is going to be experiencing in
school. Also look at some of the motor planning
things as well, too. Do I feel like this child
will... benefit from a more motor planning based
system, like LAMP, where it's always snapping
back to the homepage, that organization of it,
just based on some other characteristics that
that child has. But I typically like to consider
a few different systems and say, okay, I think
this one might be a good fit for this child and
try it out. But there's been times when we're
going through this trial period and I'm like,
it just doesn't feel like it's, I feel like there's
something else that we could do. try and so I
think also knowing it's okay to switch gears
and not be like well this is the one I decided
on you know that's why that period exists to
try these out and be like okay well let's switch
and see you know what system might work better
and try a different one and see if we have a
different outcome but sometimes honestly you
don't know and I think as speech therapists it's
okay to feel like I don't really know what system
is the best one and maybe I had this trial for
four weeks with a child and they didn't touch
it or look at it at all and i have no idea what
to pick and at the end of the day you kind of
just have to use your best clinical judgment
and then say okay well once we get the device
like i sometimes think there are kids where there
is a program that this is the perfect fit for
the child but most of the time the perfect fit
is going to be the one that's implemented by
everybody else so yeah Ultimately, if everyone
else is using it, then that's going to be the
benefit. There's no point having the perfect
program and no one else is using it. Right. I
think that makes perfect sense. I think that's
really great advice. Yeah. What are they using
already? What's around already? What are their
adults around and competent with or can access?
Because ultimately, if that is not happening,
the child isn't going to be able to access it
either. And then yeah, motor planning is a really
great, yeah, I hadn't considered that. But of
course, if a child doesn't have the dexterity
to single out a single image on maybe a communication
device, or then maybe symbols on blocks is a
good idea, or objects is a good idea, or something
like that. So yeah, it is individualized, isn't
it, ultimately? And yeah, trial and error. So
have a hypothesis, but then put it to the test
rather than deciding before you've even tried
it. I think, yeah, that's why trials exist. Exactly
what you said. Have you ever seen really fast
progress with access to AAC? And it tends to
happen with. People who should have had it much
younger. I used to work in a school system and
I mostly worked at the middle and high school
level. It was a specialized school just for autistic
individuals. So I had kids up to the age of 21
and adults. Some of these individuals had not
been given access to high tech AAC. They may
have been 14, 15, 16 years old or even older.
And for some of those kids, sometimes it really
was as simple as just like, I'm just going to
put this in front of you and see what you do
with it. And I did have a couple instances where,
you know, pretty immediately those individuals
were putting full sentences together. Because
they'd been using symbols, books maybe, and they'd
been using communication books and they'd been
using iPads all separately then. It kind of makes
sense to them. And they were just older and had
more exposure to language, you know, compared
to maybe the two, three -year -old little ones
that we have. So I have seen that as well, too.
And I've had some kids where, you know, like
you said, they are immediately touching it the
second that you put it in front of them. But
maybe it's not in the way that we're, you know,
expecting that to look like. And so it kind of
just depends, I think, what that progress looks
like. I'm having something at the moment where
I've got people in my class who's been using
it maybe for a few months. I'm using a communication
device for about a few months. And he's really
great. If we model to him on a single page, he
can navigate it and find it again and knows that
he's doing it to request and to comment on nouns.
So he'll find an animal or he'll ask for a squeeze,
for example. But he's really struggling to navigate
between the folders. And we're finding that to
be a barrier. now we can continue showing and
modeling through the folders but actually what
we're kind of going to is we're doing that for
him and then finding him the page that he wants
i don't know if that's right have you got any
advice for me personally on on that two two pieces
of advice that i normally give people for this
kind of a caveat behind it is sometimes it depends
on the system oh is the system like you have
to go six folders deep to get something because
that is a lot for me as an adult. So sometimes
before even getting to what should I do, it's
looking at the system. And that's kind of where
it comes in, where when I'm talking with families,
you know, and back to what you had first asked
about, it's feeling overwhelming. The more icons
we have on a screen, the less navigation it actually
requires to go into things. So sometimes looking
at that and seeing like, okay, is this, could
we add more icons to each screen and then it
requires less navigation. But two strategies
that I typically use with kids when I feel like
they're ready to be navigating and we just can't
quite cross that bridge. One strategy I use is
narrating out loud. So if I'm modeling the word
open, I might say actions, page two. open. So
I'm actually narrating exactly which icons that
I am pressing or for an animal, things, wild
animals, tiger, saying that out loud and really
slowing down while I'm doing it. And another
strategy, I guess this kind of could fall under
a level of prompting. And I think being careful
to know like, okay, this child is really trying
to express this. And this depends on the system,
but if there's a search feature, a good search
feature, so pro -local to go, really anything
outside touch chat, the touch chat feature often
does not lead you the easiest path to get to
a word. For the other programs, sometimes what
I've done with some kids is search the word.
And then when you click on the word, it actually
will highlight it and black everything else out.
And I will then encourage them, you know, to
be able to walk through that motor plan. And
there's nothing else on the screen that can be
kind of throwing them off. But sometimes just
getting over that initial difficulty with it.
But those are the two strategies. That's really
great advice. That's really great advice. Yeah,
we use Proloquo. Using the search function is
a really great idea. So if you search it, and
then you click on, you know, which word, it'll
highlight the motor plan pathway to get there.
And I've had a lot of good success with that.
Okay, that's really great advice. Thank you.
Just using it as my personal questions. I love
it. But how do you work alongside parents? You
mentioned parents before. Are they in the sessions
with you? Do you work at the home? Did they come
into your practice? How does that look? And what
considerations need to be made there? So right
now with what I'm doing, so I'm full time in
my clinic. Prior to that, I was doing early intervention,
which here is birth to three. So I was going
into homes and now I'm full time just in my office.
So what it looks like currently is every child
that I see, the parents are bringing them to
my office. And I always tell parents when they
first start with me, I don't have a waiting room.
So I kind of say as like a thing, like, because
if you walk in, you're going to walk into a session.
So people are used to like a doctor's appointment
and fill out paperwork and wait. And I don't
have a waiting room. just because my office is
small. There was really no other reason. It's
not like I purposely don't have a waiting room,
but it has created this really great environment
where parents are just in the office, you know?
So it's not like they're in a separate room and
they have to make that decision of if they want
to join or not. Like they're just there. They
have no choice but to be there. Because ultimately
you want them there. You want them to see because
otherwise it's completely unique and you could
do some great work, but if it's not going to
be taken outside of the room, room it's kind
of pointless isn't it exactly yeah and I think
that came from doing that in -home stuff where
the focus really is on parent coaching I wanted
to bring that over to the older children that
I work with so some parents I work with they
might just you know sit in the chair the whole
time and they're watching or listening some parents
are right on the floor and it's kind of their
prerogative of how the level of involvement that
they want in that moment. And sometimes it switches,
you know, moms coming in with babies, sometimes
they're taking care of the babies, but they're
hearing everything and they're seeing everything.
So I like to as soon as possible, get them involved,
even if they're not sitting on the floor with
us. But I especially because I use that more
play based child led, I find myself explaining
a lot out loud. This is why I'm doing this, you
know. explaining the reasoning behind certain
things and explaining the strategies that I'm
using to them. And I found that when parents
can really see it in action, it makes a lot more
sense than just bringing the child back out to
the waiting room and five minutes, hey, here's
what we did. Here's what you can do at home.
Most parents, I think, probably just walk out
of that waiting room and what you said went through
one ear and out the other. And it's not because
they're bad parents. No, that's what I'm saying.
It's not for want of trying. It's just, oh, you're
the therapist. I don't want to get it wrong.
I don't want to like... get messed up i don't
want to ruin it for them but of course that's
not what it is it's um we're all we're all learning
and we're all trialing and error and actually
often the parents are the expert in their child
they might not be a speech therapist they might
not be a trained teacher but they are the expert
in their child and they certainly know what motivates
them and it's the parent yeah i've met the most
incredible parents who didn't choose to have
an irrelevant child but they my god do they do
a great job and yeah and it's almost like it's
showing them and telling them and giving them
confidence in to do it that you know this you
know you know how to do it um you do such a great
job can you do like could you try this or maybe
they said maybe they suggest things maybe they're
naturally doing things already I've met so many
parents of guest art language processors who
naturally will repeat back what they say and
I'll say has someone told you to do that no no
I just we just do it we just have like our own
little conversation our own language like that's
awesome that's so awesome you don't even know
how awesome you are and I think I see that a
lot in parents I'm sure you do too you just see
little looks little body language things like
they just totally read their child like so well
right it's awesome And I think it also helps
with carryover as well too, because the parents,
what I try to do is really break it down into.
something very simple that they can do. I had
a family come to me one time that was seeing
another speech therapist and the mom was wonderful
and she was so overwhelmed and she was like,
I wanted this AAC device and the speech therapist
wasn't super knowledgeable, but I was able to
fight for it and I got it. And she was like,
and now I don't know what to do. She was like,
the speech therapist is just telling me, well,
you just have to model all the time. And she
was like, that's what we say. And she was like,
I don't even really know what that means. She
was. And she was just really struggling with,
you know, it almost became this all or nothing
approach. Like if I'm not doing it 24 seven,
then it's not enough. So that also means that
if the child isn't taking to it, then that's
like on her because she hasn't been modeling
enough or because she hasn't been doing it right,
which is such a big responsibility when it might
not even be like you said before, like it might
not even be the right system. It might not even
be the right, you know, communication tool. That
is such a huge weight to put on a parent who
already is, I'm sure, consumed by a hell of a
lot of decision making in the day. Exactly. And
I think when we can break it down, like, okay,
your child loves animals. Let's just show them
the animal sounds page. And that might not really
have any importance on them being able to ask
you for things at home, but it brings that joy
to it. So you don't feel overwhelmed. They don't
feel overwhelmed. And you feel like. okay, I
feel like I want to do this at home, not like
I have to. And it's meaningful for the child
as well. That is what the child would be saying
if they could talk. They would be talking about
animals. So let's talk about animals. We have
a student in my class who is obsessed with logos,
like loves logos and adverts. It's amazing. Like
they're all the American adverts. He knows all
of them. Like it's awesome. I love it. He has
an incredible brain. and when he got the AAC
device for the first time he was typing the logo
names or the brand names and hearing it back
because sometimes they're said wrong and sometimes
they're said right and he just thought it was
the most awesome thing ever so I was like oh
but he's not using it to communicate like he's
not like he's using it but he's not using it
to communicate I'm like That is what he would
be saying if he had a word. Like, if you take
this device from him, you are putting your hand
over his mouth. Like, you would never do that
to a child. This is genuinely what he would be
saying if he had a voice. He would be talking
about logos all the time. He would be talking
about brands all the time. He'd be recalling
the adverts all of the time because that is his
interest. That is what he likes to do. That is
him talking. Like, he's not going to say, hello,
Jordan, how was your day? Would you like a drink?
It's just not going to happen. Like, he's not
moving. motivated by that to offer him a page
of logos maybe that we could talk about with
each other would be really motivating to him
but yeah just like animals or sometimes food
is the motivating or sometimes um theme parks
is the motivation you know right toys get taking
photos of all their personal toys maybe is the
motivation you I think that's I think that's
really great and that's it's such a joy because
all of a sudden it doesn't feel overwhelming
anymore all of a sudden the child is interested
all of a sudden you're having a conversation
and you're you're relating to each other which
ultimately is what communication is isn't it
it's two -way it's it's talking about your interests
it's engaging it's motivating all of those things
Right, exactly. I have a video somewhere on my
Instagram page of a little girl touching a button
where it said achoo to sneeze and I was pretending
to sneeze every time she touched it. And I just
felt like it was such a good example that sometimes
what we think communication should look like
or AAC implementation should look like often
is not. you know, reality. And she was so excited
and was touching it over and over again. And
like you said, like getting that two way back
and forth communication, and that will lead down
the road to, you know, her asking for help and
water and some of those things. But it starts
with seeing that power of I do something and
it causes this reaction that I really like that
I want to continue to happen. so true it's talking
about difficulty navigating folders one of my
student was having that one of my other students
but then all of a sudden could find stinky fart
really quickly when we were using whoopee cushions
and I thought my goodness you could do it but
you just weren't motivated before but all of
a sudden you get the whoopee cushion out and
you can find stinky fart like two folders of
stinky and fart like he was And he was doing
it. And I was like, do you know what? That's
on me. I just wasn't being fun enough. Exactly.
And ultimately, they are eight, nine, ten -year
-old children. They're going to burp some farts.
Maybe that's the way to go. It definitely made
me smile. It was a really lovely moment. And
I thought, yeah, of course, you're not motivated
by whatever I'm trying to talk about. Shapes
or colours or something stupid. Of course you're
going to want to talk about that. What is one
thing? Or maybe a few things. Maybe that's mean.
What is a few things you wish everyone who supports
minimally speaking children knew? I think one
of the biggest things is to know that these children
are communicating. I've never met a child that
isn't communicating in some form or fashion.
And I think sometimes we look at these kids that
aren't talking and we just think that they're
not communicating. But a lot of times they...
have very rich communication skills that just
aren't verbal. And so really recognizing and
honoring what their communication looks like
before we dive in and say, well, this is what
I want their communication to look like. Let's
see what their communication already looks like.
What kind of things would you be seeing, do you
think? I know what you mean by that, but I'm
just like, what might be happening? So when I
do evaluations, I use a system where I'm observing
the child with myself or with a parent. So again,
I get the parent involved right from the get
-go and writing down everything the child is
doing. So I'm looking at any sort of gestures
beyond just the more sign or something like that.
Are they taking mom's hand and moving it to something?
Are they pushing a toy away? Are they getting
up physically and moving their body when you
introduce them? introduce an activity. That's
communication. You know, they just might not
have the word no or be able to say anything else.
Are they crying? Are they making vocalizations,
you know, happy or sad in either direction? Are
they leaving the room? So looking at like that
proxemics, you know, method of communication,
you know, they want to go on the swing. So they're
just walking over to the swing or they want a
toy out of the cabinet. So they're going to walk
over and try to, you know, open the cabinet,
reach up for things. A lot of times I'm also
looking at what are their eyes doing so if you
know they're looking at the shelf are they looking
at one toy and just not quite sure like you know
it's too high i can't reach it but i don't have
any communication skills outside of just looking
at it to be like hey this is what i want but
they're they're communicating they're showing
that you know hey i want this toy i'm staring
at it and you know how can we continue to develop
that while also honoring the ways that they are
using yeah i guess that also will lead you on
to then choosing a system to try that kind of
matches what they're already doing so maybe if
they're already using their pointing finger then
it would be a really great idea to maybe put
a communication board in place or if they're
walking over something and reaching maybe have
a sound button that they can then press once
they get there so it's maybe looking at what
already you're seeing and then fitting around
them rather than pulling them to us I really
like that and it's something that I think I do
naturally but I never do it intentionally so
I think that might be something I start doing
now is having some kind of audit for exactly
that I think that's really important and to get
the parents involved and all the paraprofessionals
and the teaching assistants involved in that
I think could really empower them as well to
see that this child is communicating and and
how are they doing that so then maybe we're a
bit more in tune right I talk with parents a
lot. I just had a conversation with a parent
last week. And I think as professionals, paraprofessionals,
really anybody that works with some of these
minimally speaking kids, something so powerful
that we don't do often enough is just observe
and just wait. And you can learn so much. And
especially when kids aren't talking. It's very
easy to want to fill that gap and you end up
leading a lot more. And when I had this mom here
and the child was playing, had walked over to
a toy that we had used before, but we weren't
quite sure what he wanted to do with it. I said,
just take a moment. I said, I don't want you,
I don't want either of us to say anything. Let's
just wait a few minutes and see what he does.
play with it independently does he try to get
us involved in his play you know what does his
play look like with this toy and what does he
want to do with it versus you know us saying
oh here's how you play with this I said and then
once we figure out what he's doing then we can
join in and what he ended up wanting to do was
turn it's this little fan thing turn it on and
off and normally it has tubes that connect to
it for a ball to shoot through and he wasn't
interested in that part of it but that would
have been our first thing like oh let's go get
the tubes and attach it onto here but because
we step back and observe and then I could show
on his device on oh you want it turned on and
he picked up on that word so quickly whereas
that would have never even been an opportunity
for us to have if we were so quick to jump in
yeah you're so right and I I am so guilty of
that too and in my room for sure because you
don't want them to fail do you I mean you've
ultimately you've created an environment where
they can't fail so I don't know why we're so
scared of it but you don't want them to not succeed
But by doing that, we're failing them, aren't
we? Because we're not letting them show us what
they can do or what they know or being led by
them. And I know you're an advocate for this
too, of child -led play. And observation and
waiting is a lot of that, isn't it? And it's
hard. It's hard, isn't it? It's hard. It's really
hard. Even like waiting 10 seconds processing
time is hard if you count it in your head. It
feels like a really long time to wait. But observing
and waiting for a child could be minutes of just
waiting and not helping them. For example, you
spoke a little bit about prompt dependency. I
know you didn't go into that, but try not to
have them be prompt dependent, you know, because
they might work it out or they might find a solution
that it might not be the solution that you would
do, but they might find a solution on their own.
And if you prompt too much, then they'll become
reliant on the prompt and then they'll never
be able to maybe do it on their own. Things like
zips are a classic example with their coat. You
know, the first thing we do is zip you up without
even giving them a chance to even, like, try
to put the little thing in. Because we think
they're going to fail at it. All that tells them
is, you can't do this. You need me. and even
if they do need you maybe they'll come and find
you or maybe they'll find another adult or maybe
they'll you know whatever but no I think that's
really that's really great advice and someone
I'm definitely going to take on board I kind
of use these podcasts as CPD for myself um and
that's going to be definitely be my homework
for this week is to observe just to give myself
the permission to sit back and observe and even
if an adult comes in and questions it I can be
confident enough to say I'm serving this I'm
serving his communication so that I can better
meet his needs a better understand that you know
you have that have that answer but um have that
confidence just to sit back and wait is is really
great advice yeah and you're so right with being
able to explain it and I think that's where a
lot of speech therapists feel uncomfortable with
that especially when they're working with parents
and You know, being able to say this is why I'm
doing this and this is what I'm hoping the outcome
will be. And it makes sense to parents. You know,
every parent I've had that conversation with,
they're like, yes, I just like never thought
about it that way or I didn't have to do that
for my other children. But because this child
has more needs, more communication needs, they
actually tend to. observe less and wait less
you know and as speech therapists we feel if
every moment isn't productive then it's not a
productive session and a lot of it I think just
with AAC in general childbirth therapy anything
is really shifting our mindsets. Yeah which I
love and it can only improve the mental health
and life for these young people that we have
the pleasure of working with. Thank you so much,
Cassidy. This is such an awesome chat. I hope
our listeners get a little flavor of what you
are about. If they want to find out more, which
I'm sure they will, where can they find you?
The best place is to follow me on Instagram.
Speech with Cassidy is kind of my professional
side of my Instagram. I have one for my practice
as well, too. But that's where I'm posting a
lot of AAC stuff. I recently dived into some
more storytelling stuff, you know, more related
to parents. And then I have a website as well,
too, which is just SpeechWithCassidy .com. Did
you say that you have a new product coming out
or a new? Yes, I just came out with a high -tech
AAC Made Simple ebook. So it's 140 pages of everything
I wish I had when I was first starting out with
AAC. So it really dives into the basics of AAC
through principles for customization, implementation
for AAC that feels... very practical to implement
not again just like model all the time some of
that kind of stuff but like actually what might
this look like how can we fit this into this
child's life troubleshooting handouts really
all -encompassing AAC that's awesome can you
send me the link and then I'll put it in the
description to this below so that they can check
that out that's awesome thank you so much for
joining and I hope you have a good rest of your
week thank you for having me you are so welcome
Thank you.