#20 Read Alouds Reshaped

Reading, reading, reading. Every night with Jack and Taylor we practise reading.

Carter, who's always been a book lover, gets totally engrossed in books that are read to him. Lately though, the focus has been more on Jack and Taylor reading aloud for practise.


I recently discovered the perfect app for Carter that allows him to do some reading aloud of his own. The app is called *I Like Books and the 'Read to me' option means that Carter can hear the story as he reads along.

I helped him get started and showed him how to navigate the pages, how to start the book over and how to choose a different book. It didn't take long for him to figure it all out and then I was no longer needed, but I stayed nearby and watched him engage in 'reading' as his eyes danced across the page following the highlighted words that were being read aloud. When a sentence was finished, he would often go back and tap the individual words to hear/read them again.

The stories are packed with core words that Carter can practise on his talker. Before long, I think he'll be able to move away from the 'Read to me' option toward the 'Read by myself' set-up where he will use his talker to do his own read aloud.

In my previous post I talked about two different presentations I attended, put on by well known AAC professionals. I learned of this app at one presentation, and at the other, I heard Dr. Pat Mirenda tell her audience that literacy for non-speaking kids is essential. If we teach them reading and writing they will be able to say whatever it is they want to say.

If we teach them reading and writing; the more things they'll know, and the more our kids learn, the more places they'll go! 





*Read more about how you can customize the I Like Books series here.















Disclaimer: Views in the Not Being Able to Speak series are derived from my personal experience with Carter. I do not speak on behalf of others with complex communication needs. It is not my intent to minimize or disregard the power of expression that can be found through the use of augmentative and alternative forms of communication.

#11 Working on Your Core Takes on a Whole New Meaning

It doesn't mean eating more apples...

or strengthening your abdominal muscles.

AAC users work on their core vocabulary in order to communicate.

What is Core Vocabulary?

Core vocabulary is a small set of simple words, in any language, that are used frequently and across contexts (Cross, Baker, Klotz & Badman, 1997). Core vocabulary contains all parts of speech - nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections and serves as a great medium for teaching language.

Core words are familiar and most of them are short - six letters or less. Only a few core words have more than six letters (for example, "sometimes" has nine letters).

From toddlers to seniors, core's simple words make up 80 percent or more of everyday communication and are the heart of language development. Action words like "want," "put," "get," nouns like "thing," "stuff," and "people," pronouns like "I, me, my, mine," and "he, she, it, them," form easy sentences with demonstratives like "this" and "that." Early adverbs like "here" and "there" enable all children to express themselves. "Put it here," "Get me this," and "I want that" are what little kids say when they are building their mean length of utterance (MLU). 

Data suggests that children with disabilities build early language three-word phrases with core vocabulary (Baker, Hill & Devylder, 2000).

*The above information is taken from the Minspeak website. Click here to read more.

With a few hundred words, a person can say over 80% of what is needed (Vanderheiden and Kelso, 1987)

For people who rely on AAC, appropriate use of core vocabulary is essential to effective communication (Yorkston, Dowden, Honsinger, Marriner, and Smith,1988; Fried-Oken and More, 1992; Baker, Musselwhite, & Kwasniewski, 1999). If use of core vocabulary is low, communication effectiveness is likely to suffer.

*The above information is taken from a paper by Katya Hill from the AAC Institute. 

Language is: asking, telling, commenting, correcting, directing, choosing, tattling, arguing...not just naming things. 

With core words, now we're talking!      Take a look:

Are you working on your core?






















Photo credit: Pixabay Disclaimer: Views in the Not Being Able to Speak series are derived from my personal experience with Carter. I do not speak on behalf of others with complex communication needs. It is not my intent to minimize or disregard the power of expression that can be found through the use of augmentative and alternative forms of communication.

Go, Dog. Go! A Great Book for Practicing Core Words

When it comes to AAC, core words are where it's at. What do I mean by core words? Here are some examples: want, get, he, she, it, this, that, here, there, thing, people, mine, and me. Up until now you probably haven't given this concept much thought, but core words are words that we use all the time when speaking. Here is a better definition (click on the link for more info):

Core vocabulary is a small set of simple words, in any language, that are used frequently and across contexts (Cross, Baker, Klotz & Badman, 1997).

Ideally, when someone uses an AAC device to speak, their device will have as many core words as possible on the main page so that those words are easily accessible. This will allow them to communicate quickly and efficiently by combining core words into phrases.

If a device user is in the early stages of language development and they are starting to put two or three words together, their core word phrases might include, want eat, need drink or like that (similar to what you would hear from a toddler who is starting to talk). These aren't full sentences but the message that is being communicated is evident.

Carter has been combining two and three words on his talker for some time now. He is starting to add more words to his phrases and he continues to surprise us with the things he comes out with. The other day he was watching The Lion King and I heard him comment, "The weather is stormy." Indeed, there was a storm happening in the movie. Then the scene changed, the sun was rising and Simba (the lion cub) was jumping on his dad (Mufasa) trying to wake him up. Carter didn't miss a beat. He spoke up and said, "Good morning, lion."

I always knew that Carter understood a lot more than he was able to demonstrate. With his talker, he's finally able to start showing us just how much he 'gets'. His utterances are getting longer and more involved. In fact, he is now using location words like on, in, under, up, down, etc.

One of his favourite books is a book by P.D. Eastman. It's called Go, Dog. Go! For Carter any book that has dogs in it is a hit, but this book is doubly awesome because it has dogs and it's full of all kinds of great vocabulary that he can practice on his 'talker' when we read together.

I love the book too. It's funny and creative and it's a great way to introduce and practice several language concepts like colours, location words, and some verbs as well (go, work, play, like).

Jack and Taylor are now at a stage in reading where they are able to read the book with Carter. I love seeing my kids huddled together on the couch sharing books. When it's a book they all enjoy and it helps with Carter's language development, all the better.

 Go, Dog. Go! gets five stars from this family -- a great book for language development and for fun family reading time.