Today was the third and final day of #AGOSCI2025. It was an outstanding conference with a very high standard of presentations – and, consequently, lots and lots of awesome information.
Today’s highlight for me was Erin Sheldon and David Niemeijer‘s presentation on Aided Language Modelling. Entitled “Are we approaching AAC modelling all wrong? Lessons from early language development and motherese”, this presentation challenged us to re-think what we think we know about aided language modelling and also encouraged us to make a shift in our practice. It inspired a lot of discussion in the room during the presentation and also afterwards during morning tea.
I won’t share any more details from the presentation – but I’m sure they will share them over time. And if you hear that either Erin or David (or both) are coming to your area I’d encourage you to go and hear what they are saying and to think about their message. It may challenge what you think you know – but I believe we all benefit from being challenged to re-think our assumptions and beliefs 🙂
My final presentation for the conference was towards the end of the day with a focus on Developing Print Concepts: Supporting Autistic Literacy Learners to move to Conventional Literacy Instruction. Without further ado, here is the handout and other resources that I promised to those attending:
And before I get to the other resources, I just want to state clearly that we are only focusing on print concepts like this with students who know a lot of letters in the alphabet, who engage with shared reading and who are expressive communicators with either speech or AAC. Basically, this is not an approach that I would use with early emergent literacy learners. Early emergent literacy learners need a focus on interaction and building engagement during shared reading.
And now, onto the other resources:
- A4 sheets for each print concept
- Small bookmarks for each print concept
- Record form for using the print concept bookmarks/sheets
That’s the end of my posts about the 2025 AGOSCI Conference. I’m sad that #AGOSCI2025 is over – but I’m already looking forward to #AGOSCI2027 in Brisbane and catching up with so many members of my tribe again!
Sarah Cochrane
Jane