In May I was lucky enough to attend the ASSERT Communication and Literacy Conference in Coventry in the UK. The conference ran for three days – and I promised I would share my presentations on my website. To those who attended – my sincere apologies that it has taken me so long to get this done.
The conference was awesome. Friday and Saturday were more traditional conference days – with presentations each day. I’ll share these below.
First, I just wanted to share what happened on the Sunday though as it was a new experience for me at a conference. On the Sunday there were lots of individuals with Angelman Syndrome attending and we were able to include them in hands-on workshops. In the morning the amazing Rosie Clark and I did a hands-on shared reading with two different groups. First we read Pete the Cat: I love my white shoes by Eric Litwin and James Dean. Pete himself joined us and lots of singing and dance occurred – and he captivated lots of new fans. We then watched and joined in with some alphabet songs, before finishing with a shared reading of Piranhas don’t eat Bananas by Aaron Blabey. (Aaron Blabey writes some of my favourite picture books – full of humour and fun). If you want more information about shared reading, please look at the blog post I did called “Shared Reading: Focus on Interaction“.
In the afternoon I got to work with the fabulous Tracey Campbell. We used the iconic Australian book Wombat Stew by Marcia Vaughn and Pamela Lofts as the basis for some very individual cooking. Lots of fun and mess was had by all!
Tracey mixing up mud to add to the Wombat Stew!
Congratulations to the conference organisers and to all my fellow presenters for trying something new and making it awesome!
And now for the more traditional conference presentations:
Introduction to Language Development: AAC Style
Choosing the Appropriate System
The Right to Write: Teaching Writing to all Students
(And thanks to Jules Whichner for the photo of me presenting and all her general wonderful support in the form of cake and duct tape!)
