Jane Farrall Consulting

Aim for language development: Don’t create custom pages for specific activities

Oct 4, 201532 Comments

My last blog post was about a Do’s and Don’ts of AAC Poster that we made up for International AAC Awareness Month. (The “we” in there is myself and David Niemeijer from AssistiveWare). There’s been a few comments and questions about one of the “Don’t” statements. So I wanted to clarify what we meant when

International AAC Awareness Month: Do’s and Don’ts of AAC Poster

Oct 3, 20157 Comments

October is International AAC Awareness Month! People all over the world are working to raise awareness of AAC and underline the importance of communication – for everyone. Back in May, David Niemeijer from AssistiveWare and I did a presentation at the AGOSCI Conference on the Do’s and Don’ts of Implementing Real Communication Through AAC. As

Alphabet Books Galore!

Aug 23, 20159 Comments

It’s Book Week here in Australia – with the wonderful theme of “Books Light Up Our World”. In honour of Book Week I thought I’d write about alphabet books. Alphabet books come in all sizes and types and for all ages. They can be fiction and non-fiction, based on photographs or illustrations, customised or generic.

Teaching the Use of Inner Voice in Reading

Jul 18, 201511 Comments

Reading silently WITH comprehension is the goal of all reading instruction. Every literacy learner and every literacy teacher is aiming towards this goal. Many students go through a process at school where they learn first to read “out loud” and then move to using their inner voice. But for students with complex communication needs (CCN),

Implementation of iPads for AAC in a Specialist School

Jun 28, 20155 Comments

I recently had an article published in Perspectives on AAC that I wanted to share here as I thought it could be useful for others who are on the same journey. You can access the original article at http://sig12perspectives.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2322984. And to give you a visual to go with the article – the video below

Writing in Our Classrooms

Jun 22, 20153 Comments

Chloe re-writing a favourite book from Tar Heel Reader Writing is a complex task, involving ideas, language, words, spelling and transcribing or selecting letters. We need to teach all of these skills – and eventually students need to be able to do all of these, within the one task, to become writers. Overall guidelines Do

Shared Reading: Focus on Interaction

Jun 7, 20158 Comments

Shared reading is a collaborative learning activity that emulates and builds on the bedtime book experiences that many children and parents have together. The focus during shared reading is on the interaction. Shared reading is appropriate for any emergent reader, no matter their age and can be done individually or in small groups. Focus on

Leading to Literacy

Jun 5, 20156 Comments

I was very privileged to be invited to do a plenary presentation at the Queensland Association of Special Education Leaders‘ annual conference. Below is the presentation I gave on “Leading to Literacy” where I got to talk about the fabulous Willans Hill School and the four years of our journey implementing balanced literacy instruction

Working with Letters, Sounds and Words in our Classrooms

May 28, 20154 Comments

Working with letters, sounds and words are important components of literacy instruction in our classrooms. Emergent students need explicit and incidental instruction around the alphabet and sounds, to improve their alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness. Conventional students need to learn how words work. Below is a checklist I use with teachers in working through the

Self-Selected Reading in Our Classrooms

May 21, 20154 Comments

Self-selected reading is often seen as the easiest literacy block. However, to develop a student’s love of reading requires careful resource curation and an awareness of their interests and preferences. Below is a checklist I use with teachers in working through the self-selected reading block in their classroom. The two main guiding rules are: It