Jane Farrall Consulting

Comprehensive Literacy Instruction: Meeting the Instructional Needs of ALL Students in our Classrooms

Nov 21, 20152 Comments

Many of the schools that I work with have been consistently implementing good, comprehensive literacy instruction for some time – and as a result there are a greater number of conventional readers and writers in our schools. This has led to an increased need for differentiation in our classrooms, and for more teachers to provide

My Favourite AAC Posts Of All Time

Oct 30, 20159 Comments

As we are nearly at the end of AAC Awareness Month I thought I would write a post about my favourite AAC blog posts of all time. I couldn’t decide on a most or a least favourite – so there are no numbers. Just a list in no particular order. I hope you enjoy these

Why We Do Aided Language Stimulation – And You Should Too!

Oct 27, 20155 Comments

Note from Jane: I can’t thank Mary-Louise Bertram enough for writing this fabulous guest post! I saw her put this explanation on Facebook and begged her to turn it into a blog post – which she did. Mary-Louise is a fabulous AAC person, very knowledgeable and skilled. She is one of my favourite people to

AAC: Don’t Demand Prerequisite Skills

Oct 24, 201517 Comments

In May this year 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. We created a poster to accompany that blog post – and this is one of the follow ups to the poster. In the last few weeks I

AAC Awareness Month: What’s the current state of AAC in English Speaking Countries?

Oct 16, 2015

Many of you will be aware of the survey conducted in 2012 by AssistiveWare, in conjunction with professors at the University of San Diego and the California State University. I know I see and hear this survey referenced frequently when people are presenting or writing about using AAC Apps on mobile technology solutions such as

What is “Beginning AAC”?

Oct 12, 201520 Comments

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),