Communication Access for ALL Students - RICAA 2023

Communication Access means that “everyone can get their message across, no matter how they communicate.”  (SCOPE, Australia) In 1948 the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights recognised communication as a fundamental right and freedom for all of us.  Communication Access is an important follow-on from this declaration.  By aiming for communication accessibility, we recognise that

AAC: Creating Systems for Individual Success. RICAA Conference 2023

In May, I was honoured to present the opening Keynote address at Rencontres Internationales des Communications Alternatives et Améliorées (RICAA) in Toulouse. I wanted to start by saying a huge thank-you to the conference organisers for inviting me! Merci beaucoup!! The focus for my presentation was communication autonomy - and the importance of using the

The Problems with Hand-Over-Hand v2.0

Hand-over-hand as a teaching strategy is increasingly being defined as restrictive practice. However, I still find that many people working in this area use hand-over-hand as a teaching strategy without being aware of the problems around it - or the fact that there are other, more effective, teaching strategies. In 2021, I published an Infographic

Writing with All Tools Continuum v1.1

Summer is here - and the schools in all our Australian states are either on their summer break or about to finish the school year. For me, this means I get a little more time to go through notes and pull together all the comments and feedback people have given me. And, some time to

Flip Charts - An important Emergent Writing Tool

A long time ago, I learned about flip charts for emergent writers, thanks to Karen Erickson and David Koppenhaver. Writing flip charts were first developed by Gretchen Hanser and staff at the Centre for Literacy and Disability Studies Flip charts as a writing tool appealed to me for a lot of reasons.  Firstly, because I

Writing with All Tools Continuum Webinar

Today I had the pleasure of running a webinar about the Writing with All Tools Continuum. The session included a run through of the continuum, a discussion of some of the documents supporting the continuum and a short moderation at the end. I'm delighted to share the video of the webinar, as well as the

Writing with Adults: Predictable Chart Writing

One of the different types of writing that we want to do every day with every emergent student is Writing with Adults. This is where literacy learners and educators write together as a team to successfully publish a text, which can then be shared with others. One form of Writing with Adults is known as

Writing with All Tools Continuum - free online event

On Friday the 21st of October I will be running a free webinar on the Writing with All Tools Continuum: Teaching to the next level. There are 100 seats available at the webinar. If you're interested in attending please sign up at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/writing-with-all-tools-continuum-teaching-to-the-next-level-tickets-438462552297 Many of you will need to convert the times of the webinar

Literacy Intensive 2023

We are very pleased to announce the details of the 2023 Literacy Intensive, which will be held at Coomera State Special School on the Gold Coast from the 25th to 29th of September. Registrations will open on Monday the 19th at https://bit.ly/3UqKFcm The flyer is shown above with further details, and you can download a