AAC – Page 5 – Jane Farrall Consulting

Letter Writing: Writing for Real Reasons

Apr 4, 2014

Writing is a very complex task in literacy. It has many components. Whenever we write, we need to think of an idea, then think of the language to describe the idea, then we need to think of the words and how we spell them – and finally we have to think about how we are

Too late to learn to read & write? No!

Dec 16, 20138 Comments

Last week I had a wonderful experience. I’ve been smiling ever since. Then yesterday I read a blog post by David Koppenhaver and decided that I needed to write about my experience. One of my favourite quotes is from Dr David Yoder. “No student is too anything to be able to read and write.” I

Big Mouth Camp 2013 – The Pirate Edition

Oct 3, 201314 Comments

Big Mouth Camp is a camp for school aged students who use speech generating devices and their families. I started Big Mouth Camp in 2003 and this year was the 8th camp (we have had a couple of years off). I am very lucky to have a fabulous committee who help with the organisation –

Literacy Lab: a great tool for quality literacy instruction

Jun 18, 20135 Comments

Please note: this resource has been discontinued. Literacy Lab is a fabulous piece of software for use as part of balanced literacy instruction from Mayer Johnson. The software is aimed at emergent readers and writers, providing a range of simple, easy to use highly motivating activities. I have been using it for a few weeks

Predictable Chart Writing: Group Writing for All

Jun 6, 201315 Comments

Recently I have been talking a lot to teachers about doing group writing in their classroom. As teachers implement a balanced literacy program in their classrooms, it is important that writing happens daily – and that writing happens for real reasons. Writing is one of the most complex tasks that we ask students to do.

Literacy and AAC Presentations from AGOSCI 2013

May 4, 20136 Comments

Yesterday I was very lucky to present three papers around the topic of literacy instruction for students with complex communication needs (CCN) at the 2013 AGOSCI Conference. The first presentation was with the awesome Dr Sally Clendon. Sally and I both do similar consulting roles – although Sally is based in Auckland, New Zealand. We

Apps for AAC: Adding iPads to your AAC Toolkit

May 1, 20136 Comments

Today I am delighted and honoured to be presenting a pre-conference workshop at the 2013 AGOSCI Conference in Sydney with Janelle Sampson from Two Way Street and Kelly Moore from the Independent Living Centre in Western Australia. Below are links to the presentation resources. Part 1: Display content from SlideShare Click here to display content

Introduction to Guided Reading: Presentation at Ascot Vale Special School

Nov 28, 2012

Edited to add: Many of the links in this blog post are no longer current The handout can be downloaded by clicking here. Other resources I mentioned in the presentation are: Four Blocks to Literacy website Four Blocks in Special Ed Wiki Centre for Literacy and Disability Studies, University of North Carolina My Guided Reading

Fat Cat apps – thinking beyond the box in AAC

Oct 19, 20124 Comments

Please note: the Fat Cat apps have all been discontinued I spent most of yesterday updating my AAC Apps list (edited to add: this list has been discontinued). There were a lot of changes to the list this time – over 60 app updates and 27 new apps. Three of the new apps were additions

ISTE Webinar on iOS6 Accessibility and Alternative Access to the iPad

Oct 9, 2012

Last week I was lucky enough to team up with Luis Perez and deliver a webinar for the International Society on Technology in Education (ISTE) Special Education Technology Special Interest Group (SETSIG). The ISTE SETSIG has now made the resources from this webinar available on their website. You can access the webinar recording, the PowerPoint