Amy Goldman, Program Director of Pennsylvania's Initiative on Assistive Technology (PIAT), says the need for this workshop has been emerging for a long time. For several years the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University (which houses PIAT) has been hearing from parents in a panic when they learn their students will soon lose services and even their communication equipment. "We're seeing huge gaps for students who should be preparing for adult services," Goldman acknowledges, "and for parents, the clock is ticking."
Indeed, careful transition planning for life after high school is critical for students with speech disabilities. Without it, the speech generating devices (SGDs) students have come to rely on frequently remain the property of their schools. Goldman reports, too, that even when a device does come home, it often ends up in a closet because its programmed vocabulary and communication strategies are no longer relevant to the young adult's life. Students, in effect, graduate to the couch.
PIAT created this workshop to provide families and professionals with strategies for effective transition planning, and to create awareness of transition barriers. "I'm an SLP [Speech Language Pathologist] by training," Goldman explains. "So I've sort of embraced this as a challenge for the profession."
PIAT's workshop, Goldman emphasizes, is for everyone: bottom up to top down. Here AAC users, family members, advocates, administrators, practitioners, and counselors will learn the importance of:
· supporting users to build communication skills for success;
· establishing productive cross-agency relationships for transition (including clearly defined roles and responsibilities);
· incorporating how students use AAC into existing goals (spelled out in educational, vocational, and independent living plans);
· documenting, building, and conveying each student's communication profile (for what works and what doesn't);
· nurturing users' self-determination, operational competence with technology, and skills for self-advocacy;
· continuously evaluating and updating users' communication inventories (to adapt new strategies, tools, and vocabulary for new environments).
In addition, attendees will come away with a transition planning tool to help guide discussion with students and service providers and help ensure accountability.
Ultimately, Goldman's message for this workshop is positive: AAC users ARE successfully attending college, obtaining employment, living independently, managing personal assistance, enjoying recreation, and developing meaningful relationships. But to do so users, family members, practitioners, school administrators and VR counselors must team up and coordinate services, information, and goals.
Interested? PIAT's workshop will take place on Thursday, January 27th, 2011 at ATIA Orlando.
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