Course Descriptions, Learner Outcomes, and Speaker Disclosures
Presenter: Caroline Musselwhite
Emergent Literacy Meets AAC – Supporting Individuals with Complex Challenges
The prospect of teaching students with complex challenges to begin to read with comprehension and begin to write generatively can seem overwhelming. This presentation will cover: assessment for students who are difficult to assess, shared reading (developing a love of reading, and supporting language through reading), emergent writing (beginning to write with symbols, words, and the alphabet), self-selected story listening (listening to and interacting with a range of engaging books across a range of genre), alphabet interaction and phonemic awareness (understanding spoken language at the word, syllable, and letter level). Each section will provide a brief overview plus strategies to integrate AAC into teaching. Throughout the day, you will see student samples, videos, and creative use of both light and high tech supports.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Describe at least two strategies for integrating AAC into each of the components of emergent literacy instruction (shared reading, predictable chart writing, writing with the alphabet, independent reading, and alphabet and phonological awareness.
- Identify at least three new light tech and high tech tools, and explain how they can be integrated into emergent literacy instruction.
- Analyze assessment tools for students with complex challenges.
Disclosure
Financial – Receives royalty options from Attainment Co. for Learn to Work book and consulting; receives royalty options from Building Wings for Readtopia curriculum, consulting, and paid for airfare to Chicago meeting.
Nonfinancial – No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
Presenter: Katie Squires
Spellbound: The Fascinating World of Spelling and Language
When students are stuck on spelling a word, they are often told to "sound it out." For many words, this is not a meaningful solution, and students are left wondering why does isn't spelled "duz" or why one doesn't start with a "w" or what in the world the "w" is doing in the middle of the word two? Spelling then becomes a memorization task, and students assume that spelling is illogical and does not make sense. In fact, the opposite is true! English spelling is well-ordered and consistent (Bowers & Bowers, 2017). When we utilize research-based principles for teaching written spelling, students no longer need to memorize random strings of letters, but instead they can use scientific inquiry to investigate and create a testable hypothesis about why
a word is spelled a certain way.
There are some questions that must be asked to determine the interrelationship among the linguistic elements that contribute to a word's spelling. Pete Bowers (2009, updated 2023) proposes these four questions meant to uncover the morphophonemic nature of English orthography:
- What is the sense and meaning of the word?
- How is it constructed? (In other words, can you identify any morphemes? Are there spelling changes that occur because of suffixes?)
- What other related words can you find? (Morphological relatives share a historical root and a modern English base. Etymological relatives share a historical root (but not necessarily a base).
- How are the graphemes functioning in your word? (Do they function for words across the morphological family? Does the word origin influence the grapheme choice? Is what you thought was a grapheme actually an orthographic marker?)
When students are taught how to analyze a word’s morphological structure, they not only improve their spelling skills, but they also make statistically and clinically significant gains in vocabulary, phonological awareness, and reading (Bowers, Kirby, & Deacon, 2010; Haight, 2022; Hastings & Trexler, 2021; Kirby & Bowers, 2017; Murphy & Diehm, 2020). These researchers, among others, discovered benefits for students from preschool through 12th grade, for those with typical abilities as well as those with learning disabilities, and for students who do not speak English as a first language.
Students who are taught how to approach spelling through a structured and explicit process become confident spellers instead of unsure guessers. They also become motivated to continue learning because nothing motivates like understanding.
Learning Objectives:
- Participants will be able to describe the linguistic underpinnings of literacy.
- Participants will be able to identify types of spelling errors.
- Participants will select appropriate tools to explain a word's orthography.
Disclosure
Financial – Is a Professor at Central Michigan University and receives a salary. Was offered a stipend for this presentation, but requested that it be donated toward a scholarship fund.
Nonfinancial – Is a founding member of the Structured Word Inquiry Research Vanguard (SWIRV).
Presenter: Kathleen Scaler Scott
Practical approaches to all things fluency: Stuttering, cluttering, atypical disfluency,
concomitant diagnoses
Given the new information we are learning from people who clutter, people who stutter, and people with atypical disfluencies, modifications to existing assessment and treatment protocols are warranted. The presentation will cover the areas below and use case illustrations of the principles.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Describe changes to the evaluation process to obtain a holistic picture of client needs.
- Analyze readiness for change as applied to cluttering.
- Decide upon treatment focus and timeline.
- Identify activities other than strategies to include in treatment.
- List strategies to address barriers to fluency treatment in clients with concomitant diagnoses.
Disclosure
Financial – Receives royalties from publishers for books that may be mentioned in this talk: Pro Ed Inc., Slack Inc., Taylor & Francis Group.
Nonfinancial – Is Co-Founder and Cohost of free podcast on cluttering, Cluttering Conversations.
Presenter: Daphne Hartzheim
Empowered Collaboration: Giving Autistic Individuals a Voice for Self-Advocacy
through Functional Communication.
This seminar focuses on empowering autistic individuals through functional communication, enabling them to become effective self-advocates and replacing challenging behavior with communication. Participants will learn about nuanced autism in the female population. Further, through collaborative efforts between Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs), Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs), and families, participants will explore innovative strategies for teaching meaningful communication skills tailored to the individual needs and strengths of autistic individuals. By emphasizing the importance of giving voice to autistic individuals and promoting their self-advocacy, this seminar aims to break down barriers and create opportunities for greater functional independence and inclusion within society. Attendees will leave equipped with practical tools to choose treatment targets and to support the development of functional communication and self-advocacy skills in autistic individuals, leading to enhanced quality of life and greater self-determination.
Learning Objectives:
- Participants will be able to describe nuanced autism, especially in the often underdiagnosed female population.
- Participants can systematically identify treatment targets for clients with autism needing varied levels of support.
- Participants demonstrate ability to identify communication responses to replace challenging behavior and to increase self-advocacy.
- Participants will be able to list the benefits of collaborating with their learners, parents, and other professionals.
Disclosure
Financial – Receives a salary from Utah State University.
Nonfinancial -- No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.