Day 1 – The Complex AAC Profile and AAC Assessment

1. The Complex Profile 
2. Assessment 
   • Assessment Principles 
   • General Considerations 
     • Assessment Components 
     • Assessment Over Time 
     • The Assessment Environment 
     • Types of responses 
   • Areas of assessment 
   • Tools used at The Bridge School 
     • Communicative Competence 
     • Communicator Profiles 
     • Forms & Functions 
     • Communication Matrix 
     • DAGG 
     • AAC Profile 
     • C-BiLLT 
     • Mc.Arthur 
     • Every Move Counts  
   • Supplemental tools for a Comprehensive Approach 
     • Social Networks 
     • Vocabulary Questionnaire 
3. Assessment Accommodations and Considerations 
   • Timing Considerations 
   • Access Methods 
   • Response Modalities 

Day 2 – Seating and Positioning,  Access Methods to Meet Complex Needs, High-Tech

1. Seating and Positioning: Why it matters for access  
   • Anatomy overview and terms 
   • Issues with posture 
   • Common seating issues, how to spot  
   • Equipment overview  
   • Seating for rest vs. seating for active participation 
   • Sensory considerations 
   • The impact of seating on vision 
2. Upright mobility overview and relevance to communication and access for: 
   • 24/7 communication access 
   • Language and vocabulary development 
   • Development of preferences and non-preferences’ 
   • Autonomy and self-determination 
   • Cognitive development and spatial problem solving  
   • Use of vision  
   • Social interaction  
3. Access methods 
   • Determining access methods  
   • Overview of access methods 
   • Types of switches 
   • Mounting 
4. Case studies 
5. Hands-on: AT  and Access Method Centers

Day 3 – AAC and Cortical/Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI)

1. CVI Overview 
   • CVI and its relevance in the AAC field 
   • The role of attention in CVI 
   • CVI Assessment 
     • The CVI Range and  
     • The CVI Protocol 
2. AAC and CVI 
   • Key Principles 
   • Considerations  for AAC Assessment 
   • Considerations for the Language Learning Experience 
   • Considerations for AAC Design 
     • Representation Mode 
     • Access Methods 
     • Layout Design 
     • Compensatory Strategies 
     • Multimodal Communication 
   • Considerations for Communication Partners 
     • Scaffolding 
     • Accommodations to the Communicative Environment 
     • Tools for the communication partner 
     • Strategies 
3. Instruction for children with CVI who use AAC 
   • Environmental Accommodations in the Classroom 
   • Multisensory Approach to Instruction and Routines 
4. Tools for integration 
   • The AAC-CVI schedule 
   • The AAC-CVI framework 
   • The AAC-CVI matrix 
5. Hands/on Centers 
   • Alternative Access Methods 
   • CVI Passport 
   • Environmental Accommodations 
   • Adapting instructional materials

Day 4 – Intervention Strategies & Integration

1. Communicative Competence 
2. Communicator Profiles 
3. AAC Trials 
4. Intervention Strategies 
   • Increased responsiveness 
   • Aided Language Stimulation (what we say) 
   • Modeling (what they can say) 
   • Expansion 
   • Setting up the environment 
   • Providing an alternate method and then modeling 
   • Bridget’s interaction strategies (Bridget) 
5. A Collaborative Intervention Plan 
   • Goal setting  
     • The overarching goals 
     • IEP goals 
6. Putting it all together, an intervention plan for each case study