Speaking up and Spelling It Out : Personal Essays on Augmentative and Alternative Communication

by Fried-Oken, Melanie; Bersani, Hank A.

• ISBN13: 9781557664471
• ISBN10: 1557664471
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-03-01
• Publisher: Paul H Brookes Pub Co

Summary

Going beyond the typical augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) issues explored in most textbooks, this essential collection gives readers the opportunity to hear AAC users talk about their lives. Twenty-eight diverse individuals who use AAC, from teens to senior citizens, give first-person accounts of how living with AAC has affected them. Through their personal essays, poems, and interviews, readers will hear their perspectives on the issues that matter most to them, including education, employment, technology, and family. The contributors reveal what using AAC is all about and what works (and doesn't work) for them as they face the daily challenges of communication. These touching and humorous stories will give everyone - particularly AAC professionals, speech-language pathologists, therapists, educators, families, and friends of AAC users - insight into how to improve communication supports for the people they care for, from AAC users themselves. And all

Table of Contents

About the Editors	vii
Contributors	ix
Foreword	xi
Pat Mirenda
Acknowledgments	xv
Chapters Cross-Referenced by Topic	xvii
Prologue: The Communication Dance	1	(12)
Janice Staehely
Fishes, Kayaks, Dances, and Funnels: An introduction to Speaking Up and Spelling It Out	13	(16)
Melanie Fried-Oken
Hank A. Bersani, Jr.
Sand and Sea	29	(2)
Gregory M. Haslett
Confessions of a Blabber Finger	31	(16)
Gus Estrella
If I Do Say So Myself!	47	(10)
Peg L. Johnson
Nobody Knows Me but Me, Myself, and I-the Three of Us	57	(20)
A. J. Brown
Communication My Way	77	(10)
Tara M. McMillen
A Fish Story	87	(10)
Mick Joyce
One Life, Two Countries	97	(8)
Solomon Vulf Rakhman
My Early Life and Education	105	(10)
Sharon P. Price
To Play Music	115	(2)
Gregory M. Haslett
Reflections on a Kayak Expedition in Scotland	117	(10)
Spencer Houston
The AAC Manufacturer's Tale	127	(8)
Toby Churchill
Partners with a view	135	(8)
Laurence c. Thompson
M. Terry Thompson
Liberating Myself	147	(6)
Willam L. Rush
Empowerment	153	(8)
David Chapple
Reaching for the stars and Almost Touching Them	161	(4)
Arthur Honeyman
Others Say So, Too	165	(6)
Peg L. Johnson
butt look: a different perspective	171	(2)
Arthur Honeyman
How I Communicate	173	(8)
Gail M. Grandy
Our Lives, Our Community, Our Caregivers	181	(8)
Sharon Jodock-king
Alan R. king
Life With Cerebral Palsy	189	(6)
Chris Featherly
Down Memory Lane	195	(6)
Thomas J. Boumans
How I Got Here	201	(6)
Mike Ward
With Communication, Anything Is Possible	207	(8)
Jim Prentice
Making People Laugh and Cry	215	(6)
Rick Hohn
I Almost Died,but Somehow I lived	221	(10)
Alan R. King
Just an Independent Guy Who Leads a Busy Life	231	(6)
Michael B. Williams
Spaghetti Talk	237	(8)
Gordon W. Cardona
More than an Exception to the Rule	245	(10)
Bob Williams
Father Warrior Of a CP Warrior	255	(4)
Arthur Honeyman
AAC: Past Lessons and Future Issues	259
Hank A. Bersani, Jr.
Melanie Fried-Oken