This year’s theme, “Celebrating 40 Years of Progressive Leadership,” acknowledges TASH’s 40 years of generating change within the disability community and anticipates a brighter, more inclusive future for people with disabilities in all aspects of life. Each year, the TASH Conference impacts the disability field by connecting attendees to innovative information and resources, facilitating connections between stakeholders within the disability movement, and helping attendees reignite their passion for an inclusive world.
We encourage you to explore this website, connect with other attendees, and build your personalized schedule. You can also download the mobile app version of the website by visiting the App Store and Google Play and searching for "TASH 2015".
Communication is a most basic civil right and yet, even with TASH’s 40 years of progressive leadership, data indicates that 30% of students still leave school without a symbolic form of communication. Students who use a different, idiosyncratic, way to communicate other than speaking or signing understand much more than they can express. This session will highlight promising practices in developing communicative competence for students with complex communication needs. These practices will include feature matching, aided language modelling, and teaching communication as part of a daily instructional routine. Technical assistance/professional development models will be described to support systemic change. Participants will gain insight into the variety of modes individuals use to communicate their intentions and identify features of communication systems that match an individual’s current modes and intents and allows for growth as individuals become more sophisticated communicators. Video clips will be used to practice understanding of idiosyncratic modes of communication and the possible intents or messages they represent. Participants will be introduced to a variety of evidenced based strategies (i.e., topic boards, aided language stimulation, and peer modeling) to engage individuals in communicative exchanges. . Participants will also learn about the Communication Toolkit of PD modules developed by the University of Kentucky as part of the NCSC GSEG.
