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We came here tonight to talk to you 
guys about um AAC, which is alternative

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and augmentative communication. I'm the 
speech therapist at Buckner Elementary and

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um tell them I'm Aaron Marvin and the one, the 
only I have a little presentation about this

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just from some things that we did last year. So, I 
was going to kind of just scoot over this quickly

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um and then sort of give you an idea of what I do 
in when I do a classroom visit. That's kind of the

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um the most beneficial part of um AAC 
awareness month that we do at Buckner.

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And so kind of I'll just kind of do that with 
you guys so you can kind of get hands- on with

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um the devices just like the kids do in our 
classroom when I do that kind of visit. And

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um anybody who you know maybe has a connection 
to this may already have a child who's using a

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device at home or maybe not. Um but that's just 
kind of what we're talking about today because

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So, um, at Buckner, our one of our kind of mods 
is that everyone does everything. Um, and so,

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um, it's important to us that every student 
is included in everything that we do. Um,

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and so in order to do that, everybody needs to 
be able to communicate. So, um, I this is just

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this was last year, so we have actually a couple 
more device users this year. Um, but we have,

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we're pretty school. We have 678 kids. Um, and 
we had 11 users last year, one middle school,

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and we added two new kiddos that use devices. 
So, we have 12 AAC users this year. Um, and then

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we have some students that are deaf and heart of 
hearing. Um, so, and we have a highly structured

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class for communication and behavior, and we have 
one for functional academics. So um we need to

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support students um across a range um and some 
students that are using a device or previously

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used a device are in general education um set. So, 
um, okay. So, when I was thinking about doing some

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activities for AAC awareness month, um, my biggest 
perceived barriers were time because none of us

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ever have enough time because I'm doing therapy 
with kids all day long. Um, I wasn't really sure

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that students and teachers would be interested 
outside of my kind of small world of students

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who were using devices. I wasn't really sure who 
would be interested. Um, and I wasn't really sure,

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um, who all would be responsible for this. And 
so in reality, um, as soon as I opened it up,

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everybody jumped right in. I just put out this 
little signup genius. I crossed my fingers and

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I was like, "Please, someone, one person want 
me to come to your classroom?" And then I,

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it filled up in like a day. And I had to find more 
days that I could move my sessions around to go

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to class. And then that filled up and then more 
people were saying can you come to our classroom

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and then suddenly my middle school was like 
we need to do something like this here and so

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um all the things that were barriers were 
really in my head more so than in reality.

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Um so my classroom visits sort of look like this 
and I'll that's what we're going to do in just a

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minute. Um they were about 10 to 15 minutes. This 
year I'm finding they're like more like 20 to 30

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um because the kids have had a lot more and deeper 
questions. Um so I scheduled them last year only

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during morning meeting. This year I was able to 
take some windows of time that were a little more

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flexible and just open them um that were worked 
in my schedule and so some people had signed

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up at the end of the day or some other time. Um 
and thankfully Dee was able to coner some extra

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iPads for me to take and some um and some low tech 
devices. So, I kind of give a brief intro, which

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is what I'm going to give you guys, and then time 
to just experiment, play around with the devices,

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um and see what it's like to use one and be a 
user. And then, um we had some time for questions.

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So, um, then I we talked about communication 
devices. We talked about ASL. Um, all different

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ways that people communicate other than using 
your voice. So, I would ask the kids like,

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what are some ways that you communicate other 
than using your voice? And these were some of

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the things that they came up with. There was a new 
one this year that I did not anticipate. And um,

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the kids said, "I send messages in Roblox." I was 
like, They do. And in Minecraft and in um Fortnite

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and so they talk to each other through video games 
now, which is not I that wasn't even in my head,

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but that is a way that kids are communicating 
with each other now. And you don't have to be

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a verbal communicator to do that. Like they do 
have some games you use a microphone and you like

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physically talk to each other, but some games like 
you're typing to each other. Um to make this year.

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Um so then we also did visits the classrooms and 
that allowed students and teachers to kind of get

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the experience of using um an AAC device and um 
then I was getting all of these questions at the

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end of the sessions like the kids had I realized 
they needed a safe space to ask questions about

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how their friends were communicating because they 
had a lot of questions about the students in their

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class that were communicating in different ways, 
but they didn't know what was okay to ask and what

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was seemed rude or mean or inappropriate because 
they're trying to be respectful and kind friends

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and they but they wanted to know things like why 
do you do this or how did you get this or what

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happens if your battery runs down or what what if 
you want a word on here that isn't there or they

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had all kinds of questions and um So suddenly 
I realized we needed to capture that because

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I was only answering them in the class that I was 
in. So um we came up with a little video project.

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And so I had several students that were really 
good friends and communication partners to my

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students that were using AAC. And so I talked to 
them and they volunteered to be the journalists.

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And so I took all of those questions that 
I was getting in the classrooms and we

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um came up with a little like interview process. 
And so they interviewed their friends and got the

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answers to those questions. We took video of all 
of that. And then that was a lot of editing. I

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didn't include the whole video because it's really 
long, but it was a lot of editing. So um we were

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able to share that out to our whole school. So 
that way, you know, if this really good question

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got asked in a second grade classroom, the fifth 
graders still got to hear the answer to it.

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So um that was it. And then um it gave a really 
good leadership opportunity to kids who were

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already taking that step to be good friends and 
partners to our students and already wanting to

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learn about how to communicate with them. So um so 
that actually worked out super well. So our whole

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video was I really should like make another video 
of the outtakes because that would be super funny.

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But like you know someone like knocking their 
device on the floor when they're in the middle

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of the conversation all kinds of things. Um so um 
this was kind of an example of um one of the um

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interview question of the interview questions. So 
um like questions were like what's your favorite

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food? Um what do you like to do when you're 
at home? Um what do you do in the classroom?

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um what's your favorite animal or favorite 
related art? So through the kinds of and they

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just wanted to know like about their friends 
like what do you like because they realized

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they didn't know that much about the students 
that were in the classroom with them and they

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just wanted to know stuff like you know that's 
what kids talk about like what's your favorite

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animal? What's your favorite food? So um so then 
we did some schoolwide activities. We put up some

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um posters and bulletin boards and then we led 
the pledge at a schoolwide assembly. Um, and then

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the STEM teacher contacted me and said, "Hey, I 
don't have a home room for you to come and visit,

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but I kind of see there might be some overlap 
here." And absolutely there was. So, we came up

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with this um collaborative activity and we gave 
the kids I was able to there was like some field

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trips and some flexibility and I was able to like 
move my schedule around and free up like an hour

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for two days in one week. And so we did kind of a 
twoday lesson where we gave the kids a challenge

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and this was in October so we did a trick or treat 
challenge. So like how would you help a new friend

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that just moved into your neighborhood and um 
does not communicate verbally? How would you help

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them trickor treat? Like what So the kids had to 
think about what do you need to say while you're

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trick-or-treating? It's kind of a limited number 
of things that you really really have to have

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while you're out there. Um and what needs would 
you have? It's going to be dark. You have to be

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able to move with it. You have to be able to use 
your costume. You know, all that kind of stuff.

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Um, so it was really fun to see them think through 
that challenge. So, we kind of made them a little

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decision making grid to guide them. This is a 
third grade class. Um, and then they came up with

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all kinds of cool ideas. So, they built it into 
their costume. They made it on a slat bracelet.

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They made a trick-or- treat bag with questions on 
it. Um, they One of the things that I don't know

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um one of the the things that I didn't think 
of but of course the kids thought of was

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um they wanted they wanted to put on there a 
way to say I'm tired or I want to go home or

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I'm done. And that didn't even enter my mind. But 
kids were like sometimes you're done when you're

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trick-or-treating and you're ready to go home. And 
they wanted they were like oh my friend's going

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to need to be able to say I'm done. I want to go 
home. Um, so my kids don't want to go home until

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like all the lights are off. Um, so um, so then I 
last year I was split between Buckner Elementary

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and Olden County Middle School and I started to 
think about like how am I going to bridge this

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gap in the middle school setting because it's a 
different setup and we don't have like a a cozy

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classroom where they are all day and a morning 
meeting and a teacher who can like make time

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because every minute is content time and nobody's 
going to want me to come in class and take a half

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an hour and talk about A to C. And so I was trying 
to think about how to how to make that work. But

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it's kind of turned out that they did because um 
one of my students um some of my time with him

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was to go to his family time at Old County Middle 
School. They have family um a couple times a week.

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And um the students in that class approached me 
and said, "How does this work? Like how can we

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talk to Drew?" and it's like, well, you can talk 
to them with your voice, but you know, they just

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wanted to be more involved. So, we were able to we 
talked to the teacher and figured out a day and we

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did um an AAC awareness lesson there and they 
really loved it. Um, and to my great surprise,

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Drew, who was my um, AAC user in my class, 
he definitely normally did not appreciate my

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chance to get to participate in all the activities 
that we were doing during the day. He jumped right

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into this and was like showing other kids how to 
how to use. So, that was really awesome to see

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him want to kind of read. So, um, it was a good 
opportunity. And then I realized that in my head

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it was like these kids really just don't want to 
do this. That was not the case at all. They just

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were lacking an opportunity. And so I realized 
that we just needed to create opportunities for

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kids to be in the same space because once they 
were in middle school, they weren't sharing

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space together as much anymore as they were in 
elementary school. There was a lot more time where

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my students that were in highly structured classes 
were in the general education classroom and

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spending time together during art and music and 
PE and was the same group of kids every time. But

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in middle school, it's like you're not in those 
same like we're not going out of class to those

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things. You might be in PE with these kids, but 
you might be in art with these kids next time. And

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um so it wasn't a cohesive group anymore. Um, and 
it was really just not as much opportunity. Um,

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so I tried to think about how could we create 
a space for that. So we created breakfast and

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games in our middle school class. So I just got 
some donuts and put some games around that my

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students were pretty familiar with and already 
pretty good at. So they kind of knew how to

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um be leaders and use their device while they 
were communicating. We just invited people to

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come and they came and they played and they shared 
breakfast and then um more students started asking

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their teachers to sign up and like can we go and 
so we made that option open during their family

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time and um we filled up the whole year because 
they wanted to come. So um then we were able to

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kind of you know foster some relationships um out 
of that. So reflecting on that, I realized that

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um it was really a lot of those barriers were 
more in my head than they were in anybody else's

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and I just needed to to take a step. So um what 
I'd love to show you guys is kind of what we do

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in a classroom visit um and give you a chance to 
sort of get over here hands on with these. So um