Posts by Katie Lyon

About Katie Lyon

Katie is a speech pathologist and AAC consultant who has been working with young children and adults with complex communication needs for the past nine years. She has had worked in various roles including as a coordinator of the Non-electronic Communication Aid Scheme and as a Regional Communication Service in Victoria as part of the state-wide Communication Access Network. She has a keen interest in supporting families, teachers, direct support workers and therapists to access information about alternative and augmentative communication and assistive technology through education and training. She currently works part time with Spectronics and part time with the Communication Resource Centre at Scope.

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Clicker 6: My Favourite Things!

Clicker 6: My Favourite Things!

Yes – you heard right - Clicker 6 is soon to be released here in Australia! I have been fortunate enough to get my hands on a copy to have a play and I can tell you – it is fabulous! Clicker 6 builds on the acclaimed support features of its predecessor. Basically it’s new features mean more student independence and less teacher time required! …

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Symbols Symbols Everywhere!

Symbols Symbols Everywhere!

You really are spoilt for choice these days with a number of symbol sets available, with more being developed all the time. What are the things you need to consider when selecting a symbol set to use with the people you support or in your community projects? Some symbol sets are small with limited vocabulary, some are huge, others have been developed for a …

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Everybody’s talking about Talking Mats

Everybody’s talking about Talking Mats

Talking Mats are something that I have found really useful with some of the adults with complex communication needs that I have supported and I thought I would share with you what they are, why you would use them and where you can go for more information. Originally developed by Joan Murphy and Lois Cameron from the AAC Research Unit at the University of …

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Tips for creating successful social stories!

Tips for creating successful social stories!

Social Stories are fabulous tools for teaching social skills to ALL children and adults with special needs. ANYONE who is having difficulty in a social situation can benefit from using a Social Story to learn more about that social situation and how to respond appropriately.

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October is AAC Awareness Month!

October is AAC Awareness Month!

October is Augmentative and Alternative Communication Awareness Month – sounds like a bit of a mouthful eh?!?! Let me explain….. Augmentative and Alternative Communication is defined as an area of specialised clinical and educational practice that provides communication options and interventions for people with complex communication needs. The term augmentative in this context means supplemental or additional to speech.

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Eye really just don’t know!?!?!

Eye really just don’t know!?!?!

Are you supporting someone who you think might benefit from eye gaze technology? Are you totally confused as to the range of options that are available? In the last five years, eye gaze technology has improved dramatically. Many people with significant physical disabilities can use this access method to control computers or speech generating devices to do such things as chat to their classmates, …

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FAB idea! Frenchay Alphabet Boards

FAB idea! Frenchay Alphabet Boards

I really love these new low tech alphabet boards called the Frenchay Alphabet Board or FAB for short! What is really unique about them is that they have a non-slip surface and a built in keyguard which is a bonus for people with a tremor or other access problems which makes it difficult to isolate where they are pointing. They are suitable for anyone …

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FREE Online Training – new sessions for you!

FREE Online Training – new sessions for you!

You may be aware of our FREE Online Training Sessions that are available for a number of different software programs including Boardmaker, Communicate: Symwriter, Clicker 5 and Texthelp Read and Write Gold. The sessions go for about an hour and are delivered by either one of our teachers or speech pathologists who have had experience using the software. You can attend as many as …

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Australian and New Zealand Equipment Trial Scheme – now taking online applications!

Australian and New Zealand Equipment Trial Scheme – now taking online applications!

Just wanted to make sure you knew that our Equipment Trial Scheme is now even easier to access – we have made the application process much quicker with an online application form! We think it is essential to trial any high technology speech generating device before making a decision about whether it is right for you and so that’s why we offer a trial …

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Nursery Rhymes to Sing See and Sign

Nursery Rhymes to Sing See and Sign

For those of you who are working with young children, I wanted to let you know about Nursery Rhymes to Sing See and Sign. This is a great FREE resource that is available from the Scope website.

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