Posts by Katie Lyon
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! …
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 …
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 …
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.
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.
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 …
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 …
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.



