Wanted to share another word cloud!  This is from one of my students using Puente 84.  It’s pretty awesome to see a mixture of English and Spanish words!  I looked at her “Top 10” data from one week and thought it was cool to see that two words made it into the top ten in both languages!

It’s exciting to see some of my students independently code-switching!  It’s especially fun to see that she uses both languages in the same activity.  For example I see her talking about the month and days of the week in both languages most likely during morning meeting.  Way to go!

Wanted to share a favorite video of mine!  I’m sure many of you have already seen it!

“Don’t leave anybody asleep in their wheelchair!”  – This line really resonates with me.  I find that often I see students in wheelchairs not participating as much as they should be!

Don’t forget that language is so much more than requesting!  And so much more than a book of nouns!

“We want to READ.

We want to WRITE.

We want to SPEAK.

We HAVE the RIGHT.”

This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about presuming competence.  I wish I could reach every special educator, therapist, and teacher I work with (and beyond!) and get them to see the value and importance of presuming competence.  It’s an uphill battle, but one that I won’t give up without a fight!

I thought I’d post some resources I’ve found helpful, insightful, or interesting!

Check out the Uncommon Sense blog.  It has some great posts including two of my favorites about perception driving expectations and giving AAC users a large vocabulary so they can show their competence!

This resource by Dr. John Hussman is a must read.

And of course, Kate Ahern’s “I Believe” statement, which everyone working with our specials students should read!

What is presuming competence?  Essentially, it means that if you’re not sure about a particular kid, for whatever reason, assume that the student can do more!

Douglas Biklen explained:  “Assume that a child has intellectual ability, provide opportunities to be exposed to learning, assume the child wants to learn and assert him or herself in the world.”  Check out his article on the subject here.

If you haven’t watched this video of Dr. Cheryl Jorgensen talking about presuming competence you should!  It was well worth the 30 minutes!  These are my favorite lines:

“Presuming competence of every student is the least dangerous assumption that I can make.”

“I don’t think it is just a matter of having the right supports, I think that the core belief of presuming competence is the foundation.  It’s the foundation on which other things are certainly built.”

This is the statement that resonated most with me.  At school and at conferences, I often hear about providing the right supports to students.  As an AT Specialist, I’m often lobbying to get students the correct supports including AAC devices.  But, if educators, administrators, therapists, classroom aides, parents, etc. don’t presume competence these supports are likely not going to be used to their fullest capacity.  We must have a foundation of presuming competence in order utilize those supports in the best way!

I love the phrase “presume competence!”  I hear it all the time.  I use it all the time.  What’s interesting is that I just don’t see it very much!

If you’ve been to any conferences or trainings lately, I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase too.  It’s all over special education blogs, AAC facebook groups, etc.  But what strikes me as interesting is that even with so many people yelling “PRESUME COMPETENCE!!” there are still so many more who aren’t.  And that makes me sad! And mad!

I know it’s not always easy when you’re not getting the response you hoped for or you don’t get a response at all.  But please don’t give up on these kids!  It just means you haven’t found the right way to teach them yet or unlock their potential.  As an AT Specialist, I often read previous reports when I have a student to screen.  I often read recommendations for a student to use a Big Mack until he learns cause and effect or an 8 cell so as not to overwhelm her.  Then when the student is not using those devices, they are abandoned and I hear “well nothing works.” Give your students a chance!  If you give them access to more language, model it, and have high expectations… I bet you are going to be surprised!

This year I was lucky enough to share some of my experiences at Closing the Gap.  My partner, Nicole VanderZouwen, and I spoke about getting started with the AAC evaluation process.  We spoke at length about what types of systems we consider and our experience with adapting systems based on access.  Check out our presentation here!

One of the follow up questions we received was “do you have a specific form or process you use to get started?”  We do!  And we’ve been refining our process for the past year, though I still think we’re not all the way there yet!  You can download our form here.  We also created a document to the AT Referral Process for team members to reference.

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