Caroline Woeber: Supporting AAC Users with Angelman Syndrome

This week, Chris interviews Caroline Woeber! Caroline is an SLP specializing in AAC at Children’s Hospital Colorado, including working at their Angelman/Chromosome 15 Disorder clinic. Caroline shares all about supporting communication and AAC in the hospital environment, training parents and caregivers about AAC, identifying next steps when teaching people with Angelman syndrome to use AAC, and more!

Before the interview, Chris and Rachel answer a fascinating listener question about a complex communicator at their school whose parents want the student to use sign language instead of AAC. However, the school is pushing for AAC only. Chris and Rachel unpack this question, noting that it is often best for complex communicators to have multiple familiar communication modalities available.

Key Ideas this Episode:

🔑Are we preparing students how to handle it when their preferred method of communication isn’t understood out in the community? If a student doesn’t want to use their AAC device unless there are communication breakdowns, you may want to role play dealing with intelligibility breakdowns and how to deal with that.

🔑People with Angelman syndrome often have problems with tremor, so be very thoughtful about things they may need, like keyguards. Some people with Angelman syndrome want to rip the keyguard off, so consider a fixed keyguard instead of magnetic or hinged keyguards.

🔑The Talking With Technology Camp (no connection with the TWT podcast) is an independent camp for AAC Users run by Children’s Hospital of Colorado and Easterseals for AAC users aged 6-21. It is an independent camp, and caregivers do not attend. Activities include inclusive fishing, hiking, swimming, talent shows, and more!

Links:

Talking with Technology Camp

First Steps Camp

Children’s Hospital of Colorado Chromosome 15 Disorders Clinic

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