29. Promoting Communication and Peer Relationships for Students Learning to Use AAC
Speaker: Elizabeth Biggs, Ph.D.
Session Handouts:
Presentation Slides
Handout 1-Children's Perspective
Handout 2-Play Menu
Handout 3- Ways to Talk and Play
Session Description:
Positive peer relationships are important for all children and youth, including students with disabilities who have complex communication needs and who are learning to use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) such as speech-generating devices. Yet, many questions arise for teachers or service providers working with students with complex communication needs. What role do adults have in promoting students’ communication and engagement with peers? Can adults do anything to support the development of stronger peer relationships? Is it reasonable to strive for mutual friendships, or will peer relationships always look more like “helper” relationships for students with significant disabilities? Are there ways to better integrate AAC into peer interactions? Can interventions involving peers help students build communication and language skills? This session will answer all of these questions and more by sharing tips and implementation steps that come from our team’s multi-year research project focused on enhancing social communication, engagement, and peer relationships for elementary-aged students and their peers. Attendees can expect to come away from the session with practical guidance and tools to implement peer network interventions as a way to help their students grow their communication skills while forming positive relationships and friendships with their peers without disabilities.
Credits: Act 48, ASHA, Psych
Audience: Special Education Teachers, Teachers who work with students who are Deaf-Blind, Speech therapists, General Education Teachers, Assistive Technology Specialists, Paraprofessionals
Speaker Bio:
Elizabeth E. Biggs, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University and a member of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. Dr. Biggs has worked extensively with students with intellectual and developmental disabilities across different settings, including as a former elementary special education teacher on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. Currently at Vanderbilt she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on inclusive education and access to general education curriculum for students with disabilities who have complex support needs, including students with autism and intellectual disability. As a researcher, she is focused on developing and identifying interventions that promote strong social, communication, and language/early literacy outcomes for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities who have complex communication needs (i.e., students who are nonspeaking or minimally verbal, and/or who use augmentative and alternative communication [AAC] such as speech-generating devices). She is particularly interested in AAC implementation, inclusive education, family-school partnerships, and peer relationships for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities who have complex communication needs.
Email: elizabeth.e.biggs@vanderbilt.edu