Partner Strategy Kits

In 1980 Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish wrote a parenting book, How To Talk So Kids Will Listen, and Listen So Kids Will Talk where they introduced strategies to help parents encourage their children to engage in meaningful conversations with them.  Interestingly, many of the interaction tips we share with professionals are reminiscent of the concepts in this 40 year old book! We want to give our therapists, teachers, paraprofessionals and PARENTS an easy way to learn about and try these techniques which are based on research and clinical practice, to help our students WANT to communicate with us!  Our Partner Strategy Kits are designed with this idea in mind!  Each kit has a video explainer and example.  You'll also find a flyer you can share with your team and families OR hang on your wall as a reminder!  Keep tuned as we build these kits to share with you!

Descriptive Teaching Model

Printable Flyer/Poster
This flyer/poster helps partners at school help students talk about academic concepts using the words they ALREADY have available on their communication board, book or device.  No need to keep programming and adding symbols.  Most of the symbols you need are ALREADY THERE!  

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Poster/Flyer Download

Explainer & Example Videos
This 2 1/2 minute video talks about why the Descriptive Teaching Model helps your student learn more effective use of their core vocabulary words AND makes your life easier! If you are teaching academics concepts to a student using AAC, this one's for you!

Beyond Yes/No Questions Cue Kit

Print & Go!

Printable Flyer/Poster
This flyer/poster helps partners think about one of the most common missed opportunities to help students expand their language and communicate more specifically and effectively.  Parents and school teams can both benefit, so send this one home AND print the poster for your classroom. 
PRO TIP- This strategy is GREAT for all students, no matter how they communicate!!

Explainer & Example Videos
This 3-minute video talk about why we use Open Ended questions, the difference between Open-Ended and Yes/No questions, and some ideas of how you might reword those questions, to get the MOST language and communication out of your student!

Communication Temptations Cue Kit

Print Me!

Printable Flyer/Poster
This flyer can be printed to create your own Partner Strategy Notebook, sent home with families, used as a handout after you share this tip with your team!  The file size is large enough to print as a poster for the school hallway, to add to a reminder bulletin board or to place anywhere else you might need to remember this handy tip!

Explainer & Example Video
In this 2 minute video, Jenna shares some easy tips how to encourage your students to communicate for the purpose of requesting actions or objects, by simply not leaving everything motivating lying about!  Encouraging students to use communication to meet their needs, in real life scenarios, helps them use these skills in their day to day situations.  

CAUTION:  Students KNOW when you are making them "perform" unnecessarily.  Do NOT make a child use their AAC system to request if you CLEARLY already know what they want.  You can pretend you don't know, or even admit you think you know, but need some clarification.   Communication should be REAL at all times, so be careful to be kind and not demanding with this tip! ​

Expectant Pause Cue Kit

Printable Flyer/Poster
Print and share with your team, family and even partners around school! You can even print on poster paper to decorate your space and remind everyone of the strategies you are targeting for the adults!

Print Me!

Explainer & Example Video
In this video, Jenna explains the concept of Expectant Pause and joins you as you practice what it really feels like to "Count to ten before you say it again!"  3 minutes

Expansion Strategy Cue Kit

print me!

Printable Flyer/Poster

Think about printing your flyers and sending home to parents.  Plan a meeting afterward to talk about the strategy, make a short video of you using the strategy with their child to share with them!  Have them make a video themselves as they practice at home. TIP:  Give families an easy, familiar activity at first such as reading a favorite book and commenting as they go!

Explainer and Example Video:
In this short video Jenna explains the Expansion Strategy.  Please feel free to share this publicly available YouTube video with families! 4 minutes