Continue reading »]]> TalkLink is raising donations to help fund the KiwiChat camp.
Please help us by clicking on the Givealittle donation box on our website.

Every little bit counts here, no matter how small your donation it will help make this a reality for the kids who attend this very special event.
Help spread the word to all your friends and co-workers via email or social media, it all helps

About the Cause.

KiwiChat Camp is a week long camp for school aged children using speech generating devices, their families and carers. The primary aim for the camp is for the children using the devices to improve their device use and become more competent communicators in a fun and relaxing atmosphere.

Intensive communication therapy will be provided each morning and the afternoon will involve activities and opportunities for everyone to practice the skills they have learnt in the morning. A separate sibling recreation program will be run as well as a parent information sessions. Mentoring will be provided by experienced adult communication device users.

Continue reading »]]> Please find below the handouts for the Balanced Literacy Approach: Positive Communication and Literacy Outcomes for all Children.

They are in PDF format so you will need a PDF reader to view these. To save the files, please open the document and select the save icon on the bottom toolbar.

Regards

Sally.

Invercargill – available for download until June 11th.

Emergent Handout

WTP Model and Assessment Handout

Four Blocks Handout

The Balanced Literacy Approach:

Positive Communication and Literacy Outcomes for All Children

This workshop will describe the rationale and principles underlying the balanced literacy approach and how it can be applied to children with complex communication and learning needs. The balanced literacy approach ensures that schools provide children with daily opportunities to engage in four key areas of literacy learning: guided reading for vocabulary and language comprehension skills, word instruction for phonics and sight word skills, self-directed reading for learning to choose books and read for pleasure, and writing instruction for targeting written language skills. All of these are critical for children with disabilities to develop conventional reading and writing skills. Specific strategies and adaptations will be outlined. Multi-level activities, which can be implemented with all students in a classroom, will be highlighted, as will ideas for older students who are beginning readers.

This workshop will be highly relevant to teachers, speech-language therapists, occupational therapists, support staff, parents, and others who work with children with developmental disabilities (e.g., cerebral palsy, autism, Down syndrome).

Continue reading »]]> 8 & 9 October 2013
Peachgrove Intermediate, Hamilton

Assistive Technology – Empowering living and learning

For the first time, the Assistive Technology Alliance New Zealand (ATANZ) is collaborating with ULearn to offer a two-day conference.

Registrations and Call for Presentations
http://events.core-ed.org/atanz

Showcasing assistive technology, and ULearn buzz

As the line between assistive and mainstream technologies blur, people with disabilities and special needs are increasingly using innovative solutions to support their daily living and learning. In response to this trend, the new conference format offers participants all the benefits of a specialist assistive technology conference with the excitement and buzz of ULearn day 1, where the latest innovations in mainstream and teaching technologies are showcased.

Who can attend?

The ATANZ conference is open to both ATANZ members and non-members and is relevant for anyone working with people with disabilities/special needs and those with an interest in inclusive practices.

What you can experience

• The first conference day will focus on the use of both assistive and mainstream technologies to meet the needs of students with disabilities/special needs (including those with complex needs).
• The second conference day with be delivered in collaboration with CORE Education’s ULearn (ULearn day 1) and will offer broad perspectives and practices that utilise current technologies to support the inclusion, participation and achievement of all.  It will specifically include workshops that are designed with ATANZ members in mind.

The conference will help you to build the participation and achievement of all and:

• Consider the ways in which mobile technologies (such as the iPad) can be used to support communication, living and learning
• Explore the latest innovations in vision technologies and the way mainstream technologies can support people who are blind or have low vision
• Investigate ways that technology can support learning and inclusion for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Explore a range of apps to support people with disabilities
• Transform learning environments to include all learners
• Showcase the latest assistive technologies (both hardware and software solutions)

Register Here: http://community.events.core-ed.org/login

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The TalkLink Trust has continued to run a number of courses designed to assist people who use or support the use of ACC tools and strategies during 2012. Feedback from these courses has been very positive and we will continue to run a number of AAC related courses during 2013. We will run these courses throughout New Zealand and we welcome contact from people who would be interested in helping to organise a course in their region.

For a list of current course’s and to register please click the Courses Tab or click here.

The courses include:

Creating Communication Opportunties Throughout the School Day

Supporting Students to Communicate Successfully (CAMP)

Supporting Adults to Communicate Successfully (CAMP)

Learn to use Boardmaker Software

To learn more about CAMP visit http://www.camp-training.com/index.html  This website has been created by Julie Tan, who developed the CAMP acronym whilst working for the TalkLink Trust.

In addition Dr Sally Clendon will be running two further literacy related courses in 2013. The Balanced Literacy Approach: Positive Communication and Literacy Outcomes for All Children workshop will describe the rationale and principles underlying the balanced literacy approach and how it can be applied to children with complex communication and learning needs.  Sally is a speech-language therapist and a consultant in the area of literacy for children with significant disabilities particularly those with complex communication needs. She is a Research Affiliate of the Centre for Literacy and Disability Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA.

Further information including a course timetable and registration information will be added to the website throughout 2013

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My Name is Gabi. I am Deaf can New Zealand Sign Language and use My communication device because people not know sign.

I have Cerebral Palsy. My favorite go to out with My Aunty Jennifer Burns.

The device I used is Dynavox communication because people not know sign.

In my spare time use my computer and email I go to shopping myself

I am happy I like working at Talklink I do computer work easy little hard

My Power Chair can bus and train with ramp when I broken my power asking people help me get to home and my communication computer tell people.

Continue reading »]]> I had my 30th birthday on 24th August 2011, with a party to celebrate last Thursday.  The party had music and happiness and I had a date at the party – that date is now my boyfriend ).  My family came to the party and were surprised to meet my boyfriend, and I was all shy about it.

Salome at TalkLink Auckland