Pati King DeBaun

Making Language Visible is a strategy used to help parents and teachers make language or communication visible for the child or student with significant language impairments. Infusing these strategies into routine activities and breaking down the strategies based on the facilitator’s comfort zone can foster greater overall success. This session will demonstrate how the levels of Making Language Visible can be used by the facilitator of young toddlers and beginning communicators at home, in preschool, and early childhood programs. This session will address a broad range of students, and how to layer communication and literacy supports into everyday activities at …

Behind every AAC student is a team of professionals, support staff, and family. It is vital that all team members are on the same page. These straightforward and practical strategies will help both parents, teachers, and therapists understand the importance of the underlying strategies for teaching students who use AAC systems. If you are practitioners, these approaches can be used to train other professionals within the student’s environment including regular education teachers and support staff. Supported tools will be suggested to make sure that all team members are on the same page!  

If the notion is that we presume competence with all students, then there should be no presumed restrictions on the opportunities we present to students. Students of all ages need the benefits of both fluency within conversations and the ability to generate language at any given time.   Pati King DeBaun, M.S., is a Speech Language Pathologist and Consultant specializing in assistive technology, Creative Communicating, Park City, UT.

This session will describe components needed to get started communicating with all students, regardless of what tools you have available. A multitude of ideas and strategies will be demonstrated that support students’ participation within classroom activities to help jumpstart their communication. Even students with the most significant disabilities can be a part of classroom activities and learn. Strategies for teaching a comprehensive communication program that aligns with core content standards will be shared. Ideas for communicating effectively with peers in the classroom, participating in class discussions and learning important core skills will be discussed. Pati King DeBaun, M.S., is a …

“I understand why kids [with impaired speech] scream. It’s frustrating not being able to speak and feeling as a mostly invisible being. Do you know the vintage movie, The Invisible Man? That’s how I felt. My clothes were there, but the body and the soul felt like nothing. How can you live a life getting treated like that?” –Jamie Burke There are few things in this world more frustrating than the feeling that your voice has been silenced. Whether you are struggling to articulate your thoughts or simply being ignored, the sense that your ideas are trapped in your mind …