1049L - Robust Vocabulary Instruction for Students with Significant Support Needs Who Use AAC

Many students with significant support needs who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) struggle to read or understand grade-level words, concepts, and texts. Explicit and robust vocabulary instruction can play an important part in addresssing this need, with a call for greater investment of instructional time aimed at building students' receptive vocabulary and conceptual understandings. The session will focus on evidence-based practices for receptive vocabulary instruction and approaches for leveraging the high frequency words students are likely to have available on their AAC systems to express understanding of the words. The session will feature Building Bridges, a federally-funded, open-source project. Cycles of vocabulary instruction, planning resources, lesson plans, case examples and outcomes data from partner classrooms will be shared.