Name: Giving a Voice to our Youngest Learners: Providing Access to High-Tech AAC in Early On
Start: 2025-11-06T12:15:00-0500
End: 2025-11-06T13:30:00-0500

Registration Overview

Act now! We reach capacity and sell out every year.
Registration closes Friday, October 24, 2025 — or sooner if capacity is reached.

Ticket Options

#TalkingAAC: Pre-Conference Workshop
Wednesday, November 5, 2025 | 12:00–4:00 PM
Kellogg Center, East Lansing, MI
- Choose one 4-hour workshop
- Cost: $100
- Full details: talkingaac.org/preconference.html
#TalkingAAC: Two-Day Conference
Thursday & Friday, November 6–7, 2025
- Build your schedule for this two-day event
- Cost: $275
- Price includes breakfast, lunch, & parking

NOTE: To attend all 3 days, you must purchase both a Pre-Conference Workshop ticket and a Two-Day Conference ticket.

Registration & Session Planning

All registration and session planning will be handled via Sched:

Click the green Log In or Sign Up button below to access Sched.
Then proceed to purchase your ticket(s).
After you’ve purchased your ticket(s), you can plan which sessions you’d like to attend.

Meals, Parking, & Lodging Meals (Included with Two-Day Conference)

Continental Breakfast – Thursday & Friday
Lunch & Drink – Thursday & Friday

Parking (Included)

Overnight Guests:
Get your parking pass at hotel check-in and display it on your dashboard.
Non-Overnight Guests:
- Register your vehicle on-site via QR code (posted near registration).
- Bring your license plate number.
- Do not register your vehicle more than once per day.

Note: Please consider carpooling to reduce on-campus traffic.

Lodging

View the 2025 Lodging Options for hotel blocks and discount codes.
Reminder: Pre-Conference Workshops begin at 12:00 PM on Nov. 5 to allow extra travel time.

Terms & Conditions

#TalkingAAC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established for continued education.

Refunds & Ticket Transfers

Refunds available up to 10 days before the event (Sched & Stripe fees are non-refundable).
Ticket transfers (e.g., to a coworker) may be approved before October 24, 2025.

Continuing Education

All attendees will receive a Certificate of Attendance.
Note for 2025: SCECH hours will not be offered this year.
ASHA CEUs are not provided. SLPs will receive a Verification of Attendance form to self-report professional learning hours to ASHA.

Networking & Swag

Networking Event – Details coming soon!
Merchandise – #TalkingAAC gear available for purchase on-site.

Stay Informed

Watch for updates from #TalkingAAC and Sched with session details and reminders as the event approaches.

Questions?

www.talkingaac.org
info@talkingaac.org

517-299-5200

Thursday November 6, 2025 12:15pm - 1:30pm EST

During our work with children and families participating in Early On within Ingham County, we identified a gap in access to high-tech AAC for our youngest learners. Driven by a review of the evidence, we identified support and encouragement for this practice (Walters, Sevcik, & Romski, 2021) which was further amplified by the guidance provided by the Department of Education “Dear Colleagues” letter in January 2024 for these practices to occur within early intervention services. Our Early On supervisor elected to purchase Assistive Technology services with a focus on the provision of AAC devices for the 2023-2024 and 2024-25 school years. With the goal of providing equitable access across the county, we focused on building internal capacity amongst primary service providers. This included building capacity for identification, implementation and coaching with high-tech AAC across all SLPs in our program. Additionally, we spent time building capacity with non-SLP providers to identify toddlers on their caseloads who would benefit from SLP consults for AAC. During the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, our teams implemented AAC with over 100 young children and their families across Ingham County. The recipients primarily involved a non-speaking toddler, however there was a wide-variety in their various medical diagnoses (e.g. ASD, CP, Down Syndrome, other genetic syndromes), clinical presentations (e.g. suspected CAS and/or severe SSD) and/or educational eligibilities (e.g. ASD, ECDD, SLI, SXI, OHI). The presentation will include discussion of what we consider a “success” in regard to provision of AAC devices within our work in Early On. It is also worthwhile to note that high-tech AAC was accessible to all children receiving Early On across the county, including areas that often have been observed to have more limited access to outpatient therapy resources (which may be a more “traditional” access point to obtaining AAC). We also identified that as Early On home visitors we are uniquely positioned to utilize our parent coaching principles to teach parents how they can serve as communication models and partners for their child using AAC which is further supported by research (Biggs, Carter & Gilson, 2019 & O’Neill, Light & Pope, 2018). Finally, as children and families approached their transition to programs and/or services with their local school district at age 3, we were able to offer families the opportunity to consider their insurance-benefits for a privately-owned AAC device or assist in the transition with their district-loaned AAC device. Additional discussion on the impact of beginning their local district services while already possessing AAC will be shared. The presenters also would like to acknowledge the belief that the provision of AAC devices to toddlers is not only a support for their human right to have accessible communication but also supports our work to pursue more neurodiversity-affirming therapy practices.

Presenters

Ashley Diener, M.A., CCC-SLP

Speech & Language, Ingham ISD

Ashley Diener, M.A., CCC-SLP – Speech Language Pathologist, Ingham ISD Early OnB.A. & M.A. in Communicative Sciences & Disorders from Michigan State University

Lori Gill, M.S., CCC-SLP

Ingham ISD

Lori Gill, M.S., CCC-SLP - Speech Language Pathologist, Ingham ISD Early OnMaster of Science in Speech and Language Pathology from Nova Southeastern University; Bachelor of Arts in Audiology and Speech Sciences from Michigan State University

Thursday November 6, 2025 12:15pm - 1:30pm EST

General Session

Tickets

#TalkingAAC 2025

Ashley Diener, M.A., CCC-SLP

Lori Gill, M.S., CCC-SLP

Get help with the event

#TalkingAAC 2025

Ashley Diener, M.A., CCC-SLP

Lori Gill, M.S., CCC-SLP

Sign up or log in to save this to your schedule, view media, leave feedback and see who's attending!

Get help with the event