Name: AAC for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children in Early Intervention
Start: 2025-11-07T08:00:00-0500
End: 2025-11-07T09:15:00-0500

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

Friday November 7, 2025 8:00am - 9:15am EST

Multilingual and multicultural children with complex communication needs in early intervention (EI) and their families currently face significant inequities that hinder their access to essential support and resources in the field of speech-language pathology. Soto and Yu (2014) noted that many multilingual children, including those requiring augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention, still routinely receive services within a monolingual framework. Although there is limited quantitative research on AAC and multilingualism, qualitative studies consistently highlight a well-established need for this type of support, as reported by both families and providers. In alignment with ASHA’s Standard IV-G, which emphasizes cultural competency, it is our professional responsibility as speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to provide equitable AAC services to families from diverse cultures by striving to work effectively with them, tailoring interventions to meet their needs, and aligning interventions with the way the family functions (Monroe & Soto, 2024).
This session will explore the linguistic and cultural challenges of AAC within EI, the obstacles SLPs face in providing equitable services, and the systemic issues that limit access to appropriate AAC tools and support. Attendees will gain practical strategies to navigate these barriers, collaborate with families using a family-centered framework, and advocate for policies and practices that promote culturally responsive AAC services. Since language is deeply connected to an individual’s identity and culture, it is essential to take a sociocultural approach when selecting vocabulary for an AAC system (Soto & Tönsing, 2023). Due to variability across cultures and within family units, it is not recommended to simply translate the core vocabulary word list from one language to another. Instead, it is advised to consider the use of semantic primes when working with multilingual speakers (Soto & Tönsing, 2023). This presentation will discuss considerations for vocabulary selection for aided AAC systems by identifying semantic primes and incorporating additional information from caregiver and informant interviews, peer observations, language samples obtained from the natural environment, and developmental language milestones that may be appropriate for multilingual learners.
This session will also address Minuchin’s Structural Family Systems Theory, which views families as systems with specific structures and rules that influence interactions and problem-solving, aiming to restructure these dynamics to improve family functioning and communication. Additionally, the session will cover activity-specific interventions that allow family members to build new habits using evidence-based strategies (e.g., aided language input, expectant waiting, utterance expansion, errorless learning; Binger et al., 2008; Kent-Walsh et al., 2015; Senner et al., 2019).
The audience will have the opportunity to reflect on their own language ideologies, examining both implicit and explicit beliefs about language and multilingualism. Finally, we will discuss advocacy strategies to support children with complex communication needs from culturally and linguistically diverse populations at the family, local, state, and federal levels. Overall, this presentation will promote greater equity in communication access for multilingual and multicultural children with complex communication needs.

Presenters

Destiny Johnson

Speech-Language Pathologist, Multimodal Communication Speech Clinic, P.C.

Destiny Johnson, SLP, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a Bilingual Speech-Language Pathologist (English/Spanish) and the owner of Multimodal Communication Speech Clinic P.C. She is passionate about advocating for culturally responsive services and pushing for real change in how speech and language... Read More →

Hava Young, SLP, M.S., CCC-SLP

DV Therapy Speech and Language

Hava Young is a dedicated Speech-Language Pathologist with five years of experience and serves as the lead SLP at a multidisciplinary clinic in Los Angeles, collaborating with occupational therapists and ABA specialists. She focuses on providing culturally responsive care to multilingual... Read More →

Holly K. Mangus, SLP, M.S., CCC-SLP

Therapeutic Link For Children

Holly K. Mangus is a committed and compassionate Speech-Language Pathologist with six years of experience serving children from diverse backgrounds across various geographical and socioeconomic areas of Western New York. Throughout her career, Holly has developed a passion for and... Read More →

Friday November 7, 2025 8:00am - 9:15am EST

General Session

Tickets

#TalkingAAC 2025

Destiny Johnson

Hava Young, SLP, M.S., CCC-SLP

Holly K. Mangus, SLP, M.S., CCC-SLP

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#TalkingAAC 2025

Destiny Johnson

Hava Young, SLP, M.S., CCC-SLP

Holly K. Mangus, SLP, M.S., CCC-SLP

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