Name: Meaningful Goals and Supportive Instruction for Early AAC Learners
Start: 2026-11-06T12:15:00-0500
End: 2026-11-06T13:30:00-0500

Act now! We reach capacity and sell out every year. Registration closes Wednesday, October 28, 2026 — or sooner if capacity is reached.

Ticket Options

#TalkingAAC: Pre-Conference Workshop
Wednesday, November 4, 2026 | 12:00–4:00 PM
Kellogg Center, East Lansing, MI
- Choose one 4-hour workshop
- Cost: $100
- Full details click here
#TalkingAAC: Two-Day Conference
Thursday & Friday, November 5-6, 2026
- Build your schedule for this two-day event
- Cost: $300
- Price includes breakfast, lunch, & parking
- Full details click here

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.
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Need to update your app to this year’s conference? In the Sched app, go to My Account > Change Events> type in the name of the event #TalkingAAC 2026
A new Guest Buyer option lets you purchase tickets for others without creating a SCHED account. Once ticket(s) are selected, choose Continue as Guest.

Ticket Purchase - Error Message

If you receive an error message when purchasing your ticket, please contact TalkingAAC at [email protected] or 517-299-5200 for assistance.

⚠️ Please do not attempt to purchase again, as this may result in duplicate tickets.

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 28, 2026.

Stay Informed

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

Questions?

www.talkingaac.org

[email protected]

517-299-5200

Meaningful Goals and Supportive Instruction for Early AAC Learners

Friday November 6, 2026 12:15pm - 1:30pm EST

Big Ten C

Limited Capacity seats available

What comes first, the chicken or the egg? The same may be said of meaningful goals and skill-building interactions and instruction for early AAC learners. This 2-part session will begin with a deep dive into drafting meaningful goals for early AAC learners, then shift to explore opportunities and examples of skill-building interactions and instructional activities.

Early AAC learners who are developing skills related to engaging with their AAC often learn and interact in ways that are dynamic, may be difficult to describe and quantify, and are often on timelines that do not fit neatly into an IEP cycle. This poses a notable challenge for writing IEP goals, that by design, focus on students demonstrating defined skills in identified contexts. Another factor is that there is substantial onus on communication partners to provide ample aided language input, and responsive, skill-building feedback to support learning and foster foundational language development.

This session will look at the components of a goal and outline a framework for drafting goals that reflect the necessary learner + communication partner contributions for learning and engaging with AAC. This framework guides a goal writing process that: 1) describes student skills in nuanced ways, 2) considers a range of goal targets informed by communicative competencies, 3) includes necessary conditions for learning such as partner input and feedback, and 4) formulates goal criteria that reflects increases in consistency over time, and across partners and environments. A link to a workbook will be provided that participants can use and replicate to guide their goal-writing practices, and guide collaborative goal writing in teams.

The second part of this session will explore opportunities to develop AAC learner skills across communicative competencies. Through examples and discussion participants will engage in action-planning related to operational competencies. Participant input and contributions will guide conversation and exploration of resources to support social and strategic competencies. Linguistic competence will be discussed with a focus on the descriptive teaching approach. Sample lessons will be shared and developed to systematically identify the “language of the lesson”; purposeful vocabulary selection to shape AAC learning and concept development of key ideas across multiple and varied activities.

Presenters

Tabi Jones-Wohleber

SLP, Communication AACtualized, LLC

Tabi Jones-Wohleber currently works as an AAC-focused SLP supporting families through the WV Birth to Three program. She previously worked as a school-based Assistive Technology Team leader for 17 years. Tabi created the widely shared Model as a MASTER PAL training series, and has authored chapters on AAC implementations in various texts. Tabi has worked with Angelman Syndrome family organizations in multiple countries, and presents on AAC-related topics at local, state, national, and international conferences... Read More →

Friday November 6, 2026 12:15pm - 1:30pm EST
Big Ten C

General Session

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#TalkingAAC 2026

Tabi Jones-Wohleber

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