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Your Back-to-School Resource for Communication Success 

Start the school year off right by training and flexing your AAC muscles with PRC-Saltillo’s AAC Learning Journey, one streamlined platform featuring a winning array of resources including e-learning classes and instructor-led trainings. You’ll score big with 24/7 access to invaluable educational resources that will equip you and your team with the knowledge you need to empower AAC communicators and help them achieve their full potential.

All-Star Learning Lineup

Whether you’re a parent searching for strategies to help your child who uses AAC or a clinician, educator, or other professional committed to expanding your knowledge, AAC Learning Journey has an array of resources tailored to your interests and time constraints.

• Live or eLearning options
• Expansive selection of free resources
• Select courses qualify for ASHA CEUs, including many eLearning resources
• Class durations that fit your busy schedule
• Beginner to advanced AAC topics
• Learning plans with courses curated to build your knowledge

Don’t Fumble, Get Started Today!

1. If you haven’t already, visit www.aaclearningjourney.com and check out an overview of the resources available. With product trainings, implementation strategies and much more, you’ll find a variety of content ranging in length to accommodate your schedule.
2. Upon selecting a course, you will be prompted to Enroll and either Sign In with your existing PRC-Saltillo account or Create an Account to complete course registration as well as to explore the entire course catalog from PRC-Saltillo.

Upcoming Live Trainings

When you’re signed in, be sure to check out the calendar on the lower right-hand corner of AAC Learning Journey’s homepage for live training opportunities on dates denoted with a purple dot. Stay in-the-know on our latest virtual and on-location trainings led by experts dedicated to a wide variety of AAC topics. These live trainings are an excellent way to immerse yourself in a subject you’re eager to learn more about while giving you opportunities to interact with the instructor and fellow participants.

• Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP) – Upcoming dates: 9/9, 9/26, 10/18
• LAMP at Home: A Webinar for Parents – Upcoming dates: 8/30, 10/11
• Customizing Your Chat Device: Part 1 – 8/17
• Customizing Your Chat Device: Part 2 – 8/18
• Customizing TouchChat: Part 1 – 8/24
• Customizing TouchChat: Part 2 – 8/25
• Getting Beyond Basic Requesting – Upcoming dates: 9/12, 11/7
• Effectively Teaching AAC: Beyond the Therapy Session – Upcoming dates: 8/29, 11/7

Set Your Own Pace this Back-to-School Season

The coming weeks are busy with all the hustle and bustle that a new school year brings. AAC Learning Journey allows the flexibility to learn at your own pace while gaining knowledge you can put into practice immediately.

Where are you going with AAC? Join today to kick off this Back-to-School season and lead your team to victory!

Forever in Our Hearts as a Friend, Colleague, and Champion for the AAC Community

Passionate. Joyful. Artistic. Fun. Caring. These are just some of the words that are consistently top of mind for Jane’s closest friends and colleagues as they reflect on her life and legacy. Words somehow don’t seem sufficient to describe this amazing woman who embodied an enthusiastic zest for life that was truly contagious, impacting everyone who knew her and challenging us all to make the world a better place.

“Jane’s energy and passion for AAC radiated in everything she did,” says Dave Hershberger, PRC-Saltillo’s CEO. “Her excitement around our ambassadors and our teams who support AAC communicators was unmatched in the field.”

Stemming back to her days attending Temple University in the early 1990s, Jane was a strong advocate for AAC users, volunteering her time as an AAC Mentor with the Augmentative Communication and Empowerment Supports (ACES) Summer Program through the Institute on Disabilities. This is where she met Kirk Behnke who was a fellow student and the coordinator for the ACES program at the time.

Today, Kirk is PRC-Saltillo’s Training & Implementation Services Manager and shares, “She was a pure energy force with whomever she came in contact — Especially at ACES. Her heart, passion, and drive gave individuals who could not communicate in traditional ways their empowerment. This program gave her a venue to be her honest and true self, as a teacher, mentor, leader, confidant, and friend.”

As a strong champion for AAC, her career led her to serve as an AAC Consultant first with Assistive Technology Works (ATW) beginning in the late 1990s and then with PRC from 2002 until 2010. She brought that same level of enthusiasm and passion to her role as the AAC Language Lab’s Training & Implementation Specialist starting in 2010 until her recent passing.

Sarah Wilds, VP, Product & Service Development at PRC-Saltillo remembers, “Jane envisioned the AAC Language Lab as a place where you didn’t need a master’s degree in speech-language pathology to get great AAC implementation ideas. She was committed to showing support teams how to be creative and have fun with AAC.”

Both nationally and in her home state of Arizona, Jane made immense contributions that will undoubtedly have a positive impact in the AAC field for decades to come. From participating in community-based AAC groups to developing and curating support materials for the AAC Language Lab, Jane gave countless presentations on implementation, serving as a leader in her field and a dependable go-to resource within the AAC community.

“She practiced what she preached and loved helping teachers, therapists, family members, and end users teach and use AAC,” shares Kara Bidstrup, Certified Product Owner and Stakeholder Manager for PRC-Saltillo. “She loved working with our ambassadors and bringing out the best in them. Jane made AAC friends and colleagues everywhere she went and her contributions will not be forgotten.”

One of Jane’s greatest loves was working with PRC-Saltillo’s ambassadors and other adult AAC users. She founded PRC-Saltillo’s Toastmasters Club on May 1 of this year, empowering members to connect virtually using technology to improve communication, presentation, and leadership skills. She remarked in Prescott, Arizona’s The Daily Courier, “Everybody deserves a voice. With Toastmasters they can become better speakers while building confidence and leadership skills.”

“I was excited when Jane asked me to join our Toastmasters chapter,” says Anthony Arnold. “This is a wonderful opportunity for ambassadors to improve their writing and public speaking skills. The Ambassador Program has a brighter tomorrow thanks to this investment.”

Ambassador and Toastmaster member Carson Covey adds, “I worked with a lot of speech therapists and speech therapist assistants in my life. Not even one of them had as much passion about AAC as Jane had.” Fellow ambassador and Toastmaster Mackenzie Sanders remarks, “She helped me get involved in being an ambassador and she was always so positive about my blogs! She got me involved in Toastmasters and I love it!”

As exuberant of a powerhouse as Jane was in AAC, she was just as passionate and engaging in her personal interactions, making fast friends with everyone she met. “Jane had a gift of making everyone she met feel like they were loved, important, valuable, and her best friend forever,” shares Jennifer Edge-Savage, AAC Consultant, Eastern Massachusetts for PRC-Saltillo. “She lived life fully and loudly and kindly and thoughtfully with that mischievous grin and enormous laugh.”

Sarah adds, “She could find common ground based on a piece of jewelry someone was wearing, a mention of a city where she knew someone, or a common interest (and she had LOTS). Because of this networking, she could connect people in completely different countries and from completely different industries.”

Jane embraced every day and every experience to the fullest and inspired others to do the same. One year during ATIA, Jane spearheaded a trip to the Ice Bar in Orlando, Florida where patrons are encouraged to wear fur coats and hug furry penguins, all while sipping drinks from glasses made of ice. Kara Bidstrup says, “of course she rented the fur coat to wear! On a different trip, I went with her to the gospel brunch at the Hard Rock Café. These were things I wouldn’t most likely do on my own, but they were so fun. She did this type of stuff all of the time and squeezed the most out of life.” Russell Cross, Language Systems Product Manager at PRC-Saltillo adds, “It was never simply a ‘day out’ with Jane — it was an adventure. And what adventures she has had!”

Carson reminisces about spending time with Jane at an ATIA conference. “I heard Jane say ‘Carson, come see me.’ This time I am thinking ‘what did I do wrong?’ So I followed Jane to a different room. Most of the ambassadors called her mom, so I said, ‘did I do something wrong mom?’ She said no and I looked down and saw five different standing robots. Jane said, ‘Carson, say walk on your device.’ None of the five robots worked. Jane promptly kicked every robot across the room with colorful language. I said that is partly why they did not work!”

Jane was also a highly creative soul and loved spending time creating ceramics and completing the firing process in her very own kiln. Jennifer recalls, “My favorite memory may be listening to her having a wonderfully animated conversation with my 3-year-old, aspiring artist daughter at ATIA about clay techniques, resulting in my daughter commissioning a very specific piece of art from Jane and her newly-acquired kiln. In true Jane fashion, a ceramic orange fish with one fin smaller than the other, who was NOT Nemo, arrived soon after!”

Jane was a true friend. She will be remembered forever for the smiles she shared so freely and for the way she, in Sarah’s words, “modeled a world where every single person had something to say — and who helped make that possible via the work she did with the AAC Language Lab and AAC ambassadors.”

While reflecting on Jane’s life and legacy, Kirk remarks, “Jane would want to be remembered as someone who took charge of her own life and made a difference. She would want to be remembered as a fellow colleague who supported the mission that Everyone Deserves a Voice.”

When asked how she thinks Jane would want to be remembered, Mackenzie replied, “Jane would probably want to be remembered for her passion for AAC and for the people who use it and the amazing way she made them feel! She was the most positive person I have known in life!”

Some people come into our lives and leave an indelible mark that will last a lifetime. “I can’t remember exactly when I first met Jane because it feels as if I’ve always known her,” Russell shares. “Some friends are like that. It’s as if they’ve always been there, even when the calendar tells you differently. I suppose that’s because the power of a friendship isn’t measured by the clock but by the heart. It’s timeless.”

Rest in peace, Jane. Thank you for teaching us all to live each moment to the fullest while looking to the future with hope, optimism, joy, and a touch of your trademark playfulness! #SeeJaneSmile

Take a few moments to update your TouchChat app or the Chat software on your NovaChat to the newest 2.37 version and experience the latest improvements to these powerful communication solutions.

 New 2.37 TouchChat App Feature:

Now available in the following versions of the app: Classic TouchChat, Classic TouchChat with WordPower®, TouchChat Discover, TouchChat HD, TouchChat HD with WordPower, and TouchChat HD Hebrew.

• Darius, the first male adult African American English digital voice, has now been added to the Acapela suite of voices in the 2.37 update, giving augmentative communicators another diverse voice.

 New 2.37 Chat Software Features:

• New Backup/Restore setting gives you the ability to back up all your user settings along with vocabularies, allowing you to restore them to the same device or transfer them to a different device quickly and easily.
• Darius, the first male adult African American English digital voice, and Taylor, a female adult American English digital voice, have now been added to the Acapela suite of voices in the 2.37 update, giving augmentative communicators an even broader range of choices.

 Noteworthy Library Change:

• WordPower25
  • Added core to category pages for easy access

 Learn More!

Designed for active, on-the-go communicators, the NovaChat 10's generously sized screen is perfect for users with vision challenges and access needs. This popular, lightweight speech-generating device is better than ever with a variety of new features that elevate its performance to the next level!

 Exciting Upgrades to the Latest NovaChat 10

• Larger 11" full HD 2560x1600 resolution screen for clearer, sharper images.
• A simple double tap wakes the screen, making independent use easier for individuals who require different access to hardware buttons.
• Tempered glass screen protector for added durability and performance.
• Splash- and dust-resistant design exceeds industry requirements for protection against solids and liquids.
• Single USB-C port for convenient charging of device and amp.
• Small vibration via the haptic feedback function helps provide tactile input when making a selection.
• Specs, with handle: Active Wrap - 11.5" L x 9" W x 1.9" D; Weighs: 2.7 lbs.; Classic Wrap - 2" L x 8.8" W x 1.8" D; Weighs 2.75 lbs.
• Approximately 10 hours of battery life under continuous usage.
• Wraps now available in black for timeless style.

Pre-loaded with the most comprehensive WordPower® Suite and a wide range of additional vocabularies, this portable speech-generating device offers solutions to fit different communication abilities and needs. Ask your local consultant for details and guidance on the suitability of the NovaChat 10 for the augmentative communicator in your life!

Special Note: The NovaChat 12 will be available for purchase through September 30, 2022. Questions? Please contact your local consultant.