icommunicate Guide
| The icommunicate Guide |
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Welcome to the icommunicate GuideHere is a quick guide to our website which has many great features. We have tried to split things up into some logical sections. Take your time and look around the site and make use of the free resources.
A quick video guide to our website
The Adult and Child Sections
Our Child Section covers Normal Communication Development and Communication Disorders. There is information to describe how your child’s speech and communication skills develop, the milestones, and what you can do to help your child develop their speech and language skills. We also have a huge section on Communication difficulties and disorders, which includes information on a wide range of speech and language difficulties, hearing impairment, and literacy difficulties. We have a large section dedicated to Autistic Spectrum Disorders, and our Special Needs section focuses on those children with special needs and learning difficulties. All these sections link to the resource centre where you can find videos, downloads, information, ideas and strategies to help facilitate communication and run alongside speech therapy programs. Child Speech and Language Development For children with normally developing speech, language and communication skills, there is information, activites, games and programs to enhance these skills, and practical things parents can do every day to facilitate their childrens communication and learning. There is also a comprehensive set of milestones to measure your child’s progress.
Child Speech, Language, Literacy, and Hearing Disorders & Delays Some children have a communication delay or a disorder that does not allow them to communicate effectively. This can very frustrating and have an impact on their learning and social interaction. This section covers speech, language and literacy difficulties and disorders, and hearing impairment.
Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children The diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder appears to be increasing and many people have little or no knowledge about the condition. Our autism section contains information, strategies and activities that can be used with autistic children to facilitate and improve communication and behaviour.
Special Needs & Learning Difficulties Our Special Needs section will focus on children that have more complex difficulties with many aspects of communication. This section also has a heavy emphasis on the Total Communication approach which tries to find any and every way possible to enhance communication using a range on communicative tools. The Adult Section Our Adult Section covers speech and hearing difficulties among the adult population, acquired difficulties such as stroke, brain injury and neurological diseases. We will also have a section dedicated to adults with learning difficulties. Again, all these sections will link to the Resource Centre where you can find videos, downloads, information, ideas and strategies to help facilitate communication and run alongside speech therapy programs. Adult Speech & Hearing Difficulties This section covers speech and hearing and we focus on all communication difficulties in these areas including voice problems, adult dyfluency (stammering), speech difficulties and hearing impairment.
Adult Acquired Communication Difficulties (Stroke, Brain Injury, Neurological) Acquired and progressive disorders of communication can be devastating for all concerned. Whether the loss of communication is sudden from a stroke (CVA) or brain injury, or deteriorates slowly due to a progressive disease such as Parkinson’s disease, there is always a major impact on the life of the individual and those around them. Unfortunately, for many people in these circumstances communication will not return to a level it was prior to an accident or the development of a disease. However, there are many strategies and solutions that can make communication easier for individuals and their family.
Adult Learning Difficulties (Special Needs) The rights of adults with learning difficulties have only been recognised in recent years and after many years of institutionalisation these individuals are able to live full lives and make choices for themselves. Many however, have major difficulties with communication which can have a big effect on their abilities to cope in social situations and/or allow them to make choices and express their needs. i-communicate provides a range of ideas and strategies with a focus on Total Communication.
In this section we touch on the use of assistive technology and lo-tech devices to facilitate communication. With the advent of new technology, this is becoming a major growth area for communication and communication difficulties. The use of assistive communication devices, both hi-tech and lo-tech, are very much part the icommunicate philosophy. This website is all about communication and a total communication environment. This means we focus on every modality that can be used to facilitate communication. At icommunicate we plan to have a heavy focus on assistive communication and technology.
The Resource CentreThe Resources Centre is broken down into several sections and provides users with many options to gain information and resources. Our downloads will provide you with free PDF downloads containing information, resources, tips and strategies to facilitate communication and communication disorders. We will also provide extra resources to those people that become members of our global community (why not join? It free!!). We have videos containing tips and ideas to facilitate communication development, and communication disorders. This section provides Web Links to numerous websites that provide information and contacts regarding communication. There are links to many organizations and non-profit groups that provide support networks for people in your area. We will continue to add to these web links as the site develops. If you know of sites that you think should be on our links page, please contact us. Members AreaMembers of the site will be able to add their own stories, book and product reviews, videos, therapy ideas and activities. As we build our icommunity we hope that you will share information and activities with other members. If you have an activity, idea, experience, resource, video or some useful information that you think will help someone else, please send it to us and we will put it on our site. We want to build a library of resources that other people can use.
Online Therapy Servicesicommunicate offers a number of speech therapy services online. icommunicate as produced a number of programs and resources that you can use to enhance speech, language and communication. Our online users Forum - Ucommunicate
Our Forum section called Ucommunicate, gives everyone the opportunity to share ideas and information and ask questions. The Forum can also act as a discussion area, where we can discuss efficacy of treatment or the outcomes of research. Hopefully overtime individuals with communication difficulties, therapists, teachers, parents and professionals, will provide information, offer guidance and create a global community where we can all make use of each other’s knowledge and experiences. Other Features
The BookShop
Our BookShop provides you with a wide variety of books at greatly reduced prices, and links to reputable online book-sellers around the world. There are also some other sections to come at our Bookshop, Communication Devices, Educational Toys and Games, Educational products, Software, Health Products, Speech Therapy Resources. Eventually our shop should provide users with a multitude of products to develop and enhance communication, education and health.
Meet the team and find out our vision for the future.
Did you know you can become a member of icommunicate and be part of our global community, and it’s free. We really want to create a world class resource for sharing information, resources and ideas. So come on and join, its free, there are no hidden agendas, and we won’t bombard you with junk mail or pass on your information to anyone else. It’s very quick and easy to join (1-2 minutes). You will also get full use of the Forum, our interactive messaging system, access to more resources and access to the Members Section.Click here to register as a member of icommunicate. Looking for a speech therapy jobs? If you are a speech and language therapist / pathologist looking for a job, check out our Careers Page. This covers jobs all over the world. If you want to post a vacancy on our site, please Contact Us.
At icommunicate we want everyone to have the opportunity to access and learn from our site. That is why we have created a page relating to accessibility options. We will be looking at ways to enhance the accessability of our site, and may add some Access Keys if we think this is appropriate. We also want to inform you about many things that you can do on your Windows PC or Apple Mac to make access easier. Can’t find what you are looking for? Use our Search option - the small box titled “Search” near the top right of the page. If you have questions about communication or communication difficulties please put them on the Forum. If you have a question of a very personal nature, you can contact us directly, but time constraints will not allow us to answer general communication topic questions. The Forum is the best option for these types of questions because it can be answered by any number of experts in that field from around the world. If you have any other types of questions regarding the website, or ideas on how we can improve the site, please feel free to contact us directly. Using our site and Terms and Conditions For all information on our terms and conditions, etiquette when using the site, privacy policy, disclaimers etc go to the About Us section and check the menu down the left hand side of the page.
We want to encourage you to advertise with us. Advertising will help fund further developments on the site. Go to the Advertise With Us page to see our different packages and very competitive pricing structures.
There are lots of features on the site, and lots more to come, so take some time to look around. Keep checking back because we will be updating the site and the resources continually. One final note, although we offer lots of programmes and strategies around communication, if you have concerns about your communication, or the communication of a friend or family member, we also recommend that you see your local speech and language therapist/pathologist for a consultation. So, remember – at icommunicate, it’s all about communication. Communication information, programmes, resources, and sharing of ideas, so that everyone has the opportunity to be included, to make choices, to express their needs and feelings, to have independence, and to have a better quality of life.
Johan Langfield. |
