Spotlight 4 Success
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Spotlight 4 Success
Connecting Through Technology
Ever wondered how technology bridges the silence for those who cannot speak? Melissa Pouncey takes us on a fascinating journey through the world of communication technology that's transforming lives every day.
Recorded at the Alabama Educational Technology Conference, this episode introduces us to Melissa's work with PRC Saltillo, a company developing breakthrough solutions for nonverbal and minimally verbal individuals. With 15 years of experience as a speech therapist, Melissa shares powerful insights into the profound impact these technologies have: "If you spend your life as someone who can't communicate with others, you can't connect, and giving someone that technology develops these really cool connections in someone's life."
Website: spotlight4success.com
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. We're here at the Alabama Educational Technology Conference in sunny Mobile Alabama and we're here with our special guest, melissa Pouncey. Welcome, melissa.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks for having me. This is fun.
Speaker 1:Melissa is with PRC Saltilla, is that right? Yeah, you got it right. Good job, okay. All right, melissa, tell us a bit about your work with PRC and what brings you to this conference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so PRC Saltillo is a communication technology company, so we are providing communication solutions for people who might be nonverbal or minimally verbal or just need some supplement for their verbal communication through a wide variety of ages. So here at the Alabama Educational Technology Conference we're really helping facilitate conversations around how communication technology could fit in classrooms and how it could be part of a classroom environment.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's wonderful, and I understand. You have some speakers here, some people that are speaking on, I think, referencing PRC, sartella and some of the things that y'all are doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. There are some sessions where people are talking about communication technology, how to utilize it in classrooms, and they've sent a lot of fun people our way to the table. So we've gotten to connect with teachers, special ed coordinators, other people that might not be familiar and need some time to play with devices at our table.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:Thank you for watching Spotlight for Success. I am Devin Pintosi, chief Operating Officer of American Book Company. We are located here in our headquarters in Woodstock, georgia. All of our materials are printed in USA. We have course books, e-books and online testing in grades K-12 in mathematics, ela, science and social studies. These materials are all designed to help students achieve higher scores on their state-specific high-stakes assessments. We guarantee score improvement. You can get free samples of our materials either in print or in electronic formats at abck12.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
Speaker 1:So what got you involved with consulting with PRC Sartillo?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I was a speech therapist for 15 years and I got to see firsthand what the magic of giving communication technology to someone could do in their life, right? So if you spend your life as someone who can't communicate with others, you can't connect, and giving someone that technology develops these really cool connections in someone's life and I got to see that firsthand. So when the opportunity came to have this position where I get to teach other speech therapists how to do that, I was all about it.
Speaker 1:Gosh, that sounds fantastic. Tell us a bit about your journey, like how did you become or decide you're going to go into speech therapy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I actually have a background in theater. Um and when I saw a speech therapist at work, what I realized was it's really just improv, so getting to have fun, make things up on the fly, um, but in a way that helps people, and I was really intrigued. So I have a theater background, got a master's in speech language, but speech language pathology which is a mouthful for anybody and then really just kind of took off from there.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is great, and tell me what you're hoping to get out of this conference today and tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's really just about meeting people, right. And having that opportunity to connect about what people might need and what surprises them. So what's been interesting is that, even though this might be a place for you know ed tech or we've met a lot of librarians or instructional technologists what we have found people asking about is their own family members. So you never know what somebody's story is when they come to talk to you. And that's been the best part is just hearing people's stories.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is wonderful. Well, thank you so much for speaking with us today.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me. This has been really fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm Melissa Pouncey with PRC Saatilo. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2:Thanks, awesome.