Gail Van Tatenhove is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a degree in Communicative Disorders in 1977. Her professional experiences include clinical work in a self-contained special education center for children, birth to 21, and as an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) specialist on a state-wide evaluation team. Currently, Ms. Van Tatenhove is in private practice specializing in AAC with children and adults and works as a clinical consultant with Semantic Compaction Systems in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Ms. Van Tatenhove's private practice includes working with children and young adults included in a variety of educational programs and with severely challenged adults in vocational and community settings. Ms. Van Tatenhove founded AACell (pronounced "excell"), a program designed to employ augmented communicators as AAC clinical support personnel and is Managing Director of The MaxSpeakers, a Central Florida AAC users support group. Recently, Ms. Van Tatenhove was also named Vice President of the Board of Directors of Innovative Communications of Central Florida, a not-for-profit adult day program for individuals with communication disabilities.
Ms. Van Tatenhove is a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), Florida Speech-Language-Hearing Association (FLASHA), International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC), United States Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (USSAAC), and the Florida Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (FSAAC). She served as founding president of FSAAC (1991-1995) and is currently serving once again as president of her state AAC association (2000-2001).
Ms. Van Tatenhove's contributions to the field of AAC include development of a school-based loaner bank of AAC devices; participation in ASHA federal projects focusing on AAC implementation; facilitator of the ASHA special interest group in AAC; editor of the ASHA newsletter for the AAC Special Interest Division, board member for the United States Society of Augmentative and Alternative Communication; author of Power In Play+ and MinTalk, two Minspeak Application Programs; visiting professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; and numerous publications and national / international presentations.
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