July 9, 2025
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
00:00 - Welcome to Spotlight for Success
01:29 - Introduction to PRC Saltillo
02:24 - Melissa's Speech Therapy Background
03:35 - Connecting with Conference Attendees
WEBVTT
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Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company.
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We're here at the Alabama Educational Technology Conference in sunny Mobile Alabama and we're here with our special guest, melissa Pouncey.
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Welcome, melissa.
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Yeah, thanks for having me.
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This is fun.
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Melissa is with PRC Saltilla, is that right?
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Yeah, you got it right.
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Good job, okay.
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All right, melissa, tell us a bit about your work with PRC and what brings you to this conference.
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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.
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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.
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Oh, that's wonderful, and I understand.
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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.
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Yeah, for sure.
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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.
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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.
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Oh, that's awesome.
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Thank you for watching Spotlight for Success.
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I am Devin Pintosi, chief Operating Officer of American Book Company.
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We are located here in our headquarters in Woodstock, georgia.
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All of our materials are printed in USA.
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We have course books, e-books and online testing in grades K-12 in mathematics, ela, science and social studies.
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These materials are all designed to help students achieve higher scores on their state-specific high-stakes assessments.
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We guarantee score improvement.
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You can get free samples of our materials either in print or in electronic formats at abck12.com.
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We look forward to hearing from you.
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So what got you involved with consulting with PRC Sartillo?
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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?
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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.
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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.
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Gosh, that sounds fantastic.
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Tell us a bit about your journey, like how did you become or decide you're going to go into speech therapy?
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Yeah, so I actually have a background in theater.
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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.
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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.
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Wow, that is great, and tell me what you're hoping to get out of this conference today and tomorrow.
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Yeah, I think it's really just about meeting people, right.
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And having that opportunity to connect about what people might need and what surprises them.
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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.
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So you never know what somebody's story is when they come to talk to you.
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And that's been the best part is just hearing people's stories.
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Oh, that is wonderful.
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Well, thank you so much for speaking with us today.
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Thanks for having me.
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This has been really fun.
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Yeah, I'm Melissa Pouncey with PRC Saatilo.
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Thank you so much for joining us today.
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Thanks, awesome.
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