Core Words Communication Board: an overveiw

These past months, I have been using Topical Communication Boards to support more independent language use with my students (be sure to check out earlier blog posts for some examples.  Here are some: 1, 2, 3) . These boards contain the specific language needed to communicate while playing with an app, book or game.  They are extremely helpful when working with AAC device users or with clients that have limited verbal output (like my students with autism who have difficulty initiating without echoing what I say). 

But, what happens when my kiddos pick a game that I don't yet have a board for? Does that mean, we just try the activity without the support?? NOT ME! I prefer to use visual supports as much as possible. Visual supports help boost confidence, set clear expectations and decrease verbal prompting.

That's why I created a Core Words communication board.  Find it on boardmakerachieve here.

If you are not sure what core words are, please be sure to check out Carole Zangari's and Robin Parker's PraacticalAAC blog  or Bruce Baker's explanation  for more information. Core words are not just "the new best thing,"  they are necessary components of every day communication. Core words make up about 75-80% of what we say each day. They are the powerful words that can be used across situations and ages.  Kids, adults, teenagers.... we all use core words. They can be used again and again and again across situations and places. Core words are highly functional: they stand in the place of more specific nouns (e.g. "it," "that," "there,") where there is no access to specific vocabulary and they represent functional actions (e.g. "do," "make," "go," "get,").

I decided to start focusing more and more on core words when making my topical communication boards. But as I did this, I found with the combination of core and "fringe" words (fringe words being the words that can be replaced with less specific words such as "that"), my core words that were repeating across boards, started to shift locations.  This made my users slightly confused and increased scanning time to find icons.

Check out these two examples:

By keeping the pronouns on the left, I shifted some available spaces and question words no longer made sense on the left hand side of the board.  While I tried to keep things the same as much as possible, each board will have a different number of verbs and nouns, making it difficult to keep things consistent. 

I decided to start keeping my most frequently used core words in the same place on each board. On top, I decided to put my less frequently used core fringe words that were specific to the activity.  (please note: my core word selection is not all inclusive, and it might still change.   I was simply limited by the 8x11 space).  

Keeping icons in consistent locations, decrease visual scanning, and increase automatic motor responses (think about how you use automatic motor responses to type on a keyboard).  Many AAC devices already use motor planning as part of its language system (e.g. LAMP, PRC, WordPower).  This past weekend, it was great hearing Patti Solomon-Rice talk about the importance of keeping icons in the same location on AAC devices.  Hearing her speak about that, validated my desire to try this new format for my topical boards.

So, when a kid asked to play angry birds the other day and I didn't have a board made, I didn't sweat it!  I used my core words sheet. Then, I quickly made the angry birds topical board after the session.  It took way less time to make a board using this new format.

Here is what I came up with (find it on boardmakerachieve here):

If you haven't read yet how I use these topical communication boards, it's pretty simple. I point to each word as I say them (making sure my client is looking at the board while I do this).  If I ask a question, I may prompt the student by immediately pointing to an icon on the board so they do not respond with echolalia.   If the person independently says something (with or without using the board), I repeat and expand by saying and pointing to each icon. Or if they are struggling to verbally find a word, I may point to the board to help them get started. 

Here are some sample phrases we might work on with this angry birds board: "you do it," " my turn," "get bird," "put it there,"  "get triangle" "it go over" "it go down."

If the student needs help learning how to use the board to vocalize, I start teaching the student by hand under hand guidance to help the student to point to each icon (only if needed).  As quickly as possible, I fade my physical prompts to gestural prompts.  I always try my best to allow the student time to respond on his own as well.  I usually find that with practice, my students start vocalizing without prompts and even without pointing to the board. In addition, they start using vocabulary that has never been used before in unique combinations. Prior to using the boards, my students may have simply used behaviors ( crying, grabbing etc.) to access a turn with a game or with the iPad.  Using the boards, most of my clients (e.g. with autism) start learning to initiate communication attempts, either by pointing or by vocalizing, while engaging in fun activities.   For my AAC users that already initiate language but are working on using novel utterances, the boards serve as a visual guide or reference to what they are searching for as they navigate the device. 

Using these boards often reduce frustration, prime the student to expected language to be used, expand utterances, and help students use language in unique word combinations not otherwise used before.  They serve as visual support to the oral language we provide and they validate icons as a communication form for my AAC users. 

Hopefully this core words sheet helps in a pinch.  It can also be modified to make new topically related boards really quickly! 

Hope you find it useful!

The Picture Communication Symbols ©1981–2011 by Mayer-Johnson LLC. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Used with permission.

Boardmaker® is a trademark of Mayer-Johnson LLC.

Go Away Big Green Monster

Go Away Big Green Monster app is actually an interactive book, a really fun one that my students really gravitate towards. It can be read with or without narration or with a song. 

What's great about this book is that each page lends itself to talking about individual body parts using multiple descriptions.  With the turn of each page, the monster gains more and more parts to his face. I stop on each page to comment about each body part the monster gains by using a full sentence. Depending on the student and his goals, I use different types of sentences:  "two eyes," "he has 2 eyes," or "he has 2 big, yellow eyes."  The addition of body parts page by page allows for plenty of repetition sentences with similar sentence structure.

While I read the book or use the app, I use this communication board to enhance and support language. Most of my clients use 1 descriptor at a time, but in some cases up to 3 can be used per body part.

Then, as the book continues, each body part disappears one by one.  I use the turn of each page to practice use of the negatives such as "no hair" or "he has no nose."

I point to each icon on the topical board as I model the intended sentence for each page. The student can then either point to the icons to formulate sentences, or as in most cases, the student will point and simultaneously vocalize each sentence.  After s/he comments on what he sees, the student can touch the body part on the app, which makes a fun sound as it wiggles. As the student is first learning the app, I also have him/her find the same body parts on his/her own body as well.

To generalize the skills learned in this activity, I use the same topical board while playing with "Mr. Potato Head." Most of the time, I will play "Mr. Potato Head" directly before or after using the "Go Away Green Monster" app.  The student can use the board to request pieces (e.g "blue eyes," "2 ears") and sometimes we even comment on what the "Mr. Potato Head" is missing in order to request pieces.  For example, if the student comments, "he has no hair," or "no hair," I respond "that's right, he has no hair. Let's find some." 

I also use the same topical board with my "One-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater" doll right after playing with the app. I model how the same words on the topical board can be used to describe other monsters that look different. 

The app is one my students ask for quite often and I love that the language is so easily generalizable. There are tons of fun things to talk about in the app and book!  The visual supports appear to help student initiate the use of new comments and help add more descriptions to their language as well.

Hope you find it as fun and productive as I did!

The Picture Communication Symbols ©1981–2011 by Mayer-Johnson LLC. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Used with permission.

Boardmaker® is a trademark of Mayer-Johnson LLC.

Balloonimals for core word practice

Balloonimals is a  basic app that goes far! The app is designed so that the person using it can select a color balloon, swipe to inflate the balloon.  Then, the user touches and moves around the balloon on the iPad in order to change it into the balloon animal.  The balloon can be changed in one long movement or in multiple, shorter movements. After it is created, the user can choose to take a picture or continue to inflate the balloon animal so that it will pop!

There are plenty of learning and language opportunities for this app. It is a great app to practice using CORE words (basic but POWERFUL words that can be generalized across multiple situations)  such as, "make," "do," and "more."

The opportunities I chose to focus are incorporated into the visual support below.  The visuals create guidance for both partially verbal students and ones who use AAC. This visual support can be found on boardmakerachieve.com or click here

Instead of focusing on requesting color balloons, I decided to work on creating opportunities to use core words and also to ask "what is it?"

This is how I use it: 

1. I allow the student to pick the balloon.  I model "I do" on the topical board as I inflate the balloon. 

2. Then, using the visuals and gestural prompts, I suggest the student say "I/ you do" or " I/ you make" or the expanded utterances "I/you do it," or " I/you make it."  Then, we can start making the balloon animal. 

3. After a few attempts to make the balloon animal, I move the iPad away from the user. This creates opportunity to practice " What is it?" or " Do more" or expanded utterance "make it change."

4. I model asking the question "What is it?"  The student can also practice making a guess what they thing it is with "it is + animal."  

5. After it is created, I model "make it big," or "make it pop."  It usually takes a few pumps at the end to make it pop, so I usually inflate it a little and work on the comment "it is big" or "make it big" or "do more."

There is a lot to work on with this app. For many of my kids it allows practice of some core words rather than the use of carrier phrases. Sometimes the hardest part working with this app is picking the language to practice!

Hope you have as much success as I do!

The Picture Communication Symbols ©1981–2011 by Mayer-Johnson LLC. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Used with permission.

Boardmaker® is a trademark of Mayer-Johnson LLC.

Learning to ask "where are we going?" and "where is + (location)?" with visuals and google maps

I wanted to share this new activity I made to help teach answering and asking *functional* where questions. 

I created this "book" in boardmaker, found on boardmakerachieve.com here: http://www.boardmakerachieve.com/Activity/1868262

Often times with students with autism, low tech paper visual supports are sufficient in order to help them understand and use the expected language for the activity.  But, to make it slightly more engaging, I saved the Boardmaker book as a PDF and saved it in iBooks so that it could be read from my iPad. (This also helped the book be more available to me across my various locations). 

The most fun part about the activity is that most of the activity is completed in song. What's great about using song is that it allows for natural repetitions of expressive language within the activity. 

I sing each page to the tune of "where is thumbkin."  For example this page:

Would sing like this: " Where is are we going? Where are we going?" Then, I would stop and ask a comprehension question "Where is the place where we buy food?" The students can use the two icons to point to as a means to answer the questions. 

Then, on the next page here:

I sing: "Going to the store, going to the store!" 

In the next verse, we  practice the *functional* question: "Where is the store? Where is the store?" and follow with: "There it is! There it is!"

A great follow up activity is to practice looking up where places are located on google maps or using yelp. Following up with a google or yelp search makes the asking of "where" questions really functional (and not just for fun practice). 

Hope you find this activity as fun as I do!

Free ebook with GREAT learning opportunities!

I downloaded this FREE ebook just the other day. I have to say, after using it 3 times, I am already impressed. It is a simple story about a hedgehog named Ned who is looking for a home for the winter. He stumbles upon homes that are already taken and the residents inside tell Ned “this is my home.” Then, the residents tell Ned to check somewhere else to stay for the winter.  

The book provides a great way for my kids with autism to practice intonation and stress (e.g. “my home.”).  There is the opportunity for the student to record his/her own voice in order to hear what his/ her stress sounds like. If you prefer, the narrator can read the book as well and hear the correct stress.

It also provides and excellent opportunity to make inferences (e.g., if Ned can stay in the homes or not) from indirect requests (e.g., to check somewhere else without directly saying “no”).   I simply ask, “Can the hedgehog stay here?” after each animal asks him to move on.

The story line also provides opportunity to practice preposition including “in,” “out,” “up” and “down” while Ned is looking for a home.

If you are working on 2-3 word combinations, I have created this draft of a topical communication board guide novel utterances such as “leaf falling” “blowing wind,” “open door,” “look in.”  The leaf animations are engaging and fun.

 Not to mention the opportunity for an abundance of “L” practice!

What a great find!

The Picture Communication Symbols ©1981–2011 by Mayer-Johnson LLC. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Used with permission.

Boardmaker® is a trademark of Mayer-Johnson LLC.

Low Tech shout out to Boardmaker ®

I had a huge reality check the other when I got to school and realized I left my iPad at home. For a second I thought: "well, how will I do therapy without my iPad?!" After my mini panic, I remembered that I had purchased Boardmaker® last year which gave me access to create endless amounts of visual supports and activities for my students with Autism.

A moment of gratitude came over me as I pulled out my schedule (you know, the laminated kind with velcro and icons), and my book with topical communication board ready to go. 

I just wanted to take the moment to thank the low tech supports for being there for when high tech user errors occur.  I've posted some of the things I have made on boardmakershare. Feel free to check out my boardmakershare profile here: http://www.boardmakershare.com/Community/FriendsProfile/156926/Elizabeth-Harmon

But low tech supports are more than just a back-up system. They are an important visual supplement to any activity that aids in expanding language and enhancing comprehension. 

Lately on boardmakershare I have been posting topical communication boards. I love using them along side any activity including books and ipad activities. It helps both my verbal and non verbal kids organize language and move up from using basic carrier phrases like " I want" to using core words and various 2-3 word combinations such as noun + verb ("elephant stomp"), verb+noun ("play drum"), adjective+ noun ("yellow shoes"), and novel SVO combinations ("dog eat bone"). Below is an example. 

Using low tech visual supports along side high tech educational tools has become for me a pivotal part of teaching independent communication skills. From schedules, to expanding language to encouraging social exchanges, low tech supports lead to high quality language. 

The Picture Communication Symbols ©1981–2011 by Mayer-Johnson LLC. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Used with permission.

Boardmaker® is a trademark of Mayer-Johnson LLC.

I close my eyes: an interactive story

Every where I turn at work, I see another student with autism completely engaged with the interactive story app "I close my eyes."  The story walks us through Bella's imagination as she falls asleep.  On each page, Bella explains different scenarios she acts out in her dreams such as: "I close my eyes and I am flying in the clouds."

Each page has a cartoon that shows the action she describes. In addition, on most pages there is generally a funny action (such as a sneeze, an overly excited elephant or a monster that eats a fridge) that keeps most students coming back for more.
What is great about this app is that it provides a great and motivating way to talk about actions. I developed this communication board to help guide and support students as they talk about what they see as exciting!  

The app costs about $1.99 and creates an engaging opportunity to connect with a student.  There will be plenty to talk about!

The Picture Communication Symbols ©1981–2011 by Mayer-Johnson LLC. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Used with permission.

Boardmaker® is a trademark of Mayer-Johnson LLC.