The Internet is a wonderful resource for finding a variety of theme boards with picture symbols that can support a child in sharing a message during a specific activity or environment.
Having a theme-based communication board may be beneficial if a child has verbal skills, but extra support is needed sharing a message in an environment where there may be peers or other people outside their family members who do not understand them. For example:
- Going to a birthday party
- Ordering at a restaurant
- Talking at the doctor’s office or during a hospital stay
- Sharing what they did on the weekend or at school (when the context is unclear)
- Participating socially or making choices at Brownies, Scouts, music lessons or swimming
Speaking of Speech
http://www.speakingofspeech.com/AugCom_Materials.html
This website is dedicated to sharing resources to support language and communication development. The “AAC Materials” folder of the “Materials Exchange” folder has PDF files to print easily.
https://www.pinterest.com/explore/communication-boards/
Not only is Pinterest helpful for recipes, but there are a lot of families, clinicians and parents who are “pinning” helpful Alternative and Augmentative (AAC) resources.
Consider searching with words such as AAC, Alternative and Augmentative Communication, communication board and the theme you are looking for (e.g. “birthday party”).
Boardmaker Online Community
https://boardmakeronline.com/Activities/CommunityActivities
For those who have access to Boardmaker, you can save, print, or alter pre-made communication theme boards. Parents or professionals who do not have a paid subscription or computer program can save and print templates as pictures.
Amy’s Speech & Language Therapy Resources
http://www.amyspeechlanguagetherapy.com/communication-boards.html
Amy’s site has a variety of resources for kids and adults with vocabulary related to home, feelings, medical appointment, and play-based theme boards.
Although these websites may not allow you to customize the words or phrases, they are a great place to start in using picture symbols. If your child is using a variety of symbols purposefully, they may also benefit from Core Vocabulary to say exactly what they want rather than pre-set phrases. To learn more about Core, how you might be able to create your own symbols, or any other questions related to AAC, theme boards, and clarification strategies, please contact us at acs [at] tvcc.on.ca (acs[at]tvcc[dot]on[dot]ca).
