Communication is an obstacle for a lot of my students. This can effect their ability to interact with peers. After a year of making phone calls and securing licenses we were able to create a communication board for our shared playground. This is the first one in our district. Hoping we can get it out to all schools so all students can be included!
We use Boardmaker to create everything. This is essentially a giant version of their Flip N’ Talk. You have to get a license from Boardmaker and then screen shot the image. It has to be put into Vector format to enlarge it without pixelating (this is something all sign companies generally ask for).
The original plan was to have it on a free standing sign. Down the line we hope to get to that. This was a prototype pretty much. The district also agreed to fund it this way since it was cheaper.
The vocabulary on the core board is developed by our district level AAC Specialist/SLP. She has a method that has determined a set of five levels. We use these level core boards based on children’s TASP scores and the same ones across the district. She is really the brains behind it all. I just had the idea to blow it up and put it on the playground. To learn more about to use it check out my post on AAC and Aided Language Simulation.
[…] The most common AAC device we use in our classroom is a Flip N’ Talk. These can be purchased through Boardmarker. Our devices are provided through the district. It consists of a core board, tabs, and fringe. We also have variations of our Flip N’ Talks throughout the classroom and even our playground! […]
[…] Playground: We go on the playground for 30mins give or take. For the first 15 mins we are the only class. We are then joined by our kindergarten friend!. This is a great time to work on our commutation and social skills. We even have a communication board for the playground (see separate post here!) […]
Hi , this looks great , where did you get this done ?
Hi! We had a local sign maker do it. It is simply vinyl banner with zip ties through gramets. The image I made using our PCS software. You will need to get a license to Do this. We then made the image into vector format and gave it to the sign company. This is more cost effective way of making a playground com board compared to the stand alone wooden ones.