Which words should go into an AAC tool when you are starting from scratch? A mix of three families: a few frequent words that work everywhere, the words of the person’s activities, and their very own words. Here is a first list and a method for organising the vocabulary and helping it grow.
Core, fringe, personal: the three families of words
CoreFrequent words that work everywhere
FringeThe words of a topic, mostly nouns
PersonalFamily and friends, places, passions
- Core vocabulary: very frequent words, used by many people in many situations. Mostly little grammar words (‘the’, ‘to’, ‘it’) and a few everyday words (‘go’, ‘want’, ‘more’).
- Fringe vocabulary: the words of a topic, mostly nouns (‘slide’, ‘apple purée’, ‘charger’). Without them, you can say ‘I want that’, but not ‘I want the apple purée’.
- Personal vocabulary: names, pets, familiar places, passions. Only the person and those close to them can provide it.
You will often read that ‘80% of what we say is core vocabulary, 20% fringe’. The booklet that made this figure popular cites no study: it is a rough order of magnitude, not a research finding.
Which words to start with?
Core vocabulary is necessary, never enough. Published lists are based on the language of older speakers, overlap poorly and look little like young children’s real first words (Laubscher and Light, 2018). In typically developing children, the first 50 words are 60 to 65% nouns, 14 to 19% action words and only 0 to 4% grammar words (Fenson et al., 2007).
So a beginner doesn’t start with a grid of core words. They start with:
- personal, motivating words: their family, their comforter, their favourite cartoon, their favourite drink;
- a few powerful words that aren’t nouns: ‘more’, ‘all done’, ‘stop’, ‘no’, ‘want’, ‘help me’, ‘go’, ‘open’, ‘look’, ‘what?’, ‘hello’, ‘oops’.
At around fifty words, when combinations appear, add pronouns, verbs and describing words; the little grammar words come with grammar. The alphabet is there from the start. Any list is sorted with the person and those close to them (Yorkston et al., 1990). Three tips for the first weeks:
- Don’t over-train ‘I want’. First combinations often do without it: ‘more tickles’, ‘Mummy come’.
- Give words for refusing early (‘stop’, ‘all done’, ‘not’) and wildcard words: ‘that’ with pointing, ‘do’ for a missing verb.
- Choose 3 to 5 target words and use them yourself on the tool during favourite moments: this is modelling.
The first 50 core words, grouped by function
The best-known English list of ‘first 50 core words’ comes from the publisher Prentke Romich (PRC) and runs through the booklet Teaching Core Words Across the Day (Liberator). Almost none of them are nouns. Pictalk adapted it into French: here is that adaptation, shown in English and grouped by function, with what changes between the two languages.
| Function | Words | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Requesting | more, want, help me | French uses one word, ‘encore’, for both ‘more’ and ‘again’ |
| Directing the action | go, come, get, do, put, play, read, look, open, close, eat, drink | the imperative (‘come’) is the natural one-word form |
| Stopping, changing | stop, stop it, all done, not, other, ready | in speech, ‘don’t want’ is enough |
| Describing, giving an opinion | like, good, not good, big, little, fast, gently | ‘good’ and ‘like’ each cover two French words (bon/bien, aimer/comme) |
| Feelings and body | happy, sad, angry, feel, hurt, sick | French says ‘j’ai mal’ (‘I have pain’): a different structure from English |
| People | I, me, mine, my, you, it | ‘me!’ works on its own, ‘I’ needs a verb |
| Place, direction | in, out, on, up, down, turn on, turn off, take off | one English word becomes several French words here |
| Asking | what?, what’s that? | with a pointing gesture |
| Reacting | ouch, yuck, oops, yum, awesome, cool | these interjections come naturally |
| Colours | red, blue, green, yellow… | French adds agreement: verte, bleue |
What French merges and what it splits
A list can’t be translated word for word. French, for example, merges several English core words:
- faire covers do and make;
- encore covers more and again, and avoids ‘plus’, which is ambiguous (‘y’en a plus’ means there is none left at all);
- prendre covers a good part of get and take;
- ça covers it and that, and points to anything with a gesture.
Conversely, it splits others: on/off becomes ‘allumer / éteindre’, ‘mettre / enlever’ or ‘sur’ depending on the meaning; feel is shared between ‘sentir’ (touch) and ‘se sentir’ (emotion); up/down becomes ‘en haut / en bas’ or ‘monter / descendre’. Add agreement (content, contente), conjugation and the choice between ‘tu’ and ‘vous’: in French, grammar is not optional. Buddy conjugates automatically, by the way (‘je vouloir manger’ becomes ‘je veux manger’).
Think about the words the person will need, too
Another distinction helps you forget nothing (Vanderheiden and Kelso, 1987):
- Coverage vocabulary: what the person must be able to say, even rarely: their needs, social phrases, needs linked to their disability (‘change my position’, ‘I can’t breathe’) and words specific to each setting (a birthday, a physio session).
- Developmental vocabulary: words the person doesn’t know yet, put in ahead of time so that others can show them during a new experience. Before a first trip to the circus, add ‘clown’, ‘lion’, ‘funny’, ‘scary’. Once ‘what’, ‘who’ and ‘where’ are learnt, add ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘when’.
- Acceleration vocabulary: long, frequent messages stored whole to save time. See ready-made phrases.
Ready-made vocabularies often leave out words for the body, pain and subtle emotions: these are covered in Body, pain, consent. For a teenager, also choose words for their age, not those of a 4-year-old.
Organising words: by category or by activity?
- By category (people, food, clothes, places): logical for an adult, but children only start grouping words this way at around 6 to 7 years old (Fallon, Light and Achenbach, 2003). And ‘I went to Grandma’s yesterday’ means changing page several times.
- By activity (bath time, snack time, playtime): this is how young children group words. The risk: frequent words end up in different places from one page to the next.
The recommended solution combines both: topic or activity pages, and a fixed strip of core words that stays in the same place on every page. A topic page shouldn’t hold only nouns: it needs verbs, describing words and ways to refuse, otherwise the person learns to name things, not to talk. On the Drinks page of Essential 24, for example, ‘I want drink’ opens the page, and the verbs ‘pour’ and ‘fill’ come before the drinks themselves (milk, juice, water, a fruit drink).
Number of cells and fixed positions: see Organising the grid.
Personalising: who chooses the words?
No ready-made vocabulary knows the little sister’s name or this month’s favourite cartoon.
- Ask several people. Parents, speech and language therapists and teachers each suggest words the others didn’t mention (Morrow et al., 1993). The person themselves has the final say.
- Observe real activities: which words do other children use at playtime or at football?
- Fill in the cells provided ([my name], [my favorite food], [my songs]) and add your photos.
- Add words at the right moment. A word added during the activity, when the person needs it, increases the number of conversational turns more than a list prepared weeks before.
- Clear out. Archive the words of a finished school topic or past holidays, without deleting them if the person still wants to talk about them.
A vocabulary that is never updated is a common reason for giving up the tool: see Choosing an AAC tool.
What about Pictalk’s vocabularies?
Essential 24 (phone), Springboard 48 and Horizon 80 (tablet) are three free vocabularies built from these published principles, first in French and then adapted into English: each core word keeps its cell on every page, topic pages put verbs before nouns, cells are set aside for your own words, and Springboard and Horizon add pages for teenagers. Full details are on their overview page. For printable boards, see the resources page.
Frequently asked questions
How many words do you need to start?
There is no magic number: a few powerful words and personal words are enough, then you add more as needs arise.
Do you need a paper version?
Yes, for bath time or flat batteries. Buddy prints boards and booklets from your vocabulary.
Pictalk Buddy brings together AAC boards, a visual schedule, guided sequences and notebooks, with the same symbols, on Android, iOS, the web and the watch. A pay-what-you-want app, developed by a non-profit association. Discover Buddy
Sources
- Beukelman, D. R., & Light, J. C., 2020, Augmentative & Alternative Communication (5th ed.), Paul H. Brookes. Studies cited: Fallon, Light & Achenbach (2003), Fenson et al. (2007), Laubscher & Light (2018), Morrow et al. (1993), Vanderheiden & Kelso (1987), Yorkston et al. (1990).
- Liberator / Prentke Romich Company, Teaching Core Words Across the Day: First 50 Words (LAMP Words for Life edition).