Want to make a board for snack time, the bakery or the bedtime story? Start from a real activity, choose several types of words, place them so they never move, then test for two weeks before judging. Here are the steps, on paper or in an app, and two examples.

Activity board, book board, full vocabulary: which one to make?

• The activity board: one page for a specific moment (bath time, mealtime, the car, the bakery), put up where it happens.
• The book board: one page to go with reading a particular picture book.
• The full vocabulary (communication book or app): dozens of linked pages, with stable core words. It is the person’s main tool.

The first two, which are easy to make, add to the full vocabulary without replacing it: only the full vocabulary lets the person say anything, anywhere.

1. Start from an activityA frequent, motivating moment of daily life
2. Collect the wordsAsk the people around, then sort
3. Lay out and illustrateFixed places, symbols or photos
4. Make and testOne to two weeks before judging

Step 1: start from a real activity

Don’t start with a list of words, but with a moment of daily life. For each activity in the week, ask yourself whether the person can say what they need (Beukelman and Light, 2020): those where they can least do so, and that the family sees as priorities, become the first boards. Choose a frequent and motivating one: a board used every day is worth more than ten tucked away in a drawer.

Step 2: collect and sort the words

Break the activity down into stages and write down what other children or adults say at each one. Then ask several people (parents, speech and language therapist, teacher, brothers and sisters, the person themselves): each one brings words the others forget (Morrow et al., 1993).

A common mistake: a board full of nouns (apple, juice, biscuit), which lets the person label things, not talk. On each board, include:

• little frequent words: more, all done, stop, help me, not, want, look;
• verbs: eat, drink, open, pour, cut;
• describing words: hot, cold, big, little, good;
• nouns from the activity and personal words: names, the comforter, the favourite snack;
• social words and reactions: yum, yuck, thank you, my turn, your turn;
• a question: what’s that?

Then sort: every word takes effort to learn (Yorkston et al., 1990). Check that each word is wanted and suits the person’s age and culture: for a teenager, a thumbs up will say ‘awesome’ better than a childish smiley. The full method is in Which words to put in the tool.

Step 3: lay out the cells

Some people manage only 2 to 4 cells, others several dozen; many first activity boards have between 8 and 24. It depends on vision, movement and attention (to be assessed with an occupational therapist or a speech and language therapist).

1. Put urgent words (stop, help me, it hurts) in the easiest areas to reach.
2. Keep a strip of fixed words that is the same on all your boards, for example yes, no, more, all done, help me, stop.
3. Never move a learnt word: the hand memorises the positions.
4. Start sparse: empty cells and symbols grouped in small islands have helped people with Down syndrome find words (Wilkinson et al., 2017). Fill the gaps later, without moving anything.
5. Arrange from left to right in sentence order (who, action, what) if the person is starting to combine words.

Number of cells, fixed positions and colours by word type: see Organising the grid.

Step 4: choose the pictures

• Symbols: the ARASAAC library, free and widely used in many countries, offers thousands of them under a Creative Commons licence.
• Photos: for beginners, people with aphasia or very personal objects (the comforter, the local bakery), they are often easier to recognise.
• The written word under each picture: it helps partners and gives exposure to print, without being enough to learn to read (see AAC and literacy).

You can mix the two. No symbol is obvious: even ‘more’ has to be taught in context.

Step 5: make and test

• Print in colour (A4 or A5), laminate, and make a spare for messy activities.
• Put the board up where the activity takes place: on the fridge, by the bath, in the car.
• Try it for one to two weeks before judging, and add missing words in the empty cells, at the moment the person needs them.
• Use it yourself as you talk (see Model, wait, respond).

Example 1: a bakery board

Buying bread is a predictable exchange: you know what will be said, and in what order. A board of 12 to 20 cells can be enough, arranged in the order of the exchange (Beukelman and Light, 2020):

1. Introducing yourself: hello; ‘I talk with my tablet, please bear with me’.
2. Asking: I’d like; a baguette, a croissant, a pain au chocolat, their favourite cake.
3. Specifying: one, two, three; well baked.
4. Confirming or repairing: yes, that’s right; that’s not it; I didn’t understand; wait, please.
5. Paying: how much is it?; I’ll pay by card.
6. Thanking: thank you, goodbye.

Add the fixed strip. In Springboard 48, the Store page already offers polite phrases for shop staff, such as ‘could you repeat that?’. For shopping independently, see Adolescence and adulthood.

Example 2: a book board

Books bring words that daily life doesn’t (wild animals, imaginary characters, strong emotions). Beukelman and Light’s model (2020), adapted to Goldilocks and the Three Bears:

• the characters (Goldilocks, Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear, Baby Bear) and the questions who? what?;
• reusable verbs: go, eat, sit, break, sleep, run, cry;
• positions (in, on, out) and emotions (happy, sad, angry, scared);
• describing words: hot, cold, just right, big, little;
• an exclamation (oh no!) and the repeated line (‘Who’s been eating my porridge?’);
• a few empty cells.

Creating and printing a board in Pictalk Buddy

1. In the list of vocabularies, tap ‘Create’ and give it a name. Under ‘Display’, choose one of the suggested sizes, or ‘Custom’ to set rows and columns, up to 30×30.
2. Add your words with ARASAAC, Mulberry, Tawasol, Sclera, ParlerPictos, OpenMoji or Makaton symbols, or your own photos. Leave some cells empty.
3. If needed, give a cell an action: make a call, send a text message or an email, open a map or an app, start a sequence.
4. For paper, open ‘Tools’ > ‘Print’, then ‘Print the page’ or ‘Vocabulary booklet’.

You can also personalise a Pictalk vocabulary (Essential 24, Springboard 48, Horizon 80): fill in the ‘[…]’ cells with the family’s names and photos, then reveal hidden cells as the person progresses, without the other words moving. Everything can be exported in the open OBZ format.

Frequently asked questions

Do you have to get the tablet out at the bakery?

Not necessarily. A phone, a watch or a small paper card can be enough for a specific situation such as buying bread.

Are there ready-to-print boards?

Yes, on our resources page. Then adapt them to the person.

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, chapters 2, 5, 6, 7 and 12.
• Studies cited from Beukelman & Light (2020): Morrow et al. (1993); Yorkston et al. (1990); Wilkinson et al. (2017).