Interactive Core Word Activities for Early AAC Users

By Diane Callari, MA, CCC-SLP, ATP, AAC Committee

As a speech-language pathologist working in a private, non-profit school with children ages three to eight years with complex communication needs, many of my students benefit from augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). In an effort to increase overall AAC use by students, staff comfort level with using AAC was targeted; opportunities were provided to facilitate the use of many more core words for students throughout the day. It was beneficial to find fun ways for our paraprofessionals, therapists and teachers to become familiar with core words.

Our students are exposed to Boardmaker and Symbolstix picture communication symbols in their classrooms and speech therapy. TouchChat Word Power 60 and Boardmaker core boards, in a similar layout to Touch Chat WP, were placed around our school building for our staff to model language with during the school day.

Available resources were researched online. Ideas were found that helped to organize core words and activity ideas. It was a bit overwhelming. Where to start? An idea on Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) sparked inspiration to create sheets for our teachers that included the word, picture communication symbol, communicative functions and phrases to model.

Three images of core words such as Boardmaker, Boardmaker high contrast and Symbolstix, as well as ways to use these words were included. Links to resources were also used as reference. Twelve weeks worth of core word activities were created which focused on one word per week.

Core word idea sheets were then created based on Miss Clark’s Chit Chat Core Words website https://missclarkschitchat. blogspot.com/2015/11/ core-vocabulary-word-ofweek-go.html. Below is an example of one of those sheets and three activity stations were set up in our school hallway to focus on the core word “eat.” Three learning stations (reading, play and iPad YouTube) were placed in our hallways. Our staff and students were encouraged to use a Big Mack voice output device, a student’s own communication system or a core board to communicate using core words while interacting with these activities.

The reading station included books with repetitive lines that included core words of the week. Our play station focused on ways to use a core word with familiar toys. The iPad station played videos that were found on YouTube that included our core word. These songs were set to pause and continue
when the Cosmo switch was pressed, encouraging our students to interact with these videos. Modeling and aided language stimulation tip sheets were hung in our hallways to offer examples and describe what modeling looks like.

Our students interacted with these stations during gross motor time, on their way from one classroom to the next or during therapy sessions. Offering these fun activities took the pressure off of our paraprofessionals and therapists to be “perfect” in their AAC interactions with our students. The emphasis was on having fun and made AAC simple by encouraging the use of a single core word. Our staff offered a great deal of positive feedback regarding this program. Hopefully, this inspires other therapists to be creative and find ways to increase the use of AAC in other schools. Some resources are listed below.

Resources:

• Boardmaker
• Saltillo – Core Boards
• Miss Clark Chit Chat
• TPT – Core Word of the Week Display – Loving Souls and Superstar Goals
• TPT – AAC Implementation – Modeling – Sunny Day Speech
• TPT – Core Word Activity Handout – Passport Speech
• Ablenet, inc. – BIGMack speech device
• Cosmo Switch – Inclusive TLC – multicolor bluetooth switch for tablets