1. Guidelines for Designing an AAC Communication Board
Vicki Haddix, M.S., CCC-SLP
Clinical Assistant Professor
University of Memphis

2. Introduction Started at University of Memphis in September 2015
Boston (Massachusetts) Public Schools AT/AAC Coordinator
128 Schools, 57,000 students, 150 SLPs

3. Why this presentation?
A few years ago, I was asked to do a consult for AAC to a classroom teacher for a 5-year old boy. His first language was Vietnamese and his intelligibility was very poor. He’d recently been diagnosed with apraxia.
Report from teacher: I’ve tried using pictures but they haven’t worked.
Specifically said she wanted him to participate in circle time on Monday morning to say what he’d done over the weekend.

5. Find the Good Effort was made
Found the Pokemon and Boston Red Sox graphics from the internet and imported
Included the child’s interests
Picked the people that looked like his ethnicity
mostly nouns and labels
no clear organization
can’t make sentences
can’t ask a question
can’t respond to peers
can’t disagree/negate
...

6. Thoughts about what to do?

7. Activity Based or Core Vocabulary Communication Displays?
Not talking Visual Scenes here or PODD organization; Also talking predominantly paper based displays although there’s some relevance to communication boards on ipads and other devices

8. Activity Based Communication Displays (ABCD)
Provide vocabulary for a specific activity
Much of the vocabulary is useful only for that particular activity
May not use the vocabulary in any other situation
Can be posted around the classroom/home or placed in books/bins that contain that activity (e.g.: blocks, Mr. Potato Head, etc)
Usually organized by the subject-verb-object sentence format

9. Preschool Environment, (Goosens, Crain & Elder)
Example ABCD Board 1
From Engineering the
Preschool Environment,
(Goosens, Crain & Elder)
more about the functional aspect of ears, eyes, noses, etc; harder to request specific body part

10. Example ABCD Board 2- SonoFlex App
more along the lines of requesting the body part, commenting about how it looks; keep in mind is designed on dynamic display so assuming you can use “quick phrases” for those comments

11. Example ABCD Board 3- with Books via Zangari
for retelling or answering questions about the story; I’ve found parents pick this up fairly quickly and can be a good way to introduce AAC; Caroline Musselwhite has the AAC reading protocol

12. Activity Based Communication Displays
Why would you use them?
Great for young developmental level for early AAC exposure
“Context-dependent” communicators
Temporary use to work on language while speech develops
School teams pick up on their use fairly quickly
See also Carol Zangari: language-part-1/

13. Core Vocabulary Communication Displays
Core Vocabulary refers to a subset of basic words (in any language) that are used frequently and across contexts (Cross, Baker, Klotz & Badman, 2006)
Research shows that 80% of what we say is communicated with only 200 words in the language (Baker & Hill, 2000)
Core words for AAC have been chosen based on early language development research (Beukelman et al., 1989; Benajee et al., 2003)
Optimized for language development- vocabulary and syntax
reference Chris Bugaj ATTips podcast for “Better Speaking and Hearing Month.” reference “year of core vocabulary” therapy sessions on Praactical AAC blog

14. Core Vocabulary Example Board 1- Gail van Tatenhove

15. Core Vocab Example Board 2 TouchChat App Word Power 48 Nancy Inman

16. Core Vocab Ex Speak for Yourself App
about 120 words- masking or hiding buttons to learn

18. Core Vocabulary Communication Displays
Why would you use them?
Core vocabulary is flexible enough to be used across situations, allowing for topic changes and a range of communicative functions
Core vocabulary helps develop language use in AAC users
For students with significant disabilities, who may learn a small amount of new vocabulary each year- focus on the words that have the most impact
Given all this, why would you want to use ABCD at all?

19. Use Activity Based AND Core Vocabulary?
Learning Curve:
Core Vocab takes practice
Activity Based easier at 1st
more buy in = people actually using it and modeling on it- take that any day over the “perfect” system, at least to start

20. MASH UP- one option is to have 2 different displays

21. Activity Based AND Core Vocabulary?
elements of both to be user friendly

22. Use Activity Based AND Core Vocabulary?
Another option is to identify some core
vocabulary words (often pronouns/verbs)
that you can consistently include in the
same location of all the activity based
vocabulary boards
SOMETHING DIFFERENT- so useful, we teach it early

23. Guidelines When Designing
Consistency of location for the core words like “I” and “you”
Organize by sentence structure as much as possible- pronouns/people on the left, verbs next, etc
Color code by by parts of speech (syntactic categories)
Originally this was done b/c we thought it would help syntax- research not clear on that
Has continued b/c research has shown we’re more efficient finding words when they have a color and spatial relationship (verbs are green and we expect them left-middle)
Some debate about whether just the border or the whole background should be in color
Thistle & Wilkinson, 2009; Wilkinson, Carlin & Thistle, 2008; Stephenson, 2007
see also:

24. Guidelines When Designing
4. Include variety of parts of speech
5. Choose words by REASONS to talk, not just labels
6. When you think you’re done, go through the board and see if you can generate meaningful phrases for a variety of communicative functions-
Can you request?
Can you say no?
Can you comment?
Can you ask a question?
5: like the reasons behind the Mr. Potato Head boards: learning body parts, following directions, learning functions, intro to absurdity

25. Quick Practical Tips
Don’t laminate immediately- put the display in a page protector while you try it out. Once you’re satisfied, then laminate
Unless you’re working with someone who requires the color background, the border colors use much less color ink
If you only have a black and white printer- use a light color for all the borders and then go over them with a marker
LOTS of FREE displays available online, ability to personalize can vary if you don’t own the program used to make them

26. Design 1- would you use it?

27. Design 2- would you use it?

28. Design 3- would you use it?
Board used 1st with the little guy from the example earlier in the presentation

29. Time to Make Your Own