Tuesday, January 19, 2016

low tech AAC ideas

Today, I have been hard at work putting together some low tech AAC books. I went to a training a couple of months ago that gave me lots of free resources for low tech AAC options. Keep reading and I will share the resources below :) 

In our school's preschool class, I have a student with down syndrome that has made tons of progress in speech. This student went from having little expressive speech to using 2 words to request, comment, question, and protest in the past couple of years. Initially he used PECs as a communication system. PECs was wonderful for building his expressive vocabulary and giving him a way to functionally communicate when he was unable to say the words. 

This year, PECs has become more burdensome. He is constantly losing picture symbols and throwing picture symbols. I also feel like we have gotten stuck on requesting using "I want" with PECs.....which is not his fault at all. Totally mine. I just find that it is sometimes hard to move past requesting with PECs. 



Since PECs has been less useful this year, we are trying something new. A communication notebook that pairs Core Words with common nouns, modifiers, pronouns, and verbs. It was so simple to make! 

I printed all the pages out, then put them each into page protectors. The left side of the page is always the Core Word. On the right, different category pages are represented. I then printed the category tabs, laminated them and taped the tabs onto the sides of the page protectors.

I tried using the communication book with my pre-k friend. I was so excited that he was open to pointing to pictures and repeating words when I modeled them to create longer utterances. I am hoping that the visuals help in expanding his language skills. It is also so nice that the Core Words are usually kindergarten site words!

Get this free resources at our Region 13 service center:


Thanks Region 13! Such a great resource to build communication with our friends at school. 


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