home

=Communicating With Symbols=

Communicating with Symbols is one of the most popular methods used with children who have a communication or cognitive disability. There are many methods and symbol sets available, both free and for a fee. Below is a brief description of some of the more commonly used symbols and examples of how they can be used for communicating.

1.[|Microsoft Clip art] : this provides free symbols to be used on your PC. There are some symbols that can be purchased for a fee. One benefit to using these symbols is that there can be a consistancy with symbols made between home and school due to it's availability.

Below is a picture of a Going to Bed schedule that was made using clip art symbols. The child uses this to follow the routine for going to bed everynight. When they have completed the task, they remove the picture. They know it is time for bed when all symbols are removed. 2. [|Boardmaker Symbols:] from Mayer-Johnson. Boardmaker is a software program that contains symbols and templates that allow you to make up anything you can think of. Boardmaker symbols are widely used in school systems. A disadvantage is that the symbols are drawing based, and for some students, they may have difficulty transfering the image that they learn of the drawing with real life objects (EX: a symbol of a school bus vs the actual school bus). A work around is to take a digital picture and upload it onto Boardmaker to use in your symbol set. Another disadvantage is the cost for parents to purchase the software to maintain consistency with home symbols. But, for all that can be done with the software, it can be viewed as a good investment.

Below is an example of a feelings chart. There is a paper clip at the top of the chart, and the student moves the paper clip to tell her teacher/parent/peer how they are feeling at that moment.

Another example is a communication page. The beginning of each sentence is given to the student. They select the symbols and place them on the sheet. This is the beginning of sentence making.

3. [|Picture This!] Symbols: this software program contains actual photographic symbols. Good to use with older students and when you want to have a natural symbol as opposed to an artistic drawing of a symbol.

4. __Communication Book:__ A communication book can be a precursor to an Augmentative Communication Device. This particular example shows a 3-ring binder that is separated by topics. The symbols are either made by Boardmaker or digital pictures that were imported into Boardmaker. The student scans the pages of the book and points to what they are trying to communicate. This faciliates one or two word sentences. Once the child is ready to make sentences, a sentence strip or PECS system is introduced.



5. [|PECS] : Picture Exchange Communication System. This system has symbols that the student uses to create sentence strips to communicate with parents/teachers and peers. There is a Pics for Pecs symbols set that the company sells, but any symbol set can be used as long as the teaching method is followed.