PrAACtically April: AAC Resources for A Year of Core Words

It’s almost time to turn the calendar to a new page and that gives us the opportunity to highlight a new set of core words. Whether you are following along with the Set 1 (2013) (12 words/month) or the Set 2 (2014) words (16 words/month; Different than the previous year’s core words), or are just getting started, this post has  some helpful resources.

We’re grateful to Nancy Inman, Brian Whitmer, Tina Lombardi, Barbara Fernandes Russell Cross, Gail Van Tatenhove, Allison Wade, Eric Sailers, Bill and Lori Binko, Heidi LoStracco, Rachael Langley, and all the others who have contributed to this effort.

Our words for this month are as follows.

• Set 1 (2013) List: big, busy, do, drink, feel, he, in, make, out, some, tell, who
• Set 2 (2014) List: blue, brother, close, family, head, last, long, no, old, right, scared, soft, thing, top, wash, whole

Here are some resources to help with implementation.

1. Templates for you to plug in your own symbols: Set 1words, Set 2 words
2. Minspeak/Unity version: Set 1
3. PCS versions: Set 1; Set 2
4. Symbol Stix version: Set 1
5. Lesson Pix: Set 1 Words
6. Speak for Yourself: Set 1, Set 2
7. Smarty Symbols: Set 1 words, Set 2 words
8. CoughDrop: Set 1 words; Set 2 words
9. WordPower: Set 1 words (Note: This is a large file that contains the resources for several versions of WordPower)
10. WordPower: Set 2 Words in Symbol Stix and PCS (Both are large files that have sets for different versions of WordPower

The beauty of core words is that we can use them all throughout the day. Here are some ideas to get you started. 

Looking for ideas to model these words and/or have AAC learners practice using them? Rachael Langley has a month of wonderful ideas for us! Click on the calendar that corresponds with the words you’re targeting to get a print-friendly copy.

Reading is another great way to model and elicit core words. Here are some book suggestions for each core word list.

Books for Set 1 (big, busy, do, drink, feel, he, in, make, out, some, tell, who)

• Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina: busy, do, feel, he, in, make, some, tell
• Koala Lou by Mem Fox: do, feel, in, out, some, tell
• Stone Soup by Marcia Brown: big, do, drink, feel, he, in, make, out, some, tell
• The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant: big, busy, do, in, make, out, some, tell, who
• The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle: big, busy, do, feel, he, in, tell, who

Books for Set 2 (blue, brother, close, family, head, last, long, no, old, right, scared, soft, thing, top, wash, whole)

• Brave Irene by William Steig: blue, close, family, head, long, no, old, right, scared, thing, top, wash
• Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen: close, head, long, no, old, scared, thing, whole
• Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell: close, family, head, long, right, scared, thing, whole
• The Three Little Javelinas by Susan Lowell: brother, close, family, long, no, scared, whole