PrAACtically October: A Year of Core Vocabulary Resources

It has been so exciting to hear about the growing number of classrooms, therapy sessions, and families who are prioritizing high-frequency core words with AAC learners. Whether you are using a high tech SGD, AAC app, or no-tech communication boards/books, core vocabulary teaching can play a powerful role in building language skills.

If you are following along with our 2013 Year of Core (first set with 12 words/month) or the 2014 A(nother) Year of Core: (second set 16 words/month; Different than the previous year’s core words), you may have printed out some of the word cards to use with the AAC learners in your life. Thanks to the kindness of PrAACtical AAC readers (Bill and Lori Binko, Heidi LoStracco, Alison Wade, Russell Cross, Gail Van Tatenhove, Eric Sailers, Rachael Langley, Laura Kessell, Christine Bayley and others) we have a variety of resources to explore.

Once you have them, the idea is to use those to plan learning activities that focus on those particular core words for the month. Our words for this month are as follows.

Set 1 (2013): another, change, every, for, idea, pretty, say, start, thank you, think, try, under

Set 2 (2014): afternoon, break, food, hide, hold, if, keep, medium, most, never, party, picture, quick, stop, story

1. Templates for you to plug in your own symbols: 2013 words, 2014 words
2. Minspeak/Unity version: 2013 words
3. PCS versions: 2013 words, 2014 words 
4. Lesson Pix: 2013 words 
5. Symbol Stix: 2013 words

We can highlight these as we talk, teach specific lessons to strengthen use of the words, and model them throughout the day. Here are some suggestions for sentences using the first sent (2013) of words. Laura Kessel for putting this together.

As we all know, story reading is a great way to highlight core words, build fluency with AAC, and support literacy development. Christine Bayley graciously provided some book suggestions and I added a few of my own.

• Afternoon: One Afternoon (Yumi Heo) 
• Another: Another Monster at the End of this Book (Jon Stone) 
• Break: Thomas Breaks a Promise (Random House) 
• Change: When the Wind Changed (Ruth Park) 
• Every: Every Little Thing (Bob & Cedella Marley) 
• Hide: Stuart Hides Out (Susan Hill) 
• Hold: Let Me Hold You Longer (Karen Kingsbury) 
• Idea: What to Do with an Idea (Kobi Yamada)
• If: If Kids Ran the World (Leo & Diane Dillon) 
• Keep: If I Could Keep You Little (Marianne Richmond) 
• Most: The Most Magnificent Thing (Ashley Spires) 
• Never: The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes (Mark Pett) 
• Picture: The Book With No Pictures (BJ Novak) 
• Pretty: My Rules for Being a Pretty Princess (Heath McKenzie) 
• Quick: Quick as a Cricket (Audrey Wood) 
• Say: Oh, Say Can You Say (Dr. Seuss) 
• Thank you: Richard Scarry’s Please and Thank You Book (Richard Scarry) 
• Think: The Little Engine That Could (Watty Piper); Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! (Dr. Seuss) 
• Try: Try, Try Again (P. K. Hallinan) 
• Under: There is an Alligator Under my Bed (Mercer Mayer)