PrAACtically Visual: Supporting Communication Across Activities & Environments

We’re thrilled to continue our series on visual supports, guest authored by AAC SLP Tabi Jones-Wohleber. Tabi has been an AAC service provider for many years and graciously offered to share some of her resources with our PrAACtical AAC readers. In today’s post, Tabi focuses on supplemental AAC supports that promote communication throughout the day.

Be sure to download the files for the templates and resources she is sharing.

In case you missed them, here are the links to the previous posts in this series.

• Part 1: Visual & Environmental Countdown
• Part 2: Organizing Time & Tasks
• Part 3: Self-Regulation & Understanding Expectations

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PrAACtically Visual: Visual Supports for Communication Across Activities and Environments

As the near entirety of this site is dedicated to resources for AAC  implementation and access for individuals with complex communication needs, I’m not going to attempt to summarize here, as I have with the other 2 categories of visual supports over the last two weeks.  I could not even begin to do it justice. Instead, I’m going to offer templates for low-tech tools that I have found useful for ensuring communication opportunities are embedded across environments.

These tools are not intended to replace an individual’s robust communication system, but: 

1. to augment it, and also provide opportunities for peers to explore, use and model communication tools,
2. to support communication partners, and to serve as a visual & tangible reminder that “communication happens here,” and
3. to provide alternatives when technology tools may not be available, or may not be a good fit for the situation. 

Activity Mat for art, cooking, experiments, etc. (Don’t forget to provide one to peers)

Center-time language boards

Snack Placemat (Don’t forget to provide one to peers)

Fold-it Communication Board for Staff

I can’t claim credit for the accordion style of this board.  I saw it somewhere and loved it, so I adapted it into a similar arrangement of the other tools shared here.  

You can download the full set of visual supports in this post here. Don’t forget to come back again next week for Part 5 in this series.