11 Actions
I am an elementary school special education teacher. I work with students who use AAC devices and spend the majority of their days in the general education setting. I’ve focused on learning as much as I can about AAC to best support my students. One topic that I think is extremely important but more difficult to find clear information on is how to celebrate and embed AAC in a classroom setting. I want to share 11 types of actions you can take to celebrate and embed AAC in your classrooms!
Preview of actions that will be described in this post (click on an action item to jump to that section, or scroll through them all):
- Always Respect that AAC Users are the Experts
- Intentionally Include Reading Materials Featuring AAC users
- Wear your Words! Celebrate AAC by Featuring it in your Outfits!
- Label and Comment on the Classroom Environment with Garlands, Icons, and Button Sequences!
- Have AAC Accessible Around the Classroom and School that All Students Can Use
- Create Moveable Icons in Students’ Symbol Language
- Adorn your Classroom with AAC-Themed Décor
- Coloring Sheets Featuring AAC
- Embed AAC into Games and Activities
- Make Connections Between Music and Core Words!
- Recognize and Appreciate Modeling from the Team
1. Always Respect that AAC Users are the Experts
- Invite Adult AAC users to visit and share with your classroom or school!
- Learn from AAC users through platforms like the Facebook group Ask Me, I’m an AAC User (24 Hour Rule!).
- Non-AAC-using students will likely become interested in AAC. If your AAC-using students are comfortable and interested in sharing what they know, have them answer questions and teach others how to navigate their system! The goal of all these ideas is to celebrate and embed AAC. If effort is put into this goal, over time I would hope and expect any stigma AAC users feel around their AAC to disappear.
2. Intentionally Include Reading Materials Featuring AAC users
Seeing your method of communication featured in a book is empowering! Children’s books featuring AAC users are both a great way to support AAC users’ sense of identity and community and to explain and celebrate AAC to all! You can scatter books featuring AAC users around your classroom or collect them in one place so students who want to learn more can easily find them. Kate Ahern, M.S, Ed. of AAC Voices has created a great list of books with characters who use AAC.
Additional stories about AAC that you can print:
- AAC is Magic by Jane Farrall & Helen Tainsh
- I Wear My Words by Kate Ahern, M.S.Ed.
- Emma Talks With Her AAC Device by Lori Binko
- Apraxia and Nonspeakers: A Neuroinclusive Introduction to the Brain-Body Disconnect by NeuroClastic
- Why do I Use a Talker? by Lauren Kraus
- Keira Gets a Talker by Shubha Bala (shared in AAC & Gestalt Language Processing Facebook group
Here is a photo of how we displayed our books featuring AAC users last year. In addition to books, this bin also included interactive Velcro core boards for all students and staff to use, information on modeling, and information specific to one student’s device organization.
3. Wear your Words! Celebrate AAC by Featuring it in your Outfits!
This may seem silly, but wearing
- shoes
- earrings
- sweatshirts
- shirts
featuring AAC has inspired so many moments of connection and appreciation with the students I work with! From a student pointing quickly and excitedly between an AAC device and my shoes to students on the playground working together to build sentences from the core board on my sweatshirt, it’s fun! I highly recommend you try it out. Here are a few of my favorites:
Core Board Shoes from Tekninja (photo by Tekninja) *no longer sold
Earrings from the Etsy shop, Marley Caroline, owned by Mary Katherine Dally of aacforall (check out her Instagram! She is brilliant and shares amazing ideas for incorporating AAC in all aspects of life!) *not currently being sold
Core Board Sweatshirt from Peachie Speechie (photo by Peachie Speechie)
Products celebrating AAC from the AAC Enthusiasts Club shop, created by Amanda Hartmann (Photo by AAC Enthusiasts Club shop)
Tell Me About It shirt from the Etsy shop NotaTypicalTeacher (photo by NotaTypicalTeacher)
Core + Fringe Bag designed by Mary Katherine Dally of aacforall – make your own with a canvas bag, a fabric transfer of the linked design, and fringe!
4. Label and Comment on the Classroom Environment with Garlands, Icons, and Button Sequences!
Include icons around the classroom that feature relevant AAC symbols and symbol pathways. One fun format for icon phrases is a garland. Each piece of the garland can represent one word. I prefer to include the motor pathway for finding each word instead of just the single icon. Another option is to just print and laminate a captured button sequence. Chat Editor is a great free software for getting all the icons you need! Or check out this post with other options for finding icons.
Example 1: Garland with the button sequences for the phrase “Hello we are so happy you are here”. This garland is right in front of the door to my classroom and is the first thing you see when you enter.
Example 2: icon sequence for “See you later alligator” (Social -> Goodbye -> Alligator) is on the inside of the door out of the classroom, perfectly visible when leaving.
Example 3: (from Mary Katherine Dally of aacforall, the queen of embedding symbols everywhere!!! Check out her Instagram for many, many more great ideas!) a hello icon attached to a play phone. View the full post on Instagram. (photo by aacforall)
Example 4: (from Mary Katherine Dally of aacforall) activity icons attached to a visual timer. View the full post on Instagram. (photo by aacforall)
Example 5: (from Mary Katherine Dally of aacforall) on and off icons displayed above and below a light switch! Plus a core board featuring both icons, connecting the icons back to their location on the students’ device! View the full post on Instagram. (photo by aacforall)
5. Have AAC Accessible Around the Classroom and School that All Students Can Use
Providing all students with opportunities to use high-tech and light-tech AAC has moved their questions and comments about AAC from “Why can’t they talk?” and “Why do they need that?” to “It’s so cool! I wish I had one!” and “I’m upset. Can I use the AAC device instead of talking?”.
Forms of AAC you can and should have accessible in your classroom:
- High-Tech Devices
- Core Boards
- Flexible Velcro Core Boards can be made by printing 2 copies of any core board.
- Communication Flipbooks (such as these from PRC-Saltillo)
- Poster-Sized Core Boards – large icons can be seen from across the classroom and allow modeling for multiple students during whole group instruction!
- Playground Communication Boards (such as these from PRC-Saltillo)
EXCITING TIP: in the linked Playground Communication Board information above, you can find high-resolution symbols for WordPower,
Unity, and Lamp! After following the link above, scroll to “Instructions for Creating a Board”. Choose the symbol language you and your student use and click to download the files. When you open the zip file, you will find a playground sign folder, and within that you will find a file named “Links”. Inside this file you will find individual image files for each icon! You can use these symbols for almost every idea on this list (coloring pages, custom clothing, garlands, everything!). Have fun!
6. Create Moveable Icons in Students’ Symbol Language
When things are moveable and buildable, so many creative possibilities open! Students become motivated to engage and play. Physical objects featuring icons inspire students to interact with them and create concrete communicative utterances. There are endless formats this can be done in! Here are 7 examples to get you started:
AAC Velcro Message Station: Home Page of TouchChat 42 Basic with icons attached with Velcro. Students can switch the icons on the message line to create their own message! The sentence featured in this photo is “I like my play group”.
Icon Puzzles
Unifix Cubes with Icons Affixed
SymbolStix Squares (photo by n2y)
Core Word Stamps created by Mary Katherine Dally of aacforall. View the full post on Instagram. (photo by aacforall)
Magnet Play created by Mary Katherine Dally of aacforall. View the full post on Instagram. (photo by aacforall)
Cut-Out Paper Symbol Crafts – these examples show cards written with pasted icons. You could also use cut out paper symbols to label parts of a drawing or include them in any other art project!
7. Adorn your Classroom with AAC Themed Décor
AAC themed décor is a fun way to celebrate AAC and really make students who use AAC feel important and included. Here are some fun ideas:
TouchChat Pillow from Zazzle: Products on Zazzle are fully customizable! You can upload photos depicting any language system and create a ton of different products with them (blankets, shirts, leggings, magnets, whiteboards, and much more!)
AAC Mug (or other ceramic art!): this mug featuring the SymbolStix ‘proud’ icon was custom made by the incredible ceramic artist Ave Rivera! There are also thousands of other amazing, talented, ceramic artists who may be interested in taking on a similar project in their style!
AAC Communication Bill of Rights Poster (like this one from Beautiful Speech Life): if you’re interested in the Communication Bill of Rights check out NWACS’ awesome resource!
All Communication Welcome Sign made by Mary Katherine Dally and available on The AAC for ALL TPT Store
AAC Blanket from SofloSpeech (photo by SofloSpeech)
Peas In A Pod AAC Poster from PRC-Saltillo
AAC Device Posters from Mrs Reids Crewe on TPT: this link is to purchase 70+ AAC Posters for $3.00 (as of 8/16/22) (photo by Mrs. Reids Crewe)
Symbol Border from Kelsey of includedinsped. View the full post on Instagram. (photos by includedinsped)
Core Board Rug from Kelsey of includedinsped, purchased from CBcustomdesignsCo on Etsy. View the full post on Instagram.
8. Coloring Sheets Featuring AAC
Most classes have some opportunities for coloring – whether it is during a break in the calm down corner, after finishing an assignment early, during rainy day recess, or even during whole group instruction as some students are more able to focus when they can color and keep their hands busy. Coloring sheets are inexpensive. Since the subject matter usually doesn’t need to be something specific, you should offer AAC-themed coloring sheets! Coloring allows students to have a positive interaction with an image. Having icons and other AAC-themed coloring sheets is a great way to easily celebrate AAC!
You can find all the coloring pages I collected and made in an easy-to-print format!
To make your own coloring pages using symbols from any language system, you can upload a photo to the Mimi Panda website. Taking a screenshot of the device page and cropping it works great!
(Scroll to “Instructions for Creating a Board”. Choose the symbol language you and your student use and click to download the files. When you open the zip file, you will find a playground sign folder, and within that you will find a file named “Links”. Inside this file you will find individual image files for each icon!)
9. Embed AAC into Games and Activities
Modeling, encouraging, and respecting communication during all activities of the day is important. It is also fun and wonderful to have some specific activities that are designed to be compatible with AAC devices! Most of these activities could work well during a morning meeting or an earned Friday fun time!
- Category Games: Play a game that involves listing things in a category! If the AAC users you work with have a category-based language system like TouchChat, category-based games are very natural and a great opportunity to build confidence using their device!
- Mad Libs: Mad Libs are also great for category-based language systems. To add more structure, you can use their device category labels (i.e. “give me an action word” instead of “give me a verb”). You can use any paper Mad Libs or use a Mad Libs generating website like this one!
- AAC Activity Cards: Amanda Hartman of The AAC Enthusiasts Club created these 24 amazing AAC Activity cards! Also available in Spanish! They are super fun and a lovely way to plan for some extra focused time interacting with AAC. They are perfect for a morning meeting. For extra fun, pair them with a numbered wheel like Amanda did below!
- Any Board Game: AssistiveWare created this resource listing core and fringe words to try during each of a long list of games! I’ve used it a lot and highly recommend it!
- A Book and A Game a Day: in January 2020, Kim Rankin (of Hold My Words on Facebook and Instagram) created a list of a book and a game with core words to target for each day of the month! Check it out: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4
10. Make Connections Between Music and Core Words!
AAC Family Fun has created super fun ‘Coreaoke’ resources! They have lists of songs by core word, which are aligned with the monthly core words in PrAACticalAAC’s Year of Core! Click for access to AAC Family Fun’s google drive of coreaoke playlists! Or check out their YouTube playlists. During a brain break song, first reference the core words included in the song by
- modeling finding the words on your device
- or holding up symbols of the word (symbols can be printed to have on hand or if your student uses SymbolStix you can get the SymbolStix Squares boxes)
and then play a song from their list!
11. Recognize and Appreciate Modeling from the Team
All the ideas listed here need to be implemented in the context of a school team that
- is trained and practiced,
- is knowledgeable about AAC,
- and works hard to model consistently!
Respecting and supporting the team doing all that hard work is crucial to their continued motivation and effort. I could go way more in-depth about building and maintaining a strong team. Instead, I’ll share a few ideas specific to recognizing and appreciating modeling from your team as a way to ensure AAC is utilized and embedded:
- Make connections between staff’s efforts and student success
- Example: “Wow! I saw you modeling feeling words yesterday and today (student) navigated to that page and shared how they were feeling!”.
- Write a note complimenting and appreciating a specific staff modeling action.
- If your school has a staff shoutout bulletin board, use it to recognize modeling!
- It is important to ask your staff how they like to be recognized and show appreciation through their preferred method.
Thank you so much for reading this! I hope it was helpful. I would love to hear if you try any of these ideas or other ideas you have!
2 responses to “Ways to Celebrate and Embed AAC in Classrooms!”
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Exciting Update: As of 8/22/2022, MarleyCaroline, has one pair of AAC earrings in her Etsy shop and she shared she would be adding additional pairs in the next week or so! If you are interested in a pair make sure to check back frequently! Here is the shop link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MarleyCaroline
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Fantastic post!
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