by Marci Revelli, MS, CCC-SLP (Speech-Language Pathologist); NWACS Board Member

Tangible symbol systems is work from Charity Rowland PhD and Philip Schweigert M.Ed. Tangible Symbol Systems is a method of communication that uses concrete, rather than abstract symbols. While they define tangible symbols as both three-dimensional and two-dimensional, I typically associate tangible symbols as being three-dimensional, so symbols that you can touch, feel, and grasp. The key to using this system is that the symbols are concrete AND familiar to the individual. 

Back in the day, I remember buying Lucite cookbook holders. We would place a snack and drink behind the clear Lucite and the child would tap on the clear Lucite, sometimes even trying to grasp what was behind.  From our AAC training, we then learned to “cut down” these objects, to make them more “symbolic”.  Examples of this might be:

• plastic bag with fish crackers → fish crackers in packaging → just packaging → cutting the packaging to be only the front side → cutting out the fish from the packaging

• blue sippy cup → cutting the sippy in half so it is smaller with lid → just the small cup or just the lid

The child would touch what they wanted (that was behind the Lucite) and then would get a duplicate item that was out of sight not the item they saw.  More information can be found from Design to Learn here.

The number one rule I learned about tangible symbols was that the symbol has to be personal and unique to the child. In other words, don’t go out and buy a miniature toy as the symbol. A miniature toy toilet doesn’t have the same meaning or connection as what the child associates with the toilet. Perhaps it is a toilet paper roll because they like to spin the roll or perhaps it is the yellow washcloth they get to chew on while sitting on the potty.

There are two ways to think about developing a tangible symbol system. One is for receptive language. This is often associated with calendar boxes. The child starts on the left or top of the system and grasps the item associated with the next activity. They get to put the item in an all done bucket when the activity is over. The child learns to associate the object with the scheduled activity and hopefully, will show you that they anticipate the activity (that they either like or don’t like what’s coming). 

The other is to support expressive language. I start with making choices of objects or activities the child likes to find what their preferences are. I present these objects so I know the child prefers one over the other. If a child likes a Giant Slinky, for example, I would then start to pair the slinky with a smaller or cut up piece of slinky. The child touches the tangible symbol and then they immediately get the preferred toy, the slinky.

This strategy is not only useful working with children with vision impairment but also for working with children with significant cognitive delays. 

For those of you working in classrooms, I found this scope and sequence procedure beautifully written from Linda Hagood of the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI).  The process of developing symbolic thinking is described as follows:

1. Build meaningful activities with recognizable and consistent objects, e.g. making juice, in which the same pitcher or juicer is used every time.

2. Begin to use the object to cue the student just before beginning the activity and look to see if the child recognizes the object (e.g. touches pitcher and then searches for cup).

3. Present the object from a few feet away and see if the student still recognizes it out of context.

4. Present the object in a calendar box system and look to see if the child associates the item with the area of the activity (e.g. touches pitcher and turns to kitchen area).

5. Present a set of objects (pitcher, cup, big spoon used for stirring, oranges and knife) and engage the child in a pantomime type “conversation” about the upcoming activity. Watch for signs that s/he recognizes the relationship between the objects presented (e.g. initiates cutting with knife or pouring with pitcher).

6. Present a different object from the “discussion box” described in step 5 at the calendar (e.g. the orange or the cup) at the student’s calendar. See if he recognizes it as indicated by acting on it appropriately, selecting correct sets of associated objects, or traveling to area.

7. Use a part of an object glued on a card as a more symbolic tactile representation for the activity (e.g. orange peel, part of a paper cup that is used only in the juice activity).

Another criteria for using symbols was communicative intent.  This included the following:

• Persisting and altering communicative behaviors. Example: The student extends foot for help with putting on shoe. If the adult doesn’t respond immediately, the student vocalizes, searches for the adult and extends foot again.

• Performing communication behaviors in multiple contexts. Example: The student guides adult’s hands or offers objects to request at snack time, on the playground and at bath time. S/he does this with multiple partners.

• Orienting toward the partner. Example: the child without vision may vocalize to initiate, and continue, changing orientation in response to adult voice; the child with usable vision orients body toward partner, or extends juice cup to partner (different from banging the cup on the table without orientation to adult).

When students have learned to show communicative intent in these ways, using objects, concrete symbols, and natural signals or gestures, symbols can be added to their repertoire of communicative forms.