Past Event Cards

     In my previous posts I discussed break and choice cards for students who may benefit from their use in schools. Students who may benefit from these cards are students with emotional and behavior disorders, ASD, or other severe disabilities. Students may benefit from past event cards. This concept is a picture system that has the events that occurred during school. This system helps build their expressive language at home and in school. It serves as a reminder and communication starter with parents, teachers, siblings, and peers. If they forgot what happened at school when asked, they can refer to this template and serve as a reminder of what they did. I feel this is a wonderful tool to use with students to help promote the use of communication about their day with their families. 

Choice Boards

     Based on my previous post of break cards, this post will discuss choice boards. Choice boards are pictorial cards that express an option the student wants or needs. It serves as a visual for students to see what they want/need and do not necessarily need to communicate verbally.  


     This is an example of a choice board a student may have when they have appropriately completed an assignment or exhibited expected behaviors for a sustained amount of time. Students earn a break/reward and will use the choice board to receive their reward.


     Another use of choice boards can be to cut individual cards and place them on a clipboard with velcro. Students then have the freedom to move the cards over to a request area that is easy for the teacher to understand what they want/need. 

Break Cards

     Based on my previous post on Expressive Language Disorders, this next low tech piece of AT break cards may be extremely beneficial for students with this disorder. Break cards provide a way for students to express a want or need without having to communicate verbally. They may simply just flash the card to express this need. 

     This is a card that is available for students to present to the teacher if they need a break.  There are many ways to set this up.  You can allow one break per activity, or you can allow a determined number of breaks per day (if you give too many, your student may end up on a break all day, if you give too few, you may not see a decrease in problem behavior.  You can always gradually fade out the number of breaks as your student's problem behavior decreases.)

      Teach your children to "request" a break when they are frustrated or need a few moments away from the task. This card is a nice visual reminder for the student and is useful for home, school, and community environments.

     I have had the opportunity to use break cards in my current classroom. It truly is a great system to have with students in an emotional support setting as these students can become easily frustrated. This system provides a tangible object to flash when frustrated.

Autism and Expressive Language Disorder

      Expressive language refers to the student's ability to use language to communicate information, thoughts, feelings, and ideas with others. Children experiencing a language communication disorder may not talk often. They may be able to understand what is being said to them but trouble communicating back with the person talking to them. One subject area students may struggle in with this disorder is reading. A student may be able to read or hear a story read to them but not be able to communicate back what the story was about or key components in the story. 

Teaching Strategies: Structured Teaching
1. Providing a physical environment that is suitable to students 

• Design/layout of the room
• Minimize visual and auditory distractions
• Provide distinct learning areas in the classroom
• Organization

2. Visual Schedules

3. Providing appropriate support systems

Appropriate IEP AT Devices- Portable Word Processor

Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance: Eric participates in regular education programs for his academic subjects. His hand strength is limited and he fatigues quickly when doing any handwriting task. Civics and English homework are a particular problem because of lengthy assignments and reports that need to be completed.

Annual Goal: Eric will use a computer or portable word processor to complete 100% of his assignments in 10th grade English and Civics classes.

          Using a portable word processor will significantly help Eric meet his annual goal of completing 100% of his assignments in English and Civics classes. It reduces that barrier  of completing a handwriting task due to a lack of poor hand strength. 

Appropriate IEP AT Devices- Eye-Gaze

Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance: Michael is in the second grade classroom for most of the school day. He is interested in the material being presented by the teacher and wants to participate. He has a full time paraprofessional who assists him. He has difficulty being an active participant in academics because he uses a voice output AAC device and frequently does not have the “right” answer. The teacher is concerned at the amount of time it currently takes while Michael struggles to answer questions. The teacher is interested in finding ways for Michael to more actively participate.

Annual Goal: Michael will use eye gaze and prerecorded messages to respond to appropriately phrased questions in four subject area classes, mathematics, reading, science and social studies in three out of five opportunities.

     The use of the eye-gaze device will significantly help with providing Michael opportunities to participate in class. It will reduce the amount of time it takes Michael to answer questions as he can quickly access the answer. This device will help Michael meet his annual goal. 

Appropriate IEP AT Devices- Communication Boards

Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance: Andy uses a variety of sounds, gestures, signs, and picture/symbols to communicate with his family. He is very social and enjoys parallel play. Andy does not communicate vocally in the classroom, but does use some gestures. At school Andy will sign, but only with prompts.

Annual Goal: Andy will increase expressive language production by using a variety of communication methods in the classroom, including sign language, gestures, communication boards, pictures, and simple voice output devices during four out of five opportunities. 

           With the assistance of a communication board, like the one shown above, Andy will be able to successfully complete his annual goal of increasing expressive language in four out of five opportunities in the classroom. The use of the communication board is simple to use and can be an efficient use of communication.