This AAC Core Board is designed for children from birth to three years old in early intervention programs. It's perfect for using with infants, toddlers, and preschools who are language delayed, non-speaking, or unintelligible. It can be used in speech therapy sessions or sent with families for use at home! Printable and ready to use!

Included in the purchase:

• A PDF containing a one-page AAC Core Board

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First Words Core Board

This AAC Core Board is part of my product series called “First Words” and is designed for children from approximately birth to three years old. This series of boards was created to combat the issue of AAC abandonment in infants, toddlers, and their families. Often the core boards that we begin trialing with these learners are filled with core words for an adult – pronouns, conjunctions, and articles. These words however are not core words for a 2 year old and their family. Motivation and interest are key to a child buying-in to AAC which means the words need to be relevant and appropriate to their life. By creating a core board that is specifically designed to represent the first words speaking children use, we are increasing the chance of success for these AAC communicators too! The original First Words Core Board was created by myself (Jenica Barrett, SLP) and another SLP Alexandria Ancharski.

Using the Boards

The First Words series contains a core board featuring 70 vocabulary words that are typically within a child’s first 100 words. This is based on research studies of speaking children as well as my clinical knowledge having practiced in the birth to three setting. The Core Board can be used in combination with the Fringe Vocabulary boards or on its own. Similarly to modeling spoken words, the symbol words should be modeled during play activities, without expectations, and with repeated models. The child must see the adult pointing to the pictures to comment, request, ask questions, and protest many times before they are likely to try it themselves.

Check out all the board options in my First Words series!

First Words Core Boards

• AAC Core Board (70 Cell) First Words
• AAC Core Board SPANISH (70 Cell) First Words
• AAC Core Board (70 Cell) First Words Layout - Two Page with Enlarged Symbols
• AAC Core Board (70 Cell) First Words Layout - No Background Colors
• AAC Core Board (40 Cell) First Words
• AAC Core Board (40 Cell) First Words High Contrast
• AAC Core Board (24 Cell) First Words High Contrast

Fringe Vocabulary Boards

• AAC Health & Personal Hygiene Fringe Vocabulary Board (70 Cell)
• AAC Letters, ABCs, Writing Board (70 Cell)
• AAC Board SPANISH (70 Cell) Clothing, Body Parts, Getting Dressed

Cell Number

These boards are designed to be implemented at the largest cell size possible given a child’s motor and visual skills. Some children that are closer to 12 months in age may need to start out with the 40 Cell series of boards. In my experience, unless a child has visual or fine motor impairments, most children above the age of 18 months can easily navigate the 70 Cell series. A smaller number of 24 Cell boards are available for those that may have cortical visual impairment or other vision challenges that make visually scanning a large quantity of words challenging. These boards are also available in a High Contrast version.

Motor Planning

Across each board within the First Words product series, the motor planning stays the same (or as close to the same as possible). You will notice that the word EAT and ALL DONE appear at the exact same cell location in the AAC Food Board (70 Cell) as they do in the AAC First Words (70 Cell) Core Board. This supports a child’s ability to learn the location of the word and not require a new motor plan to be learned with the introduction of a new board.

Moving to Robust AAC

The First Words series of core and fringe boards is not a robust AAC system. It is highly recommended that a child start directly with a robust system (e.g., PODD, TouchChat, Proloquo2Go, Grid, Snap+Core) whenever possible. However, in the birth to three population not all therapists have access to this equipment and may be relying on lite-tech AAC such as this. Additionally, many parents and caregivers may need time to learn about AAC before they are comfortable with an AAC assessment and submitting for an insurance funded device. That is where these boards come in! They act as a stepping stone when robust AAC may not be immediately available.

Have an issue with your purchased product? Have a suggestion for something we can edit or make better? Please reach out to me at upliftatservices@gmail.com!

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