CORE BOARD
Words with pictures,
for every day.
A core board helps a child (or adult) say what they need by pointing to pictures. Tap a picture to add it to the sentence. It can say the word out loud using this device’s voice.
People
Doing
Describing
Feelings
Food and drink
Places and things
Body
Spell a word
How to use it
- Show, don’t test. Point to the pictures as you talk: “Do you want to go to the park?” Children learn by watching you use it, the way they learn to talk.
- No pressure. Don’t ask them to point “to prove it”. Any pointing, looking or reaching counts.
- Use it every day, not only when things are hard.
- Ask a speech-language pathologist which words to add for your child.
Where to keep it
- Print a few copies: one in each room, the car and the backpack.
- Laminate one for bath time, meals and outdoors.
- Clip a small one to a lanyard or bag strap.
- Share copies with school, grandparents and therapists.
- Keep one as a backup for when the tablet is flat or not allowed.
AssistiveWare, the makers of Proloquo2Go, share free core word boards to print. They use different pictures (SymbolStix), so they may look familiar if your child uses Proloquo2Go at school or therapy.
Colours follow a common pattern used on communication boards: people, doing words, describing words, feelings, social words and things each have their own colour.
Picture symbols: Sergio Palao. Origin: ARASAAC. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA. Owner: Government of Aragón (Spain). Some colours softened by The Spectrum Connections. Potty picture: PiCom Cute Symbols via Global Symbols, CC BY-SA 4.0.