MBP wanted to introduce the Playground Communication Board that is hung on the brick wall in the grassy area just outside of the doors between Ms. Barnes’ and Ms. Phillip’s classrooms. This board is tool that can be used to give students, who are non-verbal, have limited vocabulary/communication skills and/or who are not English first language, a means of functionally communicating with peers and adults in an unstructured environment. It has picture icons that represent the playground equipment, actions, feelings, safety, weather and wh- questions. It also has a QWERTY keyboard to practice spelling. The icon labels are also in Spanish since such a large percentage of our ML student population is Spanish speaking. Our purpose for displaying this board is to make our playground a more inclusive environment, to encourage positive social interactions and to promote functional language development.
*All students, teachers and staff are welcome to use the board, to touch the icons and explore another way to communicate!
Attached is a link to a video of a mother whose son uses a board similar to this one.
https://youtu.be/ISH55AtCHp8
