Making Communication Boards on PowerPoint

Leena Bhopale, MS, CCC-SLP

5 min read

Check out my video on how to incorporate this color board into activities with non verbal, emerging verbal and even verbal kids below! Keep reading for an easy step by step process to making your own or go to the Freebies section of the site and download a copy of the board you shown in the video.

Many of the children on my Tele-therapy caseload are those who benefit from visual cues to elicit verbal productions and those who are using non-verbal communication methods (picture or photo symbol based,).

In either of the above cases I find PowerPoint incredibly useful for creating activity boards that I can screen share as an additional visual aid. If you're an SLP who has been working with these populations, you're probably familiar with Boardmaker, and SymbolStix. If you're new to private practice or fresh out of grad school and are not affiliated with an organization that grants you access to either of these, a subscription may be out of your budget initially. That's ok. I'm sure you have PowerPoint installed on your home computer ( don't tell me you didn't look forward to creating presentations for group projects in grad school!).

Well, if you weren't a total nerd like me, I'll walk you through using it. Let's create a color board that you can screen share and manipulate. You can take the skills I'm going to walk you through in this post and create templates to individualize boards with pictures of communication partners, and specific, highly motivating items (like, bingo boards with functional vocabulary and few favorite cartoon characters sprinkled about). You can also create schedules to incorporate the TEACCH methodology into sessions. Possibilities are endless!

Let's get started!

Open a new presentation in PowerPoint and select blank slide.

Click on " Insert" and then "Shapes". You can choose the style of buttons for the board here. I like using rounded edge squares or rectangles. Adjust the sizing as needed. Add a text box, I write "Text" so I can change them once I'm set on the symbols I'm using.

If you want to change the boarder of the button click on the shape and then the "line" option at the top. You'll see a field for "Weight" that refers to thickness of the boarder. I adjust that prior to copying and pasting, because who wants to click on EVERY single button and go through the process when, copying and pasting will carry the change over? Same goes for "Text". I do it prior to copying so that each button is ready for customization with few extra steps. There may very well be an easier way to do this, but I don't know it yet...so if you know of a better way, by all means do it!I like to keep weight of lines and button sizes uniform, but that is entirely up to you. To add a text box click on "Format" in the topmost toolbar followed by "Font". Here you can you can adjust font size, text color and style.From here, I simple copy and paste as many buttons as I need for the board.

Now it's time to group. Why? This steps "attaches" the selected buttons together so they move as one. If you need to shift or move the symbols over a bit, you wont have to do so by clicking the buttons separately, or highlight all the components of the button. They will move as one unit. This will make it easier when you're modeling how to combine words or how to use the communication board.

After copying and pasting, I organize the buttons in rows and columns to create the fields the specific child scan. now you pick your colors. For this example, I'm keeping it simple.Three colors, a crayon symbol and a sentence strip. Click on a button, and then on "Shape Format" in the toolbar, and select the color you need for that particular button. Continue this step until you have all of the colors you need.

Follow the same steps above to create buttons for the "sentence strip". This is the visual cue you will be using to target and elicit the desired utterance or cue them to combine words for a simple utterance. Scripted phrases, Carrier phrases ( " I See ____", " I want +___"), Attribute + Object, Action + Object, etc.

If you need a picture and not orthography, click on the button and select " Insert" and then click on the drop down by "Picture". You have the option of searching the web, inserting a pic from your own files, or stock images. PLEASE DO YOUR BEST TO AVOID COPYRIGHTED IMAGES. It can be difficult to tell when you're using pics from the internet. Personal use is one thing, just don't try to sell these. I know I grabbed an image off of Bing through powerpoint but it was just to show how easy it can be to find and create a symbol. I have to add this statement just in case!

Almost there! When you add new shapes or images, keep in mind that they are added to the page in layers, with the most recent shape/image as the top layer. So when you move one on top of another it will look like it has disappeared. It's there!Just hidden. Highlight your sentence strip ( lasso select) and click on Arrange. Click on send to back. This step allows you to lay the color option on top of the strip, similar to what you would do when using physical symbols.

You've done it! Congratulations! Not too bad right?

Now for most of my teletherapy cases I mail hard copies of these in the format of a communication book ( multiple boards attached with binder rings so it's easy for parents to flip through and work on navigating through the book with their child. It's not always necessary, but in my experience the act of physically manipulating the symbols a) keeps their attention with active participation b) gives me more info on their receptive skills and fine motor skills in the event I want to refer out for an AAC eval. Of course, talk to the OT on your team for more in depth information on the child's current level of performance!

You can absolutely use this to create a template so that you have uniform pages in a communication book.

A tip for introducing a communication book- make sure you start off with sensory, play or mealtime activities they looooooove! If they are having fun and they actually want to participate-guess what? They will be more likely to request and allow you to show them how to use the book. First model and then guide them on how to use it. Sometimes our kiddos will surprise us, and take to the communication books faster than we imagined!