Tulare SELPA - Autism Resources

Developing Communication

Examples of Picture Based Communication Systems

Here is an example of an early picture based communication system that was used by a family and their 3-year-old son who has ASD. The parents found that with their non-verbal son, the refrigerator was a convenient centralized location that allowed the child easy retrieval of the picture he wished to use to initiate communication. For the most part, the pictures were taken with a digital camera or found on the internet. They were printed on a color printer and attached to the refrigerator using magnetic clips. Using this system, the family found that adding new pictures as their son's vocabulary increased was very simple.

As the child's vocabulary grew, the pictures were reduced in size to allow more of them to fit on the refrigerator at a height that their son could easily reach. Over time, the pictures were combined onto 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper. The child could initiate communication by bringing the sheet to a family member or friend and pointing to the desired picture. Having the pictures on 8 1/2 x 11 sheets allowed the parents to carry the system with them more easily. Because most of the destinations that the family traveled to had a refrigerator, the system could be easily recreated at other locations.

As time passed and the child's vocabulary continued to expand, the various pages were inserted into letter-size sheet protectors and bound together. With the pictures in the sheet protectors, the family began introducing the

NOT AVAILABLE symbol to communicate the items which were not currently available to the child. This family chose to use transparent, removable NOT AVAILABLE stickers that they produced with their color printer; however, using an erasable marker on the sheet protector would also have done the job.

Because there are many small business card binders available, this family eventually reduced the size of the pictures even further, printing them on business card stock, two pictures per card. This size made it very easy for the 3-year-old child to carry with him. Using the business card binder, it was easy to add new pictures from toy, food and other packages. If the pictures were of a small enough size, they could simply be cut off the package and inserted into the business card binder.

* Click the photos above to enlarge.

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