Playground communication boards help students find a voice

A new tool was introduced to SBLSD elementary school playgrounds last year to help students who struggle with verbal communication during recess.

Called a communication board, the panels display an array of words and pictures intended to help students communicate with adults and their peers.

Students can point to the pictures to express what they want to do – such as a ball or some chalk for playing. Images can also indicate how a student is feeling, such as a picture of a person shivering for feeling cold.

“The boards help include everybody into play,” said Larisa Sanchez, a speech and language pathologist at Crestwood Elementary. “You and I can get frustrated and have trouble finding our words, and if I had a visual of it, it'd be really helpful. And so thinking of kids, they might need a picture in order to communicate to somebody what is going on.”

Jackson, a 5th grader at Crestwood, said that he’s seen other students use them during recess.

“They use it to express how they’re feeling,” he said of his peers.

In addition to helping non-speaking students communicate, multilingual students who are learning English, in addition to kindergarten students, are most likely to use the boards.

One student at Crestwood used the board as a way to be social with the people around her in a way she may not have without it, said Larissa. The student would point to the picture and want someone to say the word, like having a conversation about recess. 

“It has led to children being able to engage,” she said.

The district’s 18 boards were purchased through a Digital Equity Inclusion Grant, with two boards available per elementary school. The boards are similar to Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) digital devices that students who may have communication challenges use in the classroom, but may not be able to take outside.