In my experiences working with children who have disabilities, I found that many had a difficult time communicating what they wanted/needed or what was bothering them. I wanted to help those who had a hard time communicating orally find a way to express themselves. I have seen communication boards on TV shows and in movies before and thought they were very helpful. A communication board is far from what it used to be. Commonly, communication boards are used in hospitals and doctors' offices to help the doctors and nurses gage the amount of pain a patient is experiencing. However, communication boards are becoming very useful in a classroom with a student who has special needs. A communication board is often not a board at all. Typically, communication boards look like flip books with several pages containing various pictures. Each page contains pictures depicting a theme. For instance, the image below contains pictures describing things that would commonly go on a Christmas tree. The child would be able to point to the objects they would like to include. Other pages can contain themes such as months of the year, school subjects, family members, or rooms in a house.
The above link shows how communication boards can be made specifially for a student to fit their personal needs. These tools can be used to help a disabled student tell a teacher they have to use the bathroom, they have a question, they're thirsty, etc. The above site mentions that the board can be used to combine words to make a sentence. The site also contains a really great video of a teacher using the board with one of her students. Communication boards are great tools to have in the classroom and can really increase the students' ability to communicate.
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