Today's Article

"I first thought I was outside 2at recess with some of our 4K students at the beginning of the year and some of them have tablets or a communication device to help them speak, but it's really hard to 3carry that around while they're running around on the 4playground with their friends."

The school's speech therapist wanted to allow for communication on the playground as well. So the school 5installed a speech board. Kids started using it right away.

"The first day after I 6put it up on the playground, there's a window outside my office that 7overlooks the playground, and I saw two students going 8back and forth and kind of using it. So that was really cool to see that the first day—I already saw kids using it."

The board is most helpful to kids who are more shy and nonverbal. This board makes it easier for them to meet fellow kids and make friends. The board is 9based on having 10core words and 11fringe words to create messages.

"It's been really great because probably the coolest thing I've seen is we have some kids at school who are nonverbal—they don't speak—but I've seen kids who are nonverbal using the board to communicate with kids who do speak normally."

The board also has alphabet and American Sign Language symbols for all the letters.

The board was made by Talk-To-Me Technologies, which is a group 12dedicated to helping people with communication differences caused by things like 13autism, 14cerebral palsy, and 15Down syndrome.

"It opens all kinds of doors so that we can have all these. It's a way for kids who don't use their voices, their words to communicate—to still be able to communicate and make friends when they're four and five years old."