One challenge that I’ve found consistently when working with students who utilize AAC is incorporating their symbols into materials, which is hard without an AAC symbol library. When the team, including myself, does this consistently, I’ve seen huge growth from my students. They love seeing their symbols on their academic materials and it really helps them make that connection between their communication system and their school work.

One problem I run into consistently is that is just really gosh darn hard to use symbols from device in materials. It takes forever. I don’t love most of the online tools available to do this and always wished there was an easier way to just drag and drop images to make things in PowerPoint or Word.

So what’s an SLP to do? Make up your own AAC symbol library system, that’s what!

I made a shared folder (in Google Drive) with pictures of individual symbols from a student’s device. I renamed all of them so that they were easy to search through and drag and drop into files.

Here’s what I did:

1)  I took screenshots of individual pages on the iPad. I emailed them to myself.

2)  I pulled them up on my computer and took screenshots of each individual button. They saved automatically to my desktop.

3)  I renamed all of them a single word to describe what symbols they were (e.g., Foot). This makes it wayyyy easier to search for the symbol you’re looking for later on!

4)  I dragged and dropped all of them into a folder. I dragged and dropped that folder into Google Drive.

5)  I shared the folder with the whole team. In addition, I sent a quick email to let them know to email me if they ever need other symbols!

This took me a total of 30 minutes in total from when I borrowed the iPad to when I returned the iPad. I guarantee my AAC symbol library will not only save time down the line, but it will definitely increase the odds that materials will be made using symbols from a student’s device.

One great thing about making an AAC symbol library is that you can simply share the folder between staff members year to year even if the SLP changes. Imagine getting a new student who uses AAC on your caseload and they already have a folder like this. Dream world, right?!

For more tips on access and materials for training your entire team on AAC, click here to check out my AAC Implementation Toolkit! It contains everything you need – how-tos, handouts, challenge tracking sheets, resources, core word activities, goal writing helps, and more!

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