The North Penn School District (NPSD) has installed communication boards at all thirteen elementary schools in the district. The boards are designed to help students with language barriers or communication differences talk to each other about playground activities, emotions, and more.
The boards feature picture “buttons” of actions, items, emotions, and questions that help students with communication differences play and interact with each other. For example, a student can point to the image for a slide and ask a peer to go play on the slide with them.
The boards are designed by speech-language pathologists and are intended to support anyone with a communication difference, including those on the autism spectrum, those who are nonverbal, have speech production difficulties, use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), and those who have varying levels of English language proficiency. Any student can use the board to communicate with their peers and connect with each other.
These boards were funded by a grant from the NPSD Educational Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization providing innovative and inspiring educational experiences to North Penn schools. This particular grant was made possible by a generous contribution from the Burke family.
For more information about the NPSD Educational Foundation, please visit www.npennedfoundation.org.