Tactile Schedule Book

A few days ago I wrote about how I made a tactile/texture schedule board. Well, in preparation for sending my student to summer school, where he will have a different teacher, I transfered the board to a book. Our summer school is outdoors and more like a camp. If the materials my students are using aren't clear and understandable to the summer staff they don't get used. However, things frequently get dirty, nearly destroyed or totally annihilated at summer school, so you don't want to send anything priceless or that cannot be remade.

I wanted to make the tactile schedule easier to use as learning or looking up the meaning for every tactile symbol and then arranging them daily on a Go! Board is not the type of thing that works well at our summer school. I also wanted a more portable system.

Using Boardmaker, I printed full page black and white PCS symbols on white heavy card stock, and slipped them into heavy duty pocket protectors. I attached the correlating tactile/texture symbol to each page using plastic ties or hot glue (depending on the object). I made sure the tactile symbols were really well attached by yanking on them full force and even dangling the binder by the various attached symbols. All of the schedule pages were then put into a big white binder with those see through covers. In the clear cover on the back I typed out instruction for use and the front cover I adapted to be tactile, so the student can distinguish his binder from others.

To my delight, after just four days using the binder instead of the old tactile schedule the student is able to flip through it and, using touch only, find the page that represents what is next in the day. In fact, today he sat down in his seat and the paraprofessional showed him (hand over hand) that the book was open to bathroom, which was next on his schedule. He reached out and flipped through the pages, finding the tactile symbol for life skills group and opening the binder to that instead. What was interesting about him doing that was he only has life skills group on Thursdays, and has only been in the group for a couple of months, so it was surprising that he was right. He has had a continuously difficult time adjusting to Thursdays being different because of life skills group. Today he showed us the symbol for life skills group first thing in the morning, on the right day, and then, for the first time, made it through the group without a problem.

It was practically miraculous.

Creating a Tactile Schedule Board

Although there are other ways to create a texture based schedule board, I am going to share with you how I did it for one student. This student was blind, had CP and moderate to severe cognitive challenges. The student needed a schedule board to help decrease behaviors around transitions and was capable of using abstract textures/tactile sensations to represent ideas like "physical therapy" or "pre-vocational activities".

The student had previously been using texture symbols as a teaching aid to learn complex information and had enjoyed the process of choosing the textures to match certain items or concepts. I considered two different commercial textured products, because we had already used all of the textured items I could readily put my hands on for his other symbols. The commercial products I considered were Teachable Touchable Texture Squares by Super Duper, Inc. (above) and the Sensory Discrimination Kit by Enabling Devices (left). The Sensory Discrimination Kit provided eight 3x3 inch texture squares for $69.95 and the Teachable Touchable set gave me 2 each of ten different texture squares that were able the same size but soft puffy pillows instead of hard plastic squares and they came in a cloth carrying bag for $19.95. I went for the Teachable Touchables, especially since this was coming out of my pocket.

Once the Teachable Touchables were delivered my student and I sat down and he assigned a different meaning to each of the textures (e.g. the net like one was PT and the corduroy one was OT) with some cues. We practiced matching the textures to the meanings for awhile and then I secured Velcro the backs of each texture.

I already had an Enabling Devices Go! Board in the room that I was not using, so I decided that would work fine. However, if that were not available foam core board covered in clear contact paper would have been worked or even a strip of sanded, painted wood or, perhaps, taped and painted tri-wall. Go! Boards that do not talk with 2x2 inch squares run for about fifty dollars, the Talking Go! Board with the 3x3 inch squares is about $173.00. The foam board, wood or tri-wall is much cheaper.

The Teachable Touchable squares fit fine on the 2x2 inch Go! Board. Now all that needs to be done is to arrange the texture symbols in order each morning and use the texture schedule board with the student the same way a sighted child would be guided to use a visual schedule.

Yet Another Bunch of Symbol Systems

I have discovered more picture symbol systems to share with you all. The first is the Bonnington Symbol System out of Edinburg, Scotland. They currently have 600 symbols with plans to expand. They also offer a variety of free symbol based activities. The Bonnington Symbols are ment to expand other symbol systems and are compatiable with MS Word and Boardmaker. There list of links is worth checking out.

The Simplified Sign Lexicon now has a library of 800 free black and white images of American Sign Language words to be used when working with learners who have intellectual disabilities. The dictionary is arranged in alphabetical order. There is also a teaching manual, and everything is free of charge.

Tangible Symbols Systems offers texture, miniature objects and partial objects. They have many resources to be explored.

There are two companies making customized cards Squarepics and Goosie Cards. Both are worth taking a look at.