Alphabet Board

Resource Toolkit Assignment:  Resource Summary Sheet

1.     Name of the tool, or a brief description: Alphabet board

2.     What type of patient(s) would you use this tool/technique with?  (Describe by characteristics or by etiology.) This tool is appropriate for a verbal independent communicator looking for a low-tech AAC tool. Specifically, alphabet boards may be especially helpful for clients with certain types of dysarthria or impairments that affect clear articulation as a means of clarifying speech. This alphabet board is not appropriate for nonverbal clients, even if they are independent communicators. Clients who need a method to help them slow down their rate of speech may also benefit from using an alphabet board to point to the first letter of each word.

3.     How/why would you use this tool?  In what way will it be helpful? I would teach clients and their communication partner(s) how to use the alphabet board as a clarification tool when the client is speaking. In a pinch, clients could also use the board to quickly spell a word or answer yes or no. I also would plan to use this board as one method of checking a client’s spelling ability (especially if they are not able to write or type).

4.     What are the advantages of this tool/technique? I purposely left some of the spaces on the board blank so that clients and their communication partners would have space to add additional words/phrases that are important to them during communication. The alphabet board is easy to use, does not require complex set-up or charging, is not expensive, and can be quickly taught to lots of communication partners.

5.     Are there any disadvantages to this tool/technique? Using the alphabet board may not always clarify unclear speech. Additionally, it can be a slow process, which can frustrate clients. There are limited options for functional words/phrases to added to the board, so the client is highly limited in the number of whole words or utterances they can point to.

The next several questions relate to how you obtained this resource:

6.     If you designed the tool yourself, answer these two questions:

a)     Where did you get the idea for this tool? We have discussed the use and importance of alphabet boards in a number of classes, and it’s a great tool to have on hand when working with clients who need an AAC method to clarify speech or reduce rate of speech.

b)    Anything you still don’t like about it and might change in the future? Although I could have filled in the empty boxes with all of my own words, characters, and utterances, I feel that the board is more powerful and useful if the client and his/her communication partner(s) have the opportunity to individualize the board a bit. With this being said, I would not change it.

A	B	C	D	E	F	G		Space	?
H	I	J	K	L	M	N		Delete	!
O	P	Q	R	S	T	U		Yes	No
V	W	X	Y	Z
0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9