BoardMaker

[|Boardmaker]

Boardmaker is a useful program which is open for use by many people including special educators. It is used for the purpose of creating communication boards and can be used in any primary schooling setting, including English language learners, social skills stories, literacy activities and other general educational purposes. Teachers are able to use this resource within the classroom setting. A great case study I found on the implementation of Boardmaker in a mixed abilities classroom of 9 year olds can be found [|here]. It shows how teachers at St Agathas have implemented the program into their classrooms to gain greater understanding from their students.

Autistic students 'understand what they see better than what they hear. Using visual strategies to support communication has become recognised as 'best practice' for teaching these students' ([|Hodgdon], 1998). Therefore, the use of Boardmaker within classrooms not only for the development of students' understanding but also for children with autism is imperative and can help a great deal.

At Radford College, Boardmaker is used as a daily function to ensure students are aware of the daily routine, the subjects that will be taught during the day and for students that are visual learners. For one child at Radford who has Aspergers, Boardmaker is used for his daily routine within a booklet. The booklet shows on the front 'What's on today', and different pictures are attached depending on what he has during that day. On the inside of the booklet is a variety of activity in picture form called 'options' which he can choose from that will help him throughout the day. When an activity is complete, he has a set of 'done' tiles which he then attaches to the completed activity's picture. I have also seen this program run with in the Early Learning Center with the younger children to set out their day. Boardmaker helps younger children as Arwood et al suggests 'the use of developmentally appropriate visuals for a child who is at the preoperational stage must relate the child to the use of agents, actions and objects in the child's environment. From these types of visuals, the preoperational child can begin to learn the concepts of the picture and relate the language to the meaning of the picture' ([|Arwood et al], p52, 2009). This was also evident at Gold Creek High School with a Year 10 girl with Autism in the same way as the boy from Radford College.


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