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Boardmaker Online is a web-based tool for creating print and interactive materials to help your students learn and communicate. During the 2019-2020 school year Minneapolis Public Schools has distributed Boardmaker Online licenses for speech-language pathologists as well as K-12 DCD and ASD teachers.
Boardmaker Instructional Solutions/Curricula are now included FREE with a Boardmaker Online subscription These are maths and English language arts (ELA) curricula designed for teachers of students with special needs. Connect with over 500,000 members of the Boardmaker Community, including educators, parents and SLPs. Access over 90,000 free pre-made materials to share, use and store. The Boardmaker version is no longer available. The pdf version is now in Smarty Symbols, and free to download for your own use. (I pay for a commercial license, so you can not use the symbols for your own products.) This Smarty Symbol version also doesn't have any.
For questions about Boardmaker Online or if you need additional support please contact Anna Sletten at anna.sletten@mpls.k12.mn.us.
These short tutorial videos will teach you the basic features of Boardmaker Online:
Video Tutorials
Filling Buttons with Labels and Symbols
Editing an Existing Activity
Group Buttons (Two Symbols on One Button)
Groups in Boardmaker Online
Messages and Friends
Properties Panel (Changing Color, Shape, Text)
Searching for Activities in the Boardmaker Online Community
Sharing a Boardmaker Online Activity with a Friend
The “My Media” Tab - Uploading Pictures to Use as Symbols
Uploading Activities to Boardmaker
A Way to Use Core Symbols
Boardmaker Student Center App on Your Staff
Creating a Student Account and Pushing Activities
Creating an Activity with a Template
Creating and Manipulating Buttons
Picture communication symbols (PCS) are designed to convey a particular meaning, not just an object. Messages can be presented and generated through different types of media such as individual cards, paper charts and communication boards, computer display programs and voice output devices. Using these tools can allow an individual to express themselves with more complex types of communication and can allow them to interact easily.
The following are links to sites where symbols can be downloaded free. ***NEW*** Picto Selector Created by Martijn van der Kooij,Picto Selector, a freeware Windows application, is a software to create commuincation/schedule boardsand adapted stories. It has a searchable database of over 23000 symbols.This software also allows you to export and import custom pictures . Trainland This link leads to the trainland website’s PECS resource page. According to the websites author she is like me a parent who has been there, done that and still doing it. This site is a treasure trove of over 2,700 working links on everything autism. The PECS Page has hundreds of symbols you can download (some PCS and some photograph) as well as links to many other sites that have symbols that can be downloaded and used for communication. This site is a must see! Children with Special Needs : This site had several pages of pictures that can be downloaded printed and used to help get you started implementing the picture exchange communication system Do2Learn |
This site has black and white picture cards such as the one pictured above, to help individuals to make schedules, story strips and PECS cards. They can be printed as full-size coloring pages, in one and two-inch sizes with or without words. Printed and cut out, these can be used singly or grouped together. Blank image grids in one-inch and two-inch sizes are included for making custom drawings. A selection of blank schedule forms are provided on this site to allow for creation of customized schedule boards. (Picture cards can be cut up and attached to the blank forms.) PictureSET |
This is a large collection of downloadable visual supports that can be printed and used for receptive and expressive communication in any environment. It has a searchable database of picture communication supports for all different areas of life; school, home and community. The two photos above are pictures of materials I downloaded from this site. The mood thermometer can be used to help a child to express how they are feeling. This may help teach them to express their moods in a more socially appropriate way, to teach self regulatory behavior or to help them understand the moods of others.
The other picture shows a folder game that I printed to teach a child to categorize common items such as food and clothing. Many good ideas and examples on this site!
Boardmaker Share
This is the “official” Boardmaker share site. Access to Boardmaker software needed to print many of these. Hundreds of topics are available.
Boardmaker Free Trial
To try Boardmaker free for 30 days, it can be downloaded from: http://www.mayer-johnson.com/downloads/trials/
Boardmaker Free Pictures
ABA Resources
Boardmaker Free Trial
Many free downloadable resources that can be used to build language and skills. Sample drills and information on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) program are also on this sight.