This listing was last up-dated: 2/2015
(More resources are listed on my Pinterest boards "Visual Schedules to Live and Work By", "Social Skills and Stories" and "Visual Strategies Worth Seeing".)
Boardmaker is a software program with a library of Picture Communication Symbols (PCS) to help create printable visual supports and interactive activities to help support learners of all ages. There are additional (addendum) libraries that can be added to Boardmaker that provide even more symbol choices. This is a very rich program that has been used with students with cognitive and complex communication needs for many years.
This posting is a list of websites compiled into a handy resource listing for all of us who rely on picture supports as there is just way too much time invested in recreating the wheel. Many of the following links are absolutely fabulous sites and others provide useful handouts and tools for us to continue to get educated to efficiently plan and effectively teach children with this powerful tool.
Boardmaker Software
There are 4 different versions of Boardmaker to be aware of (7 day full function trials are available for all of these):
- Boardmaker - used to develop print materials.
- BoardMaker Plus! (BM+) - creates interactive activities plus allows you to continue to create print materials.
- Boardmaker Speaking Dynamically Pro - is designed for communication with symbol support and word prediction/abbreviation expansion abilities and high quality voices. This is usually use on communication devices or computers to be used for verbal communication purposes.
- Boardmaker Studio - is an activity program for students to use on the computer or interactive whiteboard. This is meant to help Boardmaker come alive with gadgets and tools not seen in the other programs.
- Boardmaker Online - will allow you to create symbols-adapted schedules, calendars, books, and educational activities through amonthly or yearly subscription… create all your activities online without installing anything and access it from anywhere.
- Boardmaker Instructional Solutions - classroom support that is
subscription based providing academic instruction in ELA and math. Delivered through Boardmaker Online. Every activity is accessible using scanning, eyegaze or touch. (Requires a Boardmaker Online Personal, Professional, or District subscription.)
Other options:
- Boardmaker Player - Play all of the activities you create with Boardmaker Studio and Boardmaker Plus! on every computer in your classroom or computer lab.
- Boardmaker Pre-Made Activities - Boardmaker authoring software is not needed if you want to just use Boardmaker Pre-Made Activities. These are computer activities that focus on different skills, like literacy and counting. Just pop in the CD or complete the download and your activities are ready.
Boardmaker add-ons:
There are more and more add-ons all the time. (Prices range from $22-$49) These are worth exploring further. For more information about what is available, go to Mayer Johnson's website.
Add-ons worth considering:
- PCS Sign Language Symbols is designed to reinforce sign language. Features American Sign Language (ASL) symbols, Signed Exact English (SEE) symbols and a combination library of ASL and SEE symbols.
- Picture This contains more than 5000 very clean photos that can be used alone or installed right into your PCS library.
- PCS High Contrast symbols designed for individuals with low vision and visual impairment. These symbols are easier to see than standard symbols and offer a range of vocabulary topics to enable individuals with low vision or visual impairment to participate in a variety of communication settings.
- ThinLine style allows you to add thousands of brand new symbols to your PCS collection. Boasting a clean, more detailed look, the PCS ThinLine style offers more support for your academic subjects, and symbols are organized by category so you buy just what you need.
Tutorials and Demonstrations:
- Free online Training at Mayer Johnson website - View a previously recorded archived online session. Registration is free.
- SET BC Learning Centre has Boardmaker resources for both Mac and Windows. You can find presentations, demonstrations, tutorials and related resource materials at the Learning Center.
- The Oklahoma Assistive Technology Center has some wonderful PDFs and video resources for how to use BoardmakerShare along with the Boardmaker software.
Boardmaker Resources
BoarmakerShare, provided by Mayer-Johnson, has set up as a place for all of us to share what we develop. If you have Boardmaker Plus or Studio, there really isn't any place else that you need to go. This truly is the best creation since napkins. So, the first thing you need to do, if you haven't already, is to become a member and ask to receive the email updates. If you want a little tutorial about BoardmakerShare, there is a nice little 7 minute tutorial that will walk you through it, developed by Aaron E Marsters.
Beyond that, you might want to explore some of the resources that are provided by various schools and organizations. Many are provided in PDF format, which means they cannot be adapted but it also means you can print them without having Boardmaker software:
- Ace Centre has a section titled, "Developing and using a Communication Book" provided a few pages worth taking a peak at.The purpose of this site is to sell a book but there's a downloadable 320Kb PDF file in the menu on the right that contains five sample pages from the communication book.
- Adapted Books by NYC Department of Education, "These are adapted books and materials created with Boardmaker, Writing with Symbols, Smartboard's Notebook, and MS PowerPoint. Some have also been converted to Adobe Acrobat (.pdf)."
- Amy Speech and Language Therapy provides PDFs of various communication boards for "Adults who may not be able to communicate using their voice. These type of boards are extremely important to arm yourselves with when your loved one experiencing such is in the hospital and cannot communicate." She also offers a variety of boards for children.
- AugCom has materials relating to AAC generated by various people who were willing to share. This site is part of the Speaking of Speech site which is very rich in many areas of speech related materials.
- The Autism Helper provides free visuals to use in the home.
- Over 700 children's books already adapted, with lesson plans, and vocabulary lists The Baltimore City Public Schools.
- The Boardmaker Idea Book is a great resource to give you ideas and get you started creating materials using Boardmaker.
- The Call Scottland has created a large number of BoardMaker Resources for you to use as wish, including story and symbol packs, games for all and symbol topic boards. These resources are either .zip or PDF format
- Chapel Hill Snippets has developed various books for you to take advantage of, along with various wonderful PowerPoints.
- Early Literacy provides several downloads.
- eLearning has pre-made visuals for various things, visual schedules being the best. Take a look. They have 3 pages of boards that are very easy to search through.
- Jane Farrall has developed boards for specific books to use in Guided Reading. These are primary level books. This is a great resource!
- English Visual Images provides a variety of pre-made boards, using PCS, from a variety of behavior, communication and schedules.
- Jefferson Parish Public Schools Speech-Hearing-Language Services gives you 100s of speech pathology activities and resources made in Boardmaker.
This listing was last up-dated: 2/2015
(More resources are listed on my Pinterest boards "Visual Schedules to Live and Work By", "Social Skills and Stories" and "Visual Strategies Worth Seeing".)
Boardmaker is a software program with a library of Picture Communication Symbols (PCS) to help create printable visual supports and interactive activities to help support learners of all ages. There are additional (addendum) libraries that can be added to Boardmaker that provide even more symbol choices. This is a very rich program that has been used with students with cognitive and complex communication needs for many years.
This posting is a list of websites compiled into a handy resource listing for all of us who rely on picture supports as there is just way too much time invested in recreating the wheel. Many of the following links are absolutely fabulous sites and others provide useful handouts and tools for us to continue to get educated to efficiently plan and effectively teach children with this powerful tool.
There are 4 different versions of Boardmaker to be aware of (7 day full function trials are available for all of these):
- Boardmaker - used to develop print materials.
- BoardMaker Plus! (BM+) - creates interactive activities plus allows you to continue to create print materials.
- Boardmaker Speaking Dynamically Pro - is designed for communication with symbol support and word prediction/abbreviation expansion abilities and high quality voices. This is usually use on communication devices or computers to be used for verbal communication purposes.
- Boardmaker Studio - is an activity program for students to use on the computer or interactive whiteboard. This is meant to help Boardmaker come alive with gadgets and tools not seen in the other programs.
- Boardmaker Online - will allow you to create symbols-adapted schedules, calendars, books, and educational activities through amonthly or yearly subscription… create all your activities online without installing anything and access it from anywhere.
- Boardmaker Instructional Solutions - classroom support that is
subscription based providing academic instruction in ELA and math. Delivered through Boardmaker Online. Every activity is accessible using scanning, eyegaze or touch. (Requires a Boardmaker Online Personal, Professional, or District subscription.)
Other options:
- Boardmaker Player - Play all of the activities you create with Boardmaker Studio and Boardmaker Plus! on every computer in your classroom or computer lab.
- Boardmaker Pre-Made Activities - Boardmaker authoring software is not needed if you want to just use Boardmaker Pre-Made Activities. These are computer activities that focus on different skills, like literacy and counting. Just pop in the CD or complete the download and your activities are ready.
Boardmaker add-ons:
There are more and more add-ons all the time. (Prices range from $22-$49) These are worth exploring further. For more information about what is available, go to Mayer Johnson's website.
Add-ons worth considering:
Add-ons worth considering:
- PCS Sign Language Symbols is designed to reinforce sign language. Features American Sign Language (ASL) symbols, Signed Exact English (SEE) symbols and a combination library of ASL and SEE symbols.
- Picture This contains more than 5000 very clean photos that can be used alone or installed right into your PCS library.
- PCS High Contrast symbols designed for individuals with low vision and visual impairment. These symbols are easier to see than standard symbols and offer a range of vocabulary topics to enable individuals with low vision or visual impairment to participate in a variety of communication settings.
- ThinLine style allows you to add thousands of brand new symbols to your PCS collection. Boasting a clean, more detailed look, the PCS ThinLine style offers more support for your academic subjects, and symbols are organized by category so you buy just what you need.
- Free online Training at Mayer Johnson website - View a previously recorded archived online session. Registration is free.
- SET BC Learning Centre has Boardmaker resources for both Mac and Windows. You can find presentations, demonstrations, tutorials and related resource materials at the Learning Center.
- The Oklahoma Assistive Technology Center has some wonderful PDFs and video resources for how to use BoardmakerShare along with the Boardmaker software.
BoarmakerShare, provided by Mayer-Johnson, has set up as a place for all of us to share what we develop. If you have Boardmaker Plus or Studio, there really isn't any place else that you need to go. This truly is the best creation since napkins. So, the first thing you need to do, if you haven't already, is to become a member and ask to receive the email updates. If you want a little tutorial about BoardmakerShare, there is a nice little 7 minute tutorial that will walk you through it, developed by Aaron E Marsters.
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