Creating Communication Boards Tutorial
Step 1 - Obtaining Photos or Symbols

Creating communication boards for your special needs child does not have to be a difficult or overwhelming task.  By following these simple steps, you can quickly and easily create communication boards.  Please note these steps are meant for communication boards created for your own personal use and not for commercial purposes.

There are a number of ways you can obtain photos or symbols for your communication boards.  First, you need to decide if your child will do better with actual photos or symbols or maybe a combination of the two.  Once your decide this, you can build your pictures/symbols library for your child's needs.  It is strongly recommended that the photos/symbols be resized to a low resolution.

1) Digital camera.  You can photograph your child's likes and interests.  Avoid cluttered backgrounds.  If you have photo imaging software, you can remove the clutter (this can be time consuming).  If your are photographing something small (ie: your child's favorite cookie), then put the camera on a small tripod (little tripods that only cost a few dollars can be purchased).  Place the item on a white background.  

2) Scanner.  You can scan the photo, symbol, or an object.  If your child's favorite DVD is Disney's Snow White, you can place the DVD case on your scanner platen and scan it in..

3) The Internet - on a Windows computer, right click on the image and click Save Image As to download. 

Google Images (www.google.com, click on Images) is a great resource for photos.
Free clip art websites are a great resource for symbols
Toys - try websites where the toys are sold, find the toy and download.
Foods and snacks - online grocery shopping sites or the manufacturer's website
Restaurants - visit the restaurants' website and download their logo and picture
Favorite DVD/video game - visit websites of the major video/DVD rental places and download

4) Purchase photo/symbol collections.  There are several sources.  Of course, our favorite source is our very own Angel Speaks Symbols CD which is included with MyCommunication Board, our Windows based communication boards software.

Step 2 Organizing your images.....................

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Last updated on 10/12/2011

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