Feelings Communication Board
Identify and express emotions using AAC symbols.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Model the words when you are feeling them, not when the student is. Saying I'm frustrated while something goes wrong is the clearest teaching there is, and it removes the pressure of asking a child to label their own state in a difficult moment. Frustrated, nervous and bored deserve the most modelling because they are the least often taught and the most often needed. Eight minutes on the board and then a session of modelling.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentSet up the moment, then wait with an expectant look for 10 seconds.Log as correct
- GesturePoint toward the device or the right area of the page.Log as cued
- ModelTouch the symbols on the device yourself while you say the message.Log as cued
- Partial physicalOnly if the team agrees and the student accepts touch: a light touch at the elbow toward the page. Never press the symbol for them.Log as cued
Adjust it
Fewer symbols on the page, and model the message several times before you expect it.
Wait longer before prompting, or expect one more symbol in the message.
Matching IEP goal
During structured activities, Student will use their AAC system to name how they feel in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than a gestural prompt.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Fourteen emotion words for a communication system: happy, sad, mad, scared, tired, excited, hurt, surprised, frustrated, proud, sick, bored, nervous, calm. Most core boards carry happy, sad and mad and stop there, which leaves a student able to report three states out of the dozens they experience — and frustrated in particular is the one whose absence gets expressed as behaviour.
What to listen for
Watch for the word arriving before the behaviour. A student who hits frustrated instead of pushing a task away has made an enormous gain, and it is worth recording as such even though nothing about it looks like language progress. Notice whether the vocabulary is used about others — he's sad — which is a later and harder use than self-report.
Carrying it home
Families can name their own feelings out loud, which is the model that costs nothing. I'm tired, I'm proud of you, that was frustrating — heard often enough, the words become available.
What's in this activity
- happy
- sad
- mad
- scared
- tired
- excited
- hurt
- surprised
- frustrated
- proud
- sick
- bored
- nervous
- calm
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Kindergarten through fifth grade, and any AAC user whose emotion vocabulary is limited to the basic three.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all fourteen cards play with no login.
- Which word should I add first?
- Frustrated, usually. It is the state that most often gets expressed through behaviour when there is no word for it, and having the word available changes what happens in those moments.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.