Language Up Games

Wanna draw AAC? ✏️ 🎨

Learn drawing techniques with me! 😌

As a boy, I spent a lot of time drawing comics for my friends. My mom would bring home paper and pencils for me from her office job, and then I’d fold and staple them in half to have a little comic.

Then it was my goal to fill those pages as fast as possible with cute but quality drawings, lovable characters and quirky, goofy villains haha

Little by little, and from studying from little guides and art tutorial books I got from the library, I got pretty fast at sketching and making little comics.

I realized no tutorials like that exist for things in the disability world and wanted to try my hand at teaching others the techniques I learned to draw.

Let’s start with the one I do the most: an AAC tablet!

1. Draw a rectangle horizontally at a 3:2 ratio
2. Draw another inside of it
3. Draw horizontal lines, then vertical starting after the first line (for the message bar)
4. Add colors like charcoal for the iPad and popping colors for the buttons
5. (Optional) add symbols and words to fill out your AAC with full display for zoomed in or larger pictures

This way you can enjoy creating cute materials featuring AAC devices too ☺️

Have fun crafting more accessible adorableness!

Text highlighting is like a tiny “follow me” flashlight 🧭✨ It can help ADHD and dyslexia readers stay oriented on the page. And, as we all know, keeping track of where you are while reading is half the battle 😤 😂

Evidence-based reading support is usually about explicit, structured scaffolds that reduce unnecessary effort so comprehension can happen (National Reading Panel, 2000).

For dyslexia specifically, there’s mixed evidence on colored overlays/backgrounds: some research suggests benefits for subsets of readers, but reviews/meta-analyses find overall evidence is not strong or consistent (Galuschka et al., 2014; Henderson, Tsogka, & Snowling, 2013). Translation: highlighting can be helpful as a support, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all cure 🎨📚 (Wilkins, 2002).

My take: if highlighting helps you, use it 😌💡Adding in more supports for focus, attention and comprehension might be the critical difference in someone’s ability to be successful with reading 📖 🌈

Combine AAC with powerful language tools like narrative intervention to boost outcomes 💪