My Communication Choices
Use fictional examples. Leave out diagnoses, medical information, names, passwords and contact details.
Learning goal: Select comfortable ways to request clarification, time and participation options.
Communication can use speech, signs, typing, pictures, gestures or AAC. A pause does not mean you have no ideas. Make a request that others can understand and honor.
- Choose a real or made-up learning situation. Leave out names, diagnoses and private details.
- Explore the three activities. Choose supports that fit you; skip any that do not.
- Write, type, draw, point, sign, use AAC or ask someone to scribe your own ideas.
- Choose one next step and an adult who can help make it possible.
Grades 3–5 support: Use the prompts and examples, or explain your ideas in your own way. Ask for words, a scribe or one direction at a time.
Choose my message
Select requests that could make learning more accessible.
A request I would use
How I want to send it
My Communication Choices
Make a request card
Create one message with a word, symbol, gesture description or device phrase.
My message
What an adult can do when they receive it
Optional deeper thinking · Grades 6–8
Develop a group-discussion participation agreement that allows several communication modes and thoughtful response time.
My Communication Choices
Practice a response agreement
Imagine a teacher asks a complex question and waits. Decide what signal and response would help.
My signal for time or help
An agreed next step
My next step
What will I try, and who can support it? Write, draw, dictate, sign or use AAC.
My Communication Choices
Accessibility & alternative responses
Support AAC access and partner-assisted selection; ask the learner how to confirm a message. Offer a quiet nonpublic practice.
Teacher facilitation
Honor the communication mode chosen. Wait without repeated prompts and confirm meaning rather than guessing. Do not require speech or eye contact to obtain support.
Family-use suggestion
Invite the learner to choose what to share. Try one support together, ask what helped, and change the plan with their permission. Do not turn this sheet into a test or require private information.
Specialist formats
These printouts are not Braille. Embossed Braille and specialist tactile materials need qualified, technically validated production. The accessible digital version supplies structured text, not a specialist-format substitute.