Facilitating Communication During Structured Play Groups in the Special Education Classroom

In early intervention settings, Structured Play Groups are a perfect, developmentally-appropriate evidence-based practice for autistic students and can be a valuable support for developing friendships and communication skills. In my experience, the benefit of these groups certainly stretches beyond just my autistic students but those with other developmental disabilities and even their neurotypical peers! Especially in these unique post-pandemic lockdown times when all students have had gaps in their opportunities for social engagement.

Play-Based Communication Boards

To facilitate communication during structured play groups, I created communication boards with common play phrases in predictable locations and fringe words specific to the play activity including related labels, actions, and even descriptive words. 

Each board was easy to implement because all I needed to do was print and laminate and they were ready to go! In my opinion, sometimes low-tech options are all you need! Students can simply point to the word they want to use or for some they may use the board as a word bank to facilitate their verbal communication. 

When Core Words became increasingly popular, I updated my Play-Based Communication Boards to create a new resource featuring core words. 

Activities

I chose activities based on what my students liked so that leading into communication opportunities was natural and motivating. Click on the activities below for a quick way to find all of the toys we loved! 

• Art Projects (this board also works great for Art class!)

• Beading
• Blocks & Legos
• Bowling
• Bubbles

• Cars & Trains
• Chalk & Dry Erase Markers
• Coloring & Drawing
• Doll House

• Kitchen Set
• Mr. Potato Head

• Musical Instruments (this board also works great for Music class!)
• Painting
• Parachute (how cute is this parachute! I love all the colors!)
• Playdoh
• Reading (you probably already have books, but I wanted to share my favorite library display. Each month I put out seasonal and thematic books to keep things from getting too messy!)
  
• Sensory Bins

Play-Based Lesson Plans

To make these even easier to use in my classroom, I created lesson plans for each board that could easily be implemented by my paraprofessionals or subs. These lesson plans were differentiated for early, intermediate, and advanced learners. Often, I would have a paraprofessional introduce some of the vocabulary and concepts on the board using the lesson plans during 1:1 instruction, and then I would help with the application during our structured play groups. Then, once we had practiced a bit with a board I would add it to my free play area so that students always had them accessible during play times. 

For my Core Word boards, I added additional core word phrases for staff to focus on facilitating. 

Play-Based IEP Goals

And as an added bonus, when I added my Play-Based Communication Boards and Lesson Plans to my TPT store I also added differentiated IEP goal ideas that aligned with the lesson plans. 

Buyer Feedback

In addition to being a big hit with my students, these communication boards have been a big hit with my TPT customers too! 

Ready to check these out for yourself? Head over to my TPT store!

 

And if you have a group of students with a variety of needs, perhaps you have some students who are using basic AAC and some who are learning core words. Don't worry I have you covered with this great Play-Based Learning Bundle!