Mid-Tech AAC Activities: Sequential Messages

Language Arts: 

• Reciting a repeated line in a story. 

• Reciting a poem. 

• Sequentially describing a picture scene. 

• Giving a book report with an introduction, body, and conclusion. 

• Acting out a play with different lines in sequence. 

• Sharing a personal narrative with chronological events. 

• Explaining the plot of a story from start to finish. 

• Reciting the alphabet. 

• Naming the characters in the story.  

• Recalling facts/details about the story.  

• Asking questions of others about the text.  

• Giving “stage directions” to others in a play.  

• Naming vocabulary terms and defining terms. 

• Helping conduct a spelling test. 

Mathematics: 

• Counting numbers or patterns in sequence (forward, backward, skip count, prime numbers). 

• Naming days of the week or months of the year. 

• Counting using 1-to-1 correspondence. 

• Naming money amounts (dollar, quarter, dime, etc.) 

• Describing steps to solve a math problem. 

• Listing math facts in order (e.g., times tables). 

• Measuring length, width, and height (e.g., big/bigger/biggest, long/longer/longest, etc.). 

• Naming measurement related vocabulary and defining terms.  

• Naming geometric figures then identifying them with visual/tactile manipulatives. 

Science: 

• Listing steps in an experiment for others to follow. 

• Naming vocabulary terms and defining terms.  

• Explaining a cycle (e.g., life cycle, water cycle, phases of the moon). 

• Stating parts from a whole (e.g., parts of a cell, parts of a plant in order from root to flower). 

• Stating parts of a group (e.g., animals that are vertebrates, types of habitats). 

• Describing characteristics of items (e.g., shape, color, size, hardness, texture). 

 Social Studies: 

• Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.  

• Sharing historical events or biographical information in chronological order. 

• Listing important information (e.g., amendments to the Constitution, key individuals, state capitals). 

• Explaining the causes and effects of a historical event. 

• Listing steps in a cultural tradition. 

• Describing a process (e.g., elections, immigration, bill becoming a law). 

Life Skills: 

• Answering questions during calendar/schedule time.  

• Asking questions of others (about their evening/weekend/special events/survey questions). 

• Describing steps to follow a recipe. 

• Singing a nursery rhyme.  

• Community outing: 

• Ordering food/drinks 

• Requesting directions for a place or item location in a store. 

• Listing items needed to purchase at a grocery store. 

Art: 

• Providing step-by-step directions for activity completion.  

Music: 

• Singing the lines of a song. 

The following devices allow for sequential messaging: 

LITTLE Step by Step Communicator (AbleNet) 

BIG Step-by-Step with Levels Communicator (AbleNet) 

SuperTalker Communicator (AbleNet) 

StepPAD (Attainment Company) 

Small Talk Sequencer (Enabling Devices) 

When selecting voices for mid-tech AAC devices, consider recording peers whose voices are age and gender appropriate to ensure the AAC user's communication sounds natural and relatable. This approach enhances the user's social interactions and acceptance among their peers. 

These resources are built on the foundational work of Toni Waylor-Bowen, Ph.D., and Jessie Moreau, M.Ed., NBCT, who compiled "101 Ways to Use a Sequential Message AAC Device" in March 2008. It also draws from Barbara Solomonson, SLP, MS CCC-SLP's "101+ Ideas for Using the BIGmack or Other Single Message Communication Devices," and the insights from L. Piche and P. Locke's "45 Ideas for Using a Beginning VOCA" presented at the 1997 CSUN conference.