A Fairbanks student is working to add a unique communication option to one of the district’s playgrounds.
Kadence Kise, an incoming senior at Fairbanks High School, is working on her Eagle Scout project and wants to install communication boards on the elementary school grounds.
“I want to do at least one here at the elementary and I’m doing one at the Milford Center park by the practice football field,” Kise said.
She told the board of education Monday that Eagle Scout projects are meant to have a benefit to the community and her project would directly help students and kids in the community who are either nonverbal or struggle with communication.
“It’s a way for them to be able to talk to other people without feeling they have to speak if they are self-conscious about it. It helps them engage with other people,” Kise said. “It allows for those with special needs to be able to feel included.”
Kise said she got the idea after seeing a family member have one installed for their children in another environment and thought that would be a good addition to Fairbanks.
A communication board, an augmentative and alternate communication (AAC) device, uses numbers, letters, symbols and pictures that users can point to as a way to communicate with another person.
The boards were developed by F. Hall Roe in the 1920s and were first used by those with cerebral palsy but through the 1960s expanded to others with AAC needs, according to the University of Pittsburgh.
There are two versions of the boards, high-tech and low-tech (non-electronic), and Kise said she would do low tech options as an alternative to students using iPads and other electronic devices on the playground.
Kise said the boards allow students to “practice vocabulary, sentence structure and social communication in a fun and engaging environmental way.”
Board options include up to 45 pictures of various games and playground equipment that are suited to recess activities but Kise said the boards also offer the opportunity to spell out words for additional communications.
“A lot of them have the playground, so the toys, the teeter-totter, swings, slides, the monkey bars,” she said. “So if they want to play a game, they’re able to tell a person what they want to do without actually having to speak.”
Kise said the boards are customizable too, but that comes with a higher cost, though she said it is part of the project for her to raise the funds.
She said two options she looked at range from $850 to $1,920 for a more durable, aluminum board.
Elementary Principal Ashley Thompson said the boards will help those nonverbal students but also serve as an educational opportunity for all students.
“There’s an educational component, not only the kids who need to use it to feel more included in play because sometimes they can’t initiate asking to play with a friend or they struggle to, but there’s also a component to educate students who don’t necessarily need it but might be a recipient of the communication board,” she said.
Alexis Phipps, the district’s speech pathologist, said there are already students who require tablet devices for communication and this would serve as one additional tool to help.
“We have really great aides and teachers that encourage the kids but they forget or if it’s raining, you don’t want to take your iPad outside, so having this board installed on the playground – it won’t have any voice output, it won’t speak for them – but they’re able to point to the pictures,” Phipps said. “Even if the option is not on the board, they can spell out what they want. It’s just great.”
She said she’s appreciative of Kise’s project as she hoped to do a board in the future and this allows the district to get one sooner.
She said she’s seen them work in other districts and is excited for Fairbanks to have one.
Kise will start the project once the district signs off on the construction.