If you ask any elementary student what they love to do at school, odds are they'll say they love to play in the playground. That's certainly the case for students at RC Garnett (RCG) Demonstration School. The school has recently installed a new sign at one end of the playground to help improve the outdoor play experience for non-verbal students.
"What I love about this sign is it gives opportunities for students to communicate not only with us but with their peers, and for peers to communicate with our non-verbal students," said Lauri James, Special Education Assistant (SEA) at RC Garnett Demonstration School.
The rectangular sign which stands at approximately the height of an adult is complete with pictures indicating what a student might want to communicate, such as "I want," or "break" as well as play structures a student may want to use including a "gaga ball pit" or "slide," among others. These symbols were carefully curated from existing communication tools that non-verbal students use inside the classroom.
"Having the sign outside makes it much easier for our students because when we carry around our PECS books or we carry around TouchChat, their hands and bodies are inhibited by these devices and by having the sign out here it means they have the freedom to run around and play, without worrying about or being encumbered by a device or technology," explained James.
It enables them to "just be a kid and play like everyone else."
"The benefits of the sign are that students who are non-verbal are included in the everyday of our school. They can communicate with their friends, with their SEAs, and it creates an inclusive environment at RC Garnett," said Christine Wozney, Vice-Principal of RC Garnett Demonstration School, who led the project with a team of SEAs.
"My SEAs put this together. They sent me all the pictures they felt would be vital to our students who are non-verbal being successful outside."
The sign has only been up for a few weeks and educators are already seeing a positive impact on the entire school community.
"What we see is that the verbal students want to know more about what this is," noted Wozney.
"It's just another avenue of learning, into connecting our students who can communicate, who can do all these things that our non-verbal students can't, to understand them a little bit more; to understand what they need in the moment to be successful," she stated.
"I feel it gives them a voice where they don't normally have a voice," reflected James on the difference it has made on non-verbal students.
"Communication is such a big thing for our non-verbal students where in the outside word they don't have opportunities like this in a grocery store, at a park, out in the real world; where this is going to get them an opportunity to find their voice and use their voice," added James.
