Needs and wants

Also called Requesting, Wants and needs vocabulary, Manding

The vocabulary of asking is where every board begins, and where too many of them end. Why requests must not be the only words a person has.

What it is

Needs and wants are the words for asking: "drink", "toilet", "help", "more", "want", "stop", "hurt". They are the first words most boards contain, and they are chosen because the outcome is immediate. A person presses "drink" and gets a drink, which is how they learn that pressing means something.

They are essential. A person who cannot say "help" or "pain" is not safe. But asking is only one of the things language does. Speaking children use their words to comment, refuse, joke, ask questions and tell you about their day, and the estimate you will hear from speech and language therapists is that requests are a small fraction of what anyone says.

Who it can help

Every board needs this vocabulary, whatever the person's age or ability, and it is the right starting point for someone who is just learning that a card does something. It is also the emergency layer for people who normally speak but cannot right now, on a ward, after a stroke, during a shutdown.

Where it fails people is when it stays the whole board. A ten-year-old with sixty request cards and nothing else has been given a vending machine, not a voice. And be honest about the other failure: a board full of things the person is never allowed to have. "iPad" on a board that is always answered "not now" teaches the person that asking does not work.

How it works

A needs set works best as a small number of high-frequency words rather than a long list of objects. "Want", "more", "help", "stop", "different", "finished" and "toilet" cover most requests when combined with a handful of nouns and a pointing finger. The specific items (juice, crisps, the blue cup) belong in fringe vocabulary sets, where they can be added and swapped without disturbing the core.

The Talk board has a needs set among its 14, and the words in it combine with the food and drink, places and people sets, so "want" plus "Grandma" is as easy as "want" plus "juice". The bathroom and kitchen sets carry the room-specific requests so the needs set stays short.

Whatever the board, the request has to be honoured quickly and often in the early weeks. That is not spoiling; it is how the person learns the board is real.

Getting started

This week, honour every request you can, immediately, even the odd ones. Then start adding the words that are not requests: pick two comments ("funny", "boring") and one feeling and model them alongside the asks.

Take off the board anything the person is never allowed. Either make it possible sometimes or replace it with something that is.

Add "different" and "finished". They let a person refuse what they were given without having to name what they want instead, which is often the honest answer.

Where to get help

A speech and language therapist will help balance a requesting vocabulary with the rest; ask for a communication assessment. Communication Matters is the national AAC charity. For children, Speech and Language UK has free family advice.