Picture symbols

Also called Symbols, Graphic symbols, Communication symbols, Pictograms

What a communication symbol is, how it differs from a picture, and why the difference decides whether someone can say anything new.

What it is

A picture symbol is a simple drawing that stands for a word or idea, used so that a person who cannot speak, or cannot yet read, can point to it, exchange it, or press it on a device and be understood. A symbol for drink is a cup. A symbol for more is a pair of hands or a plus sign. A symbol for want, help, go and not are the abstract ones, and they are where symbols stop being pictures.

That is the point most people miss when they first meet symbols in a meeting. A photograph of a person's own red cup means that cup. A symbol for drink means every drink, in every cup, now or later, wanted or refused. A symbol is a word with a picture on it, and a set of symbols is a vocabulary, which is why a person given three hundred symbols can say something nobody expected and a person given three hundred photographs can only ask for the things in them.

Symbols come in sets, each drawn in a consistent style so that a person learns the style and can guess new symbols: PCS, Widgit and SymbolStix are the licensed ones, ARASAAC and the open sets are free.

Who it can help

Anyone who uses symbol-based communication: children who cannot yet speak or read, autistic people, people with a learning disability, people with aphasia after a stroke, people with dementia. Also anyone who can speak but finds spoken instructions slippery, which is why symbols sit on timetables, labels and menus in every special school.

Symbols help the listener as much as the speaker. A carer who models on a symbol board while talking gives the person both channels, and that is how symbol vocabulary is learned.

They are not the whole answer for a literate person, who is usually better served by text and word prediction, and they are not a good first step for someone with no idea yet that a picture can stand for a thing; that person starts with objects of reference or photographs.

How it works

A symbol works by convention: the person learns that this drawing means this word, and once a few hundred are learned the drawing becomes as transparent as the word. Concrete nouns are easy, because the picture looks like the thing. Verbs, feelings and the small grammatical words are learned by use, by seeing a partner point to them in context many times, exactly as a spoken word is learned.

Sets differ in style. Some are realistic and coloured, some schematic and black-and-white, some built from stick figures. Consistency within a set matters more than which set: a person who has learned PCS should not be handed a Widgit board on the ward.

A colour code is common, usually a version of the Fitzgerald key: people in yellow, verbs in green, describing words in blue, nouns in orange, social words in pink, and it helps the eye find the part of speech on a busy board.

Getting started

Find out which symbol set the person's school or therapist uses and use that one at home; ask for a starter board of core words and put it on the fridge. Then use it yourself: point to the symbol as you say the word, every time, without asking the person to do anything back. Aided language stimulation is the technique and it is the single most effective thing a family can do.

If nobody has given the person symbols yet, do not wait. A free set such as ARASAAC prints tonight, and the free Talk board has 308 symbols in 14 sets ready to press, no account and no cost. Label the doors, the drawers and the now and next board.

Then ask for a proper AAC assessment, because the choice of set and vocabulary for a person's own device is worth doing well.

Where to get help

Communication Matters is the UK AAC charity and explains symbols for families and professionals. The ACE Centre and CALL Scotland publish free symbol boards and guidance. Your speech and language therapist is the person who chooses a set with you, and the NHS route is referring to speech and language therapy.