Semantic-syntactic grids

Also called Fitzgerald key, Modified Fitzgerald key, Sentence-order layout, Colour-coded grid

Layouts that put words in sentence order, left to right, so grammar is built into the board and a sentence is a sweep of the hand.

What it is

A semantic-syntactic grid arranges words by their job in a sentence and in the order English puts them: people and pronouns on the left, then verbs, then describing words and little words, then nouns on the right. Building "I want more juice" is a sweep from left to right. The layout comes from the Fitzgerald key, a scheme devised in the 1920s for teaching sentence structure to deaf children, and most modern core boards are a modified version of it.

Colour usually reinforces the columns: one colour for pronouns, another for verbs, another for describing words, another for nouns. The exact colours vary between systems, which matters when a person moves between them.

Who it can help

People building sentences, from a child at the two-word stage to an adult relearning grammar after a stroke. The layout does part of the teaching by itself: a person who has only ever pointed at nouns on the right discovers there is a whole left-hand side, and the partner modelling "I want" plus "that" shows the sweep.

It is not for everyone. Someone who thinks in situations rather than word classes may do better with a visual scene; someone with a very slow access method may need words ordered by frequency rather than by grammar so the common ones scan first; and a person who needs to signal what kind of message is coming may prefer pragmatic organisation.

How it works

Columns hold word classes; rows hold frequency, with the most-used words nearest the person's easiest reach. Core words fill most of the grid and stay fixed; a strip or a folder of fringe nouns changes with the topic. Because the order matches English, a person who selects across the grid produces grammatical output without being taught rules, and prediction on a device can use the position to guess what class of word comes next.

Most core boards from ACE Centre and CALL Scotland, and the core pages of the main commercial page sets, use this pattern. Grid size varies from a dozen cells to over a hundred, and the design's strength is that the columns stay in place as the grid grows. See motor planning.

Getting started

Print a colour-coded core board and learn the columns yourself first: which colour is verbs, which is pronouns. Then model left to right, saying each word as you touch it.

Match the colours across settings. If school uses one colour scheme and home another, the person is learning two grids. Write the scheme in the communication passport.

Expand sentences, don't correct them. When the person selects "juice", model "want juice" on the grid; when they say "want juice", model "I want juice". See expanding and recasting.

Where to get help

ACE Centre and CALL Scotland publish free grids in this layout and explain the colour coding. Communication Matters lists the suppliers whose page sets follow it. A speech and language therapist will choose the grid size and the starting vocabulary.