Communication

Photos of familiar objects, places and people should be taken (individualized for each student). Print the photos out. A word processing program should be used to type up words, names etc. , using at least 20-font. Photos and words should be laminated for durability. Velcro can be attached to the back of everything so that students can match the photo to the word left to right visually on a piece of paper with velcro, or on a vertical surface covered in fabric.
In order to increase difficulty, a clip art program (or Boardmaker) could be used to substitute pictorial representations for the photos.
For example, laminate a file folder. Attach 2 velcro strips across the folder -- one at the top and one at the bottom. Print out a photo of the student and a photo of the student's mom. Type the name of the student and the word Mom (or whatever the student calls his mother.) Laminate the photos and the words. In a work session with the student, put the photo of the student on the left side on the top velcro strip, and the photo of the mother at the left side on the bottom velcro strip. Give the student his name and prompt him to match it to his picture, repeating his name several times as you so this. Then do the same with the other word.
This can be done to help increase verbal communication as well by having the student tell you who or what is in the photo.