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I'm not a mind reader

Dear Evie,
As much as I'd love this superpower, Mommy is not a mind reader.  When you are sitting in front of me asking for music, I do not know what song you are thinking of in your head.  I ask you if you want "The Cat Came Back,"  "Rocketship Run," or "Stand Up Sit Down," but you just growl at me and get frustrated that I can't read your mind. 

So I am doing something about it. 

Love,
Mommy


I am making my own personalized Evie PECS board.  PECS stands for Picture Exchange Communication System.  It is very useful for helping nonverbal people to communicate.

Evie has matching communication books made of PECS pictures at school and at home.  But when it comes time for what song she wants to be played, the field is open.

Evie's school provided a Communication Book for home to match her book at school. It even has pictures of each of her classmates and teachers and therapists!

Evie's song menu choices in her school communication book.  Note the dinosaur sticker I added because there was no choice for "We Are the Dinosaurs" by Laurie Berkner.

We Are the Dinosaurs is a crowd favorite, and it's not a choice at school!  So it's time for the big guns.  Enter Evie's song menu.
Laurie Berkner and Patty Shukla. 
I ran out of songs I really wanted to hear over and over again, so added favorite books and activities.
Some Rachel Coleman, nursery rhymes, Bible songs, books, and activity choices
I'm putting these in sheet protectors to use until her song selections change.

If you're interested in making your own, here is the link to a free template: https://pecsusa.com/free-materials/.  Under Worksheets and Checklists, there are two differently-sized options for PECS grids. In preparation, I googled each song that Evie liked and found an image that she would recognize for each song.  I saved them all to a folder, and then opened the template in Word and inserted a picture in each square.

Hope this helps someone else cut down on the need for mind reading!


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