Token boards are a useful tool in the special education classroom. There are many ways to build token boards, from fun characters to color coding. This blog post will show you how to create a tactile token board.
Why are token boards useful?
Token boards give a structured visual reminder of how close you are to earning a preferred item, activity, or food. For students doing a less preferred task, students that have difficulty working for longer periods, and for students who just need visual reminders to be successful, token boards are a hugely successful tool!
When using token boards we are able to visually remind our students of what’s next, and how much more work there is, without constantly using a verbal redirection. This reduces the stress on the student, gives clear expectations, and often reduces negative behaviors. You can learn more about using the different types of token boards in this blog post.
Who benefits from tactile pieces?
Any person with a visual impairment, cognitive impairment, or a person that needs concrete representation of the days events. For some of our students line art (like boardmaker, lessonpix, and symbolstix images) does not make sense to them. Real pictures may not work for them either, but an actual object and piece that you can feel works better. You can learn more about tactile classroom schedules with Stephanie in this blog post.
Making a Tactile Token Board
1.Gather Materials
To make a tactile token board you will need a piece of cardstock, laminator, lamination sheet, token board template, velcro, and bingo disks. (links are affiliate links, I find the best prices for you and receive a small commission if you click my links, thanks for supporting the blog!)
2. Cut + Laminate
Cut token board and glue to the astrobrights backing. (you can glue two token boards to one astrobrights sheet. Place the sheet into the lamination and laminate. Then cut out the two token boards.
3. Add velcro
Add soft velcro dots to each square.
4. Add Velcro to Bingo Chips
Add hard velcro dots to bingo chips and reward pieces.
5. Add Bingo Chips+ Reward to Board
Attach the bingo chips and reward pieces to the token board.
I hope this tutorial for a quick and easy tactile token board was helpful! Let me know in the comments if you have any requests for future tutorials!
