What are visual communication cards?

Visual communication cards are small printed pictures with labels that a child can point to, hand over, or arrange to express needs, feelings, choices, and answers. They give a voice to children who don't yet have spoken language, who lose access to language under stress, or who simply find pictures clearer than words.

The cards used in this tool come from ARASAAC — a free, openly licensed pictogram library maintained by the Government of Aragón in Spain. ARASAAC pictograms are used in schools, hospitals, and homes around the world. They are designed specifically for clarity, with consistent style and immediately recognisable shapes, which makes them easier for children to learn than photographs or mixed clipart.

This tool lets you search the ARASAAC library, choose the cards a child actually needs, customise size and labels, and print at home or at school. There's no app, no subscription, no account — just a way to make the cards you want.

Who uses visual communication cards?

Non-verbal and minimally verbal autistic children use cards as their primary communication system or alongside developing speech. A common starting set covers daily needs (eat, drink, toilet, help, stop, more) and key emotions.

Children with apraxia, dyspraxia, or speech sound disorders use cards to bridge the gap between knowing what they want to say and being able to say it clearly. Cards reduce frustration and protect against the meltdowns that often follow communication breakdown.

Autistic and ADHD children who lose language under stress may speak fluently in calm moments but become unable to access words when overwhelmed. A small card set kept in a pocket or pencil case lets them communicate when speech temporarily fails.

Children with English as an additional language can use cards as a bridging tool while building vocabulary, particularly in early-years and primary settings.

Adults supporting any of the above — parents, teaching assistants, SENCos, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, support workers — use cards as part of a broader communication strategy. The cards aren't the strategy on their own; they're a practical tool inside one.

PECS, AAC, and how this tool fits in

You may have come across the terms PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) and AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication). Both are bigger frameworks for using visuals to support communication, and both have specific methodologies that go well beyond just having cards available.

PECS specifically is a structured six-phase programme developed by Bondy and Frost in the 1980s. It teaches children to initiate communication by handing a card to a partner in exchange for a desired item. PECS training typically requires a qualified practitioner, and the cards used are part of a deliberate teaching sequence.

AAC is a broader term covering everything from low-tech card systems to high-tech speech-generating devices. Many SEN children use a mix — physical cards for some contexts, an iPad app for others.

This tool is not PECS itself, and it's not AAC software. It's a way to quickly produce well-designed printed cards that can support whatever communication approach you're already using. If you're working with a speech and language therapist on a structured programme, use this tool to make the specific cards they recommend. If you're a parent building a starter vocabulary, use it to make the cards your child needs first.

How to use this tool

Search for pictograms. Type a word — eat, toilet, happy, stop — and the tool searches ARASAAC's library and shows matching results. The quick categories down the side give you starter sets for common needs (daily needs, feelings, morning, school) so you don't have to think of every word from scratch.

Add cards to your set. Click any pictogram to add it to your card set. Build up the cards your child actually uses — there's no need to print 200 cards when 12 will do. A focused set the child knows is more useful than a large set they can't navigate.

Customise the appearance. Choose card size (small for a wallet or lanyard, medium for everyday use, large for classroom display), label position (above, below, or no label), and background colour. Different children find different combinations easier to read.

Print. When your set is ready, click Print. The output is designed to be cut out cleanly. Print on cardstock if you have it, then optionally laminate for durability. A single laminated set will last most children months or years.

Tips for using cards effectively

Start small. A child new to cards is best served by 6–10 cards covering the most important things first — usually daily needs and a few feelings. Adding cards too quickly can overwhelm. Once the child uses a small set fluently, expand.

Keep cards accessible. Cards locked in a folder are useless in the moment they're needed. Common solutions: a lanyard around the neck, a small ring-bound flip-book, velcro strips on a wall, a pencil case in the school bag, magnets on the fridge. The right place is wherever the child can independently reach them when they need to communicate.

Model using them yourself. Don't just hand a child cards and expect them to use them. Use the cards yourself when you communicate with them — point to "eat" when offering a snack, point to "finished" when an activity ends. This is called aided language modelling and it dramatically increases the rate at which children pick up the system.

Don't withhold the spoken word. Saying the word as the child uses the card supports language development rather than replacing it. Many children develop spoken language faster, not slower, when given visual support.

Replace cards as they wear out. Heavy use destroys laminated cards within a few months. Reprinting is part of the cycle, not a sign you've done something wrong.

About ARASAAC pictograms

ARASAAC (the Aragonese Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication) maintains the world's largest free pictogram library — over 12,000 symbols, designed specifically for AAC use. The library is funded by the Government of Aragón and made freely available to anyone, anywhere, under a Creative Commons licence.

The pictograms are designed by Sergio Palao and the ARASAAC team to be visually consistent, immediately recognisable, and culturally neutral. Their style differs intentionally from clipart and stock photographs — every pictogram in the library follows the same visual conventions, which makes them easier to learn as a system rather than as a collection of unrelated images.

This tool searches the live ARASAAC library through their public API, so the pictograms you see are always the current versions. When you print, the credit line on your printout acknowledges ARASAAC and the licensing terms — please leave it in place when sharing or reprinting.

Privacy and your data

The card sets you build stay on your device. Helpset doesn't collect or store any of your card-set data. The only network traffic the tool makes is to ARASAAC's pictogram API to fetch images.

Your printed output is yours — keep it, share it, reprint it, modify it. You don't need permission from Helpset for any of that. ARASAAC's own licence allows free use including in schools and homes; commercial use requires permission from ARASAAC directly.

Other Helpset tools that work alongside this one

Communication cards work best as part of a broader visual support approach. These other Helpset tools complement them:

Visual Timetable — to show what's coming up across a day or week, reducing transition anxiety.

Now-Next Board — for moment-to-moment transitions, simpler than a full timetable.

Feelings tool — when emotional vocabulary needs more than the four or five emotion cards in a typical starter set.

Social Story builder — for situations that need narrative explanation rather than single-card communication.

Visual Timer — for time-related cards that need to show duration, not just labels.