At Joondalup ESC our staff wear Pragmatic Organisation Dynamic Display (PODD) communication books to support our students. PODD books were developed by Gayle Porter (speech pathologist) as a way of providing access to communication for children with complex communication needs (CCN). PODD books allow our students access to communication that can be used for a variety of purposes across multiple settings. 

Recently, four Year 6 students from Miss Mercer's class have shown an interest in our PODD books and were keen to learn more about how we use them to support students with communication. We arranged for them to spend some time learning about the PODD and why we use it. We then went on to have a bit of a practice “chatting” to one another using the PODD. The girls now wear their PODD books around school so they can interact and have a chat with students. They use the PODD books to ask what activity they want to do, ask if something is wrong and to direct them back to class when the siren has gone. It has been lovely to see the girls’ enthusiasm to learn about PODD books and it’s great that our students have extra support in the playground. 

If you have any questions regarding your child’s communication, please feel free to contact me of your classroom teacher.

Sue Norman

AAC Coordinator