AAC users4 February 2021
Washing hands – our new favourite pastime!
So that everyone can participate, we’ve made an aided language display to go with our now most frequent daily activity. You can download it for free at the end of this post.
There are already lots of visual supports available for the sequence of hand washing, and we’ve been using the World Health Organisation’s How To HandWash Poster but many people are adapting this. It’s impossible to list all of the options here so pick your favourite or type ‘hand washing poster’ into your browser and find one that best suits your needs.
Watch this video for the washing hands procedure in full.
Our aided language display is designed to go alongside a hand washing poster so that you can talk about it before, after and during the process. We’ve added some song choice buttons so that you can opt to sing Happy Birthday or add in a couple of your own favourite songs before you laminate the board.
Some example phrases might be:
Your turn / My turn to wash
Uh-oh – do it again
Uh-oh – slow down. Wash the germs away.
Uh-oh. More soap.
Great washing. Time to dry.
Not clean yet. Keep going.
Let’s wash and sing Happy Birthday (or insert different song).
We recommend laminating the board and implementing routine cleaning processes as well when using the board. It might seem easier not to have one that you have to keep clean, but it’s only easier if you can speak and understand spoken language!
Click here to download our free washing your hands aided language display
We also recommend reading our Talking to kids about COVID-19 resource and blog post.