Open App

Studio

Create therapy materials and custom boards that use the same symbols and colors as the communicator.

Written by Jim Tyler, MS Co-Founder

What Studio is for

When the pictures on a child's visual schedule, token board and flashcards match the pictures on their communication device, every one of them reinforces the others. Studio makes those matching materials.

Studio has dozens of material types in ten groups, including Communication & AAC, Games & Activities, Cards & Images, Literacy & Language, Charts & Data and Math. The favorites are:

  • Visual Schedule
  • First-Then Board
  • Choice Board
  • Token Board
  • Flashcards
  • Social Story
  • Communication Book (binder-ready pages)
  • Communication Board (a working AAC board you can play in the app)

There are low-tech tools as well, such as an Eye Gaze Board with a center window for partner-assisted eye pointing.

Good to know: A few material types are still being built. They show This editor is coming soon when you open them.

Sign in and create your first material

  1. Click Studio in the site menu, or go to modelcommunicator.com/studio.
  2. Click Create a Material. If you are not signed in yet, click Sign In. A Google account or an email address works, and it is free.
  3. On What would you like to create?, search or browse and pick a type, for example First-Then Board.
  4. Type a name at the top where it says Material name...
  5. Fill in the tiles (next section), then click Save. Your work is stored under My Materials.

Tip: Templates at the top of a new material offers ready-made starting points for many types.

Edit a tile

Click a tile to open the tile editor on the right.

  • Display Text is the word shown on the tile. Type it first: the symbol search will use it.
  • Choose Symbol opens the symbol picker with your word already searched. Filter by category if needed, click a symbol, and use Load more for further results. Picking a symbol also sets the tile's color for that kind of word.
  • Upload Image uses your own photo instead (JPG, PNG, SVG or WebP, up to 2 MB). Photos are best for specific people, places and favorite things.
  • Speak Text is what the voice says if it should differ from the display text. You can also record or upload an audio clip for the tile.
  • The color picker sets the Fitzgerald Key color by hand.

Faster ways to work

  • Double-click a tile to type straight into it.
  • Drag a tile to move it.
  • Ctrl-click (⌘-click on a Mac) selects several tiles, and Shift-click selects a range.
  • Right-click for Copy Tile, Paste Tile, Clear Tile, Clear Row, Clear Column and the Alphabetize options.
  • Use the Rows and Columns − / + buttons to resize the grid, from 2 × 2 up to 10 × 10.

Print or download a PDF

  1. Open the material from My Materials.
  2. Click Download PDF in the toolbar.
  3. Open the PDF and print it. Card stock and lamination make materials last.

Tip: Print the same symbol the child sees on their device. If you changed a symbol in the communicator, use the same one in your printed materials.

Build a custom communication board

Choose the Communication Board type to build a working AAC board with as many pages as you like.

  • + Page adds a blank page.
  • + Bordered adds a page with the standard Model Communicator frame already filled in: core words along the top, pronouns down the side, and navigation tiles. We recommend it for almost every new page because the core words stay in their familiar places.
  • ⧉ Dup duplicates the current page.
  • + Page with AI drafts a topic page for you (next section).
  • ↶ Undo reverses page-level changes such as adding or deleting a page.
  • Rename a page in the Page Name field. When a board has many pages, use the search box above the tabs to find one.

Link tiles to pages

  1. Click the tile that should act as a folder.
  2. Set Tile Action to Link to Page.
  3. Choose the page from the list (it is sorted alphabetically).

The number badge on a page tab shows how many tiles link to that page. A page with no badge cannot be reached by the communicator, so link it from somewhere.

Other tile actions

System Action turns a tile into a control such as Home, Back, Clear, Speak All, Find Word, Space or a keyboard letter. Show Synonyms, Synonym Result Slot and Word Form Slot build the similar-words and word-forms features into your own board. Follow-up Action decides what happens after the tile is tapped: stay on the page, go Home, go back, or jump to a page you choose.

Keep words in the same place

When you type a word that already appears elsewhere on the board, the Elsewhere on this board panel shows where. If it says Always at C4, put this one there too, take the advice. A word that lives in one position on every page is a word the communicator can find without looking. Click any entry in the panel to jump to that page.

Draft a topic page with AI

  1. In the board editor click + Page with AI.
  2. Enter a Page name, such as Camping.
  3. Optionally describe who it is for under What's this page for?, for example A second grader going on a first camping trip with Scouts. The description steers the AI toward age-appropriate words.
  4. Choose how many words. Leave some blanks so you can add personal words afterward.
  5. Pick a Layout, and decide under Also generate whether you want matching Actions and Describe pages.
  6. Click Generate. Then review every tile.

Heads up: AI gives you a first draft and nothing more. You know the communicator. Remove words that do not fit, add the ones that matter to them (their dog's name, their favorite snack) and check every symbol before anyone uses the page.

Try the board, save it and keep it safe

  • Preview opens a quick full-screen test with speech. Press Esc to close it.
  • Play opens your board in the real communicator so you can use it exactly as the communicator would. An ← Editor button brings you back.
  • Save often. If a teammate saved the same board while you had it open, Studio warns you before anything is overwritten. The safe answer is Cancel, then reload to get their version.

Backups

Keep your own copy of your work: on My Materials, click ⬇️ Download a backup to save everything you made to a single .moco file. It holds your materials only, never the live system board. Do this after any big round of edits.

Export and share

Click the gear in the board editor to open Board Settings.

  • Download OBF or Download OBZ exports the board in Open Board Format, which other AAC apps can import. OBF is a single page and OBZ is the whole multi-page board.
  • Import OBF / OBZ brings in a board made elsewhere.
  • Add editors / collaborators lets a teammate edit the same material, so the school SLP and a private therapist can share one board.
  • Share to Exchange publishes a copy to the Model Communicator Exchange for other families and clinicians to use. Remove personal photos and names first.
  • Delete material under Danger zone removes it permanently.