The Oak Harbor School District recently installed a new communication board to help children with special needs communicate with their peers and teachers.

The communication board, which is installed on the playground’s fence, was revealed during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Hillcrest Elementary Tuesday afternoon. More communication boards have been purchased and will be installed at Hand-in-Hand Early Learning Center and all the elementary schools at a later date.

As the mother of a special needs child and the assistant director of special programs, Tonia Johnston knows how frustrating it can be for a child to be unable to express their wants and needs.

“We have the ability to carry our voice with us wherever we go, and they don’t necessarily,” she said.

Johnston said the board offers nonverbal children — or verbal kids who are too nervous to speak — a way to express their needs and tell kids what they want to play with by simply tapping the icon representing the activity they want to do. There are currently about 50 students who use portable communication devices around the district but enjoying the playground while holding a tablet can be difficult, she said.

Timothy Georgalas’s 8-year-old son Scotty is mostly nonverbal. While he sometimes speaks, he has mostly relied on baby sign language and his own communications device. But during playtime, Scotty often struggles to respond to general education peers who are being friendly with him.

“Just because he doesn’t communicate the way they do doesn’t mean he doesn’t like to have fun,” he said.

With the new board, Georgalas believes his son will be able to communicate and socialize with more ease.

The communication board was installed with the support of community members, Island Thrift, and the Whidbey Community Foundation and the Oak Harbor Educational Foundation, which launched a fundraiser last fall to fund the devices and collected $20,000, Johnston said.

“(I) believe in the importance of inclusion and finding as many tools and ways that we can to help our students be as included as they can in all environments, including the playground,” she said.

(Photo by Luisa Loi) Children can tap the icons and letters on the keyboard to spell out names and words, or give specific directions.

(Photo by Luisa Loi) Students teach Superintendent Michelle Juss-Cybula some sign language.

(Photo by Luisa Loi) Tonia Johnston poses by the communication board at Hillcrest Elementary.