Google’s Autodraw is a free, web-based tool which utilizes picture prediction. Users sketch something and Autodraw attempts to predict what that drawing might represent. This tool can be helpful for developing artistic expression but it can serve another purpose as well. It can help illustrate the idea that some words can be more easily implemented using an image than others. Let’s look at some examples below. Which words in the list below create pictures in your mind? Which would be more difficult to draw?

• Cookie
• Snow
• Truck
• It
• Do
• Make 

You might easily envision a cookie, truck, and snow. Why? These words create a picture in our mind. When you attempt to draw them in Autodraw, they can be much more readily recognized by the tool than words that do not produce pictures. Use AutoDraw and try to draw some words. You’re invited to get creative and pick 2 nouns, 1 verb, and 1 preposition (i.e., cup, door, run, in). Which words did AutoDraw successfully predict pictures for? Which words did Autodraw not produce images for?

A cup drawn in Autodraw

When teaching language using augmentative/alternative communication, recognize that some words produce a picture in a learner’s mind while others do not. Learners will need to experience what some words mean in more ways than simply showing them a picture. They’ll need to learn what the words mean through actions, play, analogies, metaphors, stories, examples, and experiencing others use them repeatedly!