Academic Units

AcademicVoice lets a student take part in academic lessons using their communication board. Academic content is delivered as units — themed sets of vocabulary, sentence frames, and activities tied to grade-level standards.

Badges: School · Pro · Clinician · AAC (no badge = all editions).

AAC: the AAC edition ships a sample catalog of 52 units — one unit per grade, K–12, in each of English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. The unit picker shows a banner saying so. Everything in this chapter works the same on that catalog.

1. Turning units on

Academic vocabulary is not on the default board — it appears only when an educator turns a unit on. This keeps everyday communication uncluttered and puts you in control of what students work on.

1. Open Settings (enter your PIN if asked).
2. Tap Unit Library.
3. Choose a subject.
4. Turn on the units you want available.

Turning a unit on makes it available on this iPad — every student on the device sees the same enabled units. (The Lessons planning list, by contrast, is kept per student — see chapter 05.)

2. Activating a unit

When a unit is active, its vocabulary and sentence frames become available on the student's academic panel, and that unit becomes the context for related activities and assessments.

• You can make a unit active directly, or link it to a time block in Settings → Schedule so it turns on during the right class period.
• If several units are active, the app uses the highest-priority one that fits the current schedule.
• Turning a unit off removes its vocabulary from the panel again.

The Academic Panel settings (chapter 05) let you arrange topic order and show word counts on folders.

3. What the student sees

With a unit active, the student's academic area shows that unit's words and frames alongside their core communication vocabulary. The student can:

• explore the unit's vocabulary in folders,
• build sentences with the unit's frames, and
• answer questions in an assessment for that unit (see chapter 03).

Core communication words remain available the whole time.

4. The mascot and built-in tutorials

AcademicVoice includes a friendly mascot character who appears on the board. Choose the mascot's look in Settings → Mascot; turn the mascot on or off in Settings → Mascot & Tutorial.

Here is what the mascot does:

• Get Started tutorial. A built-in walkthrough introduces the board and its parts the first time the app is used.
• Hint bubbles. Hints appear in response to what the student is doing — for example, celebrating a newly mastered word, offering a gentle nudge if a started sentence has paused, or welcoming the student back after time away. Turn them on or off with Show communication hints in Settings → Mascot; bubbles dismiss themselves, or tap Got it.
• Encouragement. When the student taps the mascot, it responds with a brief encouraging message.

Lessons list (planning). In Settings → School Panel → Lessons, staff can keep a per-student list of planned lessons — each entry names a unit and a level. Use it as a planning roster for the student's team. Parent/Guardian and Aide sign-ins don't see this section.

5. Standards and your state

Units are aligned to academic standards. In Settings → Standards & Location you can:

• confirm or change your state,
• turn on state-mandated content, and
• show standard codes on units if you want to see them.

The state you chose at first launch determines which standard labels appear.