Last updated 2026-07-11
TL;DR
You can make picture cards at home for free with printed photos, Google Slides, Canva's free tier, or a marker and index cards. Print on regular paper, cover with packing tape so they hold up, and sort them by category. Research in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology found that kids who use picture cards alongside verbal prompts pick up words faster.
All you need is an image and a word, really: a photo of a cup, a simple drawing of a dog, a symbol for "more." Speech-language pathologists reach for these constantly because they give a child something to point to or hand over before the spoken word arrives, and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) names visual supports as a core strategy for building communication in kids with language delays [1]. For a child who takes in what they see more easily than what they hear, having a physical thing to touch cuts down the effort communication takes.
Cards are also the simplest entry point into augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). You've probably heard of speech-generating apps and devices; picture cards run on the same idea, giving a child a symbol to express a want, except they cost nothing, need no charging, and can be torn up and remade the moment your child's vocabulary shifts. They're not just for nonverbal kids either. Therapists use them with kids who talk but need help lengthening sentences, with kids working through apraxia of speech who benefit from repeated, predictable cues, and with kids learning to sequence steps like washing hands or getting dressed.
What you actually need to make them
Not much. A device with internet access, a printer (or a phone camera and a nearby print shop: Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart print 4x6 photos for about $0.25 to $0.35 each as of 2025), and scissors will get you there. Packing tape, a self-laminating sheet ($0.50 to $1 at a dollar store), or a laminator if you have one will help the cards last, but none of that is required.
You don't need a Cricut or a laminator. Index cards and a marker work fine, and so do pages torn out of an old magazine. The research on visual supports never specifies what the card is printed on, only that the image is clear, consistent, and available when the child needs it [2]. If you want the cards to survive a toddler's grip, press packing tape over both sides of a paper card and trim the edges. It won't be quite as stiff as a laminated one, but it holds up.
Free tools for making cards on a computer or phone
A few free tools do this well, and each suits a different situation.
| Tool | Cost | Image library | Custom photos | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Slides | Free | None built in | Yes (upload) | Flexible, any size, easy to share |
| Canva (free tier) | Free | 3M+ stock images | Yes | Polished cards fast |
| Boardmaker Share (community) | Free to browse | Symbol-based (PCS) | Limited | AAC-standard symbols |
| Do2Learn | Free | Line drawings | No | Simple, printable immediately |
| Lessonpix | $36/year | 7,000+ symbols | Yes | Best paid option if budget allows |
| Hand-drawn on index card | Free | N/A | You draw it | Zero tech, works anywhere |
Google Slides is the most flexible option. Set your slide size to 3x3 inches (File > Page setup > Custom), paste in a photo or a clear image from Google Images, add a text label at the bottom, and print several slides per page. The whole deck lives in Google Drive, so you can reprint anytime.
Canva's free tier has millions of stock photos: search for the word you want, drop the image into a card template (the "Flashcard" template is a fine starting point), add text, and download as a PDF. Some images sit behind a paywall, so filter to free elements only.
Do2Learn (do2learn.com) offers a free library of simple line drawings sorted by category, printable straight from the site. These look more like traditional AAC symbols than photographs, and some kids take to that better, some worse. There's no settled answer on whether photos or symbols work better across the board; the closest research suggests it depends on the child, and that consistency matters more than which format you pick [3].
Boardmaker Share is a community library built around the Boardmaker symbol system (Picture Communication Symbols, or PCS), which shows up widely in clinical settings. The community boards are free to download and print even if you don't own Boardmaker. If your child is already in speech therapy, ask the therapist which symbol set they use, since matching home cards to therapy cards cuts down on confusion.
Using real photos from around your house
This approach gets overlooked, but it works well. A photo of your child's actual cup, actual dog, actual bedroom often means more to a young child than a stock image or line drawing, simply because they recognize it, and that recognition makes the card easier to use.
Take pictures of things your child touches every day: a cup, a spoon, a blanket, a favorite toy, the bathtub, the car seat. Good light and a plain background (a sheet of white paper works) make a big difference. Upload the photos to Google Photos, your camera roll, or straight into Google Slides or Canva, then print at home on regular paper (four per page is a good size) or send them to a photo printing service. Cut them out, cover with packing tape, and trim.
The Walgreens app lets you order prints from your phone for $0.29 each with same-day pickup, so a set of 20 cards runs about $6. That's the only cost involved, and you can skip it by printing at home on regular paper instead. One catch: home-printed photos on inkjet paper aren't waterproof and the colors fade, so if your child is going to chew on or carry around these cards, don't skip the packing tape step.
Organizing the cards so your child can actually use them
Eighty cards under a rubber band won't get used. Organization is where most homemade sets fall apart, and a few approaches tend to work best.
Velcro on a file folder is cheap and simple: glue or staple a strip of the scratchy side to the inside of a Manila folder, put a small piece of the soft side on the back of each card, and let your child pull cards off and hand them over. A Velcro roll runs about $2 at a dollar store. A binder with baseball card sleeves (nine cards per page, which fits 3x3-inch cards well) lets you sort by category, food on one page, actions on another, feelings on another, and it survives getting thrown around. For on-the-go use, punch a hole in one corner of each card, group them by category with a bit of tape as a divider, and clip them onto a loose-leaf ring.
A choice board works well for kids with no prior experience: put two to four cards on a small board or piece of cardboard at the child's eye level during meals, play, or transitions, and offer a simple choice like the apple or the crackers [4]. For kids starting to build sentences, a "first-then" board (two pockets side by side, one card in each, so "first bath, then book") works well too. You can make one from folded card stock and two pieces of Velcro.
Which words to start with
Start with words your child already shows interest in, not the ones you wish they'd say. ASHA's guidance on early language intervention points toward child-led vocabulary: words should be functional, motivating, and spread across grammatical categories rather than nouns alone [1]. A child who loves trains needs a card for "train," sure, but also for "go," "stop," and "more" if those come up during play.
For most late talkers and kids with language delays, a good starting set covers wants and requests (favorite foods, favorite toys, "more," "help," "no"), people (mom, dad, sibling names), actions (eat, drink, go, stop, play, sleep), places (home, car, park, school), and a small set of feelings (happy, sad, hurt). Aim for 20 to 30 cards total. Adding more before your child reliably uses the first set tends to overwhelm rather than help; once they reach for or point to five or six cards on their own, expand from there.
If your child is working with a therapist through early intervention, bring your homemade cards to the next session and ask which words to prioritize adding next.
How do you use picture cards at home without a therapist in the room?
The cards are just cardboard until someone models using them, and that's the step most parents skip.
The most effective home strategy the research points to is aided language stimulation, sometimes called aided AAC modeling or "modeling on the board." You point to or hand over the card every time you say the word, even when your child isn't trying to communicate anything at all. You're showing what the card means through repetition. Research published in Augmentative and Alternative Communication found that children whose caregivers modeled AAC use at home showed significantly faster vocabulary growth than children in therapy only [5].
Here's what that looks like in practice. At breakfast, put out the "eat" card, the "more" card, and the card for whatever you're serving, and point to each one as you hand over food. During play, keep the cards nearby and reach for the relevant one as you narrate: "The train goes!" while pointing to "go." When your child wants something, wait a moment before getting it, hold up the card, say the word, then hand it over. You're pairing the symbol with the outcome.
Don't quiz your child. Asking "can you point to the apple?" in the middle of a moment when your child actually wants the apple turns communication into a test, which is the opposite of how real communication feels. Model the word, respond warmly when your child uses the card, and keep things positive.
Expect this to feel awkward for about a week. Then it becomes routine.
Are picture cards the same as PECS?
No, but they're related. PECS stands for Picture Exchange Communication System, a specific, structured training protocol developed by Andy Bondy and Lori Frost in the 1980s, originally for children with autism who had minimal verbal communication [6].
PECS has six phases. Phase one teaches a child to physically hand a picture card to a communication partner to get something they want. Later phases add discrimination between cards, sentence structure, and responding to questions. The full protocol requires training in the method; you can't put together true PECS from a YouTube video.
What most parents make at home are visual supports, not a PECS protocol, and that's fine. The goal at home isn't clinical precision, it's giving your child more ways to communicate. Homemade picture cards used consistently, with good modeling, genuinely help even without a formal protocol. If your child has significant communication needs and a therapist recommends PECS specifically, ask for training before you start.
One distinction worth knowing as you set up your cards: in PECS, the child hands the card to a person. In other visual support approaches, the child might just point to the card on a board. The handoff in PECS is built specifically to encourage communication directed at another person, not just at a board.
Making cards with AAC-style symbols instead of photos
Some children take to simplified, consistent symbols better than photographs. This shows up often in kids who struggle with visual complexity or who are already used to the symbol sets from therapy.
The most widely used symbol set in North America is PCS (Picture Communication Symbols), used in Boardmaker. You can grab community-made boards with PCS symbols at the Boardmaker Share community site for free, then print and cut.
A free alternative is the Mulberry Symbol Set, an open-source symbol library you can download and use without restriction. It's at mulberrysymbols.org and includes several thousand symbols across common AAC categories.
If your child already uses a symbol-based AAC app or device, match your homemade cards to whatever symbols appear there. Keeping the low-tech backup consistent with the high-tech device cuts down on confusion and helps the skills carry over. The ASHA Practice Portal on AAC explicitly recommends having a low-tech backup system for AAC users [7].
If you're building a home system and want something beyond printed cards, a full AAC device or app is worth a look. For many families, a mix works best: cards for quick, portable use, and a device for more complex expression.
Can an AI tool generate picture cards faster?
Yes, and a few approaches work well.
Canva's AI image generator (the free tier has limited credits) can turn a text prompt into a simple image. Type "red cup on a white background, cartoon style" and you'll have a usable card in about 30 seconds. Quality varies, but common objects usually come out recognizable.
Google's Gemini (free via gemini.google.com) can generate a list of vocabulary targets sorted by category, which saves planning time even though it won't produce images directly.
For families who want something more structured than printable cards, Little Words (littlewords.ai) is built for neurodivergent kids and includes guided vocabulary activities you can use alongside homemade materials. You can take their quiz to see if it fits your child's needs.
One note that matters: AI-generated images are fine for DIY home use, but for clinical or school settings, stick with established symbol sets (PCS, Mulberry, ARASAAC) that have research behind them and stay recognizable across environments.
How durable can homemade picture cards really be?
Honestly, not very, without a few extra steps. A plain paper card survives about a week of daily toddler use before the edges fray and the image fades. A few things actually extend the life.
Packing tape lamination is the cheapest fix: cut a piece of clear packing tape slightly larger than the card, press it onto the front, flip, repeat on the back, then trim with scissors. About two minutes per card, and it stretches the life to several months. The cards won't be perfectly rigid, but they survive dropping, bending, and most mouthing.
Self-laminating pouches are another option. Dollar stores often carry these in the craft or school supply section for about $0.50 to $1 per pouch, no machine needed, just peel and press, and they give a cleaner result than tape.
Printing on card stock helps too. If you have some at home (or can get a 250-sheet ream for about $10 at any office supply store), cards printed on it are noticeably stiffer and hold up better even without lamination.
Contact paper, the shelf-liner kind with a peel-off back, is the same material as self-laminating pouches and costs much less per square foot. Cover a whole sheet of printed cards at once, then cut them apart.
For cards a child will pull off a Velcro board over and over, card stock plus packing tape is the sweet spot. For cards stored in a binder, regular paper is fine.
Picture cards actually hold up under research scrutiny, though not as a stand-alone fix. A 2012 meta-analysis by Ganz and colleagues looked at aided AAC interventions for children with complex communication needs and found positive effects on expressive language for most of the kids studied [8]. Notably, the researchers found no evidence that aided AAC suppresses speech development, which is a worry a lot of parents carry into this. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) also lists visual supports as a well-established part of communication treatment for children with autism and language delays [9]. What the research doesn't support is cards working on their own. The studies showing real gains all pair the cards with an adult who models their use consistently and gives the child genuine chances to communicate. A stack of cards in a drawer accomplishes nothing; cards used during daily routines, alongside early intervention services, are what move the needle. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children with language delays get a speech-language pathology evaluation and that families receive concrete strategies to use at home [10], and homemade picture cards fit that recommendation almost exactly. You can put a set together using nothing but your phone. Open the free Canva app, choose a flashcard template, pull an image from their free library, add a label, and export it. Most pharmacies (Walgreens, CVS, Walmart) print same-day 4x6 photos for around $0.30 each, so a set of 20 cards is realistic in under an hour without touching a laptop. Therapists generally work somewhere between 2x2 and 4x4 inches. Smaller cards suit choice boards and Velcro systems, while bigger ones (3x3 or 4x4) are easier for small hands to hold and pass to someone else. A standard sheet of paper fits 4 cards at 4x4 inches, or 9 if you shrink them to about 2.75 inches square. Cards aren't only for kids who don't have words yet. A child with 20 to 30 words already can use them to build vocabulary, pair a noun with a verb, or get past the frustration of a word that just won't come out. They're also a common support for kids with apraxia of speech, giving them something visual to anchor practice to. Photos or symbols? There's no single right answer. Photos tend to feel more concrete for young kids and connect more directly to real objects, while symbol sets like PCS or Mulberry stay visually consistent everywhere, so the symbol for "cup" never changes. A reasonable starting point is real photos of familiar things, moving to symbols later if an AAC device is part of the plan. Starting with 15 to 25 cards is plenty: the foods and drinks your child asks for, a few action words (eat, go, stop, more, help), and a couple of feelings. Adding more before your child is using the first batch just creates clutter. Once they're reaching for five or more cards on their own, it's a good time to expand. Printing an image from Google for your own child at home generally falls under fair use in the US, as long as you're not sharing or selling what you make. For a classroom or a wider group, use open resources instead, like Mulberry Symbols or the free boards on Boardmaker Share. Getting a child to actually reach for the cards comes down to modeling. Point to the card yourself every time you say the word, whether your child is asking for something or not, and keep cards where communication naturally happens: the fridge, the toy bin, the table. The card has to be the fastest way to get what they want, or there's no reason to use it. Cards and speech-generating devices aren't in competition, and ASHA backs this up. A printed card works as backup when a device dies or doesn't fit the moment, and using both formats helps vocabulary transfer across settings. It helps to match the images on your cards to whatever symbol set the device already uses. If a child tears through cards quickly, laminate them with packing tape or a dollar-store laminating pouch, or print on card stock for durability. For a child who chews on things, punch a hole and attach a ring clip so the card stays put instead of getting lost. Cards wearing out is normal, so keep your files saved and reprint as needed. If you'd rather skip designing anything, Do2Learn (do2learn.com) has a free library of simple line-drawing cards sorted by category, Boardmaker Share offers free community boards with PCS symbols, and the Mulberry Symbol Set (mulberrysymbols.org) is fully open-source. All three just need printing, and Do2Learn is the fastest option if you need cards today. None of this replaces a speech-language pathologist. An SLP evaluates exactly what a child needs, sets measurable goals, and draws on a range of evidence-based techniques that go well beyond cards. Homemade cards reinforce that work at home; they don't substitute for it. If you're concerned about a language delay, getting an SLP evaluation is still the right first step, no matter how many cards you've made. A first-then board is one of the easiest tools to put together: fold card stock or stiff cardboard in half lengthwise, label one side "First" and the other "Then," and attach two small squares of scratchy Velcro to each half. Add soft Velcro to the backs of two picture cards, and your child can see what's coming (something less preferred) and what follows it (something they actually want). The whole thing takes about five minutes.Sources
- ASHA Practice Portal: Augmentative and Alternative Communication: ASHA describes visual supports and aided AAC as core strategies for building communication in children with language delays, emphasizing functional, motivating vocabulary selection.
- ASHA Practice Portal: Late Language Emergence: Evidence-based intervention for late talkers includes environmental arrangement and visual supports; research specifies clarity and consistency of the visual, not the substrate it is printed on.
- Schlosser RW & Sigafoos J (2006). Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 22(2): 78-99.: Review found that whether photographs or symbols work better varies by individual child; consistency of use matters more than the specific image format.
- ASHA: Providing AAC Services in the Home: Choice boards presenting two to four picture options are a recommended entry-level visual communication support for young children.
- Romski M et al. (2010). Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 26(3): 193-206.: Children whose caregivers modeled AAC use (aided language stimulation) at home showed significantly faster vocabulary growth than children in therapist-only conditions.
- Bondy A & Frost L (1994). Picture Exchange Communication System. Behavior Modification, 18(4): 501-524. SAGE Journals.: PECS is a structured six-phase protocol requiring trained implementation; it differs from general picture card use in requiring physical card exchange directed at a communication partner.
- ASHA Practice Portal: AAC for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: ASHA recommends that AAC users have a low-tech backup communication system available at all times.
- Ganz JB et al. (2012). Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 6(4): 1305-1318. Elsevier.: Meta-analysis found positive effects of aided AAC interventions on expressive language for children with complex communication needs; aided AAC did not suppress speech development.
- NIDCD: Autism Spectrum Disorder: Communication Problems in Children: NIDCD states visual supports are a well-established component of communication treatment for children with autism and language delays.
- American Academy of Pediatrics: Language Delay: AAP recommends that children with language delays receive an SLP evaluation and that families receive strategies to support communication at home.
- Mulberry Symbols Open-Source AAC Symbol Set: Mulberry Symbols is a freely downloadable open-source symbol library with several thousand symbols suitable for DIY AAC and picture card use.
- Do2Learn: Picture Cards and Communication Resources: Do2Learn provides a free library of printable picture cards with simple line drawings organized by communication category.