Curriculum

The 15-map grammar ladder

One sentence frame and one new grammar target per map — building steadily from simple present-progressive sentences to lexical-verb agreement.

Where the ladder comes from

The curriculum is adapted from a published three-part speech-therapy workbook series ("Sentence Maps," including the "Cat Says Meow" set), using PCS/Boardmaker-style symbols as its original visual language. Numbering is continuous across the three source workbooks: Part 1 covers Maps 1–5, Part 2 covers Maps 6–10, and Part 3 covers Maps 11–15.

ALPINE adapts the workbooks' pedagogical structure — the sentence frames, the grammar targets, and the progression between them — into an interactive, errorless tablet experience. The worksheets themselves are never reproduced or shipped; every tile, pictogram, and photo in the app is either an ARASAAC symbol (CC BY-NC-SA, attributed) or an image made for her specifically. The source material had no built-in teaching method, no prompting hierarchy, and no mastery criteria — the errorless-teaching approach, the nudges, and the advancement criteria described below are ALPINE's own design, developed with her SLP.

Maps 1 → 15

Each map holds a single sentence frame and a single new grammar target — one change at a time. Maps are grouped into three parts that build on each other. Every screenshot below is the real builder screen for that map, captured from her tablet — tap any screenshot to see it full size.

The Map 1 builder screen: a photo on the left, tile columns for She/He, is, three verbs, a/an, and three objects.
Map 1

"She is throwing a ball"

SVO, present-progressive — a/an by first sound

The Map 2 builder screen: a photo on the left, tile columns for the same frame with food words.
Map 2

"He is baking a pie"

Same frame, food words, plain "a"

The Map 3 builder screen: a photo on the left, tile columns introducing the is/are choice and "the".
Map 3

"They are drinking the milk"

First is/are agreement, plus "the"

The Map 4 builder screen: a photo on the left, tile columns for It, is, her/his/their, and objects.
Map 4

"It is their train"

Possessive pronouns — no article

The Map 5 builder screen: a photo on the left, tile columns with the under/in/on preposition choice.
Map 5

"She is under the box"

Spatial prepositions — under / in / on

The Map 6 builder screen: a photo on the left, tile columns for animal subjects and "has".
Map 6

"The dog has a gift"

"Has"-possession — noun subjects

Map 7

Adjective-before-noun

Pending an SLP colour-scheme decision — not on the tablet yet

The Map 8 builder screen: a photo on the left, tile columns with is/are and place words after "at the".
Map 8

"They are at the beach"

is/are agreement + locative "at the"

The Map 9 builder screen: a photo on the left, tile columns keying is/are to singular and plural nouns.
Map 9

"The rabbits are in a basket"

Agreement keyed to noun plural "-s"

The Map 10 builder screen: a photo on the left, tile columns with possessive-'s owner words.
Map 10

"It is the woman's sandwich"

Possessive "'s" morphology

The Map 11 builder screen: a photo on the left, tile columns for mixed singular/plural subjects with no object.
Map 11

"The kids are jumping"

Agreement, mixed singular/plural, no object

The Map 12 builder screen: a photo on the left, tile columns with dog/dogs minimal-pair tiles.
Map 12

"The dogs are playing"

True plural minimal pairs (dog/dogs) vs is/are

The Map 13 builder screen: a photo on the left, tile columns with emotion-face tiles (happy, sad, mad, scared).
Map 13

"She is happy"

Emotion adjectives — no noun

The Map 14 builder screen: a photo on the left, tile columns with the preposition set including "behind".
Map 14

"She is under the umbrella"

Prepositions, including "behind"

The Map 15 builder screen: a photo on the left, tile columns with feel/feels agreement tiles.
Map 15

"They feel hungry"

Lexical-verb "-s" agreement ("feel/feels")

How advancement works

ALPINE never auto-advances her to a harder map. Moving her from one map to the next is always an adult decision, made through the hidden adult gate (press and hold the small grey attribution line for two seconds), usually together with her SLP.

The app supports that decision with evidence rather than making it: a default reference criterion of about 90% independent sentence-builds across three sittings, on at least two different days, phrased as evidence to review — never as an automatic verdict. The criterion itself, and the pace of moving through the ladder, is SLP-configurable. See For clinicians for the full measurement model behind that evidence.

Episode 4

The curriculum: Maps 1 → 15