A method of teaching and encouraging communication skills in nonverbal children and adults, using signs and symbols in place of the spoken word. It is made up of symbols, standing for single words, which can be built into phrases or sentences on a board. The individual is taught to indicate by pointing or other physical means.

Blissymbolics or Blissymbols were conceived of as an ideographic writing system consisting of several hundred basic symbols, each representing a concept, which can be composed together to generate new symbols that represent new concepts. Blissymbols differ from all the world's major writing systems in that the characters do not correspond at all to the sounds of any spoken language.