Skip to main content

Yes No Choice Board

Two three-inch cards, yes and no, printed large enough to read across a room. This is the board most students start on, and the one that keeps working when everything else is too much to scan.

US Letter, portrait, 3in cards.

Preview
Card size
Paper
Orientation
Also include

The PDF is 3 pages.

When to use this board

Use it for closed questions where the answer genuinely changes what happens next. Asking whether a student wants the lights off is a real question. Asking whether they want to finish the worksheet, when they are finishing it either way, is not.

Yes and no look simple and are not. A student may point to whichever card is nearest, or to the last one an adult touched, so watch for a pattern before trusting the answers. Swapping the left and right positions between questions is a quick way to check.

This template prints at the large card size on purpose. Two three-inch squares are easy to see from a distance, easy to hold up, and easy to cut into a pair of cards for a Velcro strip.

A reliable yes and no unlocks almost every other board. Once a student can reject an option, offering six of them stops being a guessing game.

Cards that fit this board

The slots print at 1.5, 2, or 3 inches square, the same sizes the free PECS card templates cut to, so a card from either set lands on either board. Print the blank Velcro version above, add a hook-and-loop dot to each slot, and swap the options as the day changes.

Frequently asked questions

What is a yes no choice board?
It is a two-option board showing a yes picture and a no picture. The student points to answer a closed question. It is the smallest choice board that still does useful work, and often the first one introduced.
How do I teach yes and no?
Start with questions where the answer is obvious and the outcome is immediate, such as offering a snack the student clearly wants. The student needs to see that pointing at no actually stops the thing before no means anything to them.
How can I tell if the answers are real?
Change the positions of the two cards between questions and ask something you already know the answer to. If the responses follow the position rather than the question, the student is answering the layout instead of you.
Why are the cards bigger on this template?
Two options leave room for three-inch cards, which read clearly from across a room and cut into a sturdy pair. The six-option templates use two-inch cards because six of the larger size will not fit on one page.
Is a yes no board used in ABA?
Frequently. Teaching a functional rejection response is a common early target, and a yes and no board gives a student a way to decline that does not depend on speech or on escalating.
Is it free to print?
Yes. Print it in US Letter or A4, portrait or landscape, and swap either picture first if your student already uses different yes and no symbols.