Visual Supports in the Classroom

1. Visual Supports in the Classroom Melissa Chase Donna Williams June, 2008

2. Visual Tools Mini Test • Do you have a calendar that you write things on to help you organize? • Do you have a list of “things to do” on your desk or refrigerator? • Have you ever pointed to a picture in an advertisement or a menu to show someone what you want? • Do you make up ashopping listbefore you go to the store?

3. Visual Tools Mini Test, cont. • Do you ever read from a sign to tell you what line to stand in or what door to exit from? • Have you ever followed a recipe in a cookbook to create some delicious dinner entrée? Did you go back to that recipe each time you wanted to cook that item? • Do you ever write notes to your family members reminding them to do things?

4. Visual Tools Mini Test, cont. • Do you scan the menu to evaluate your choices before ordering in a restaurant? • Have you ever made a check list for your children to help them remember to brush their teeth? • Did you ever attach a note to your bathroom mirror to remind you to do something?

5. Visual Tools Mini Test, cont. • Have you had the experience of assembling a new bicycle by following the “easy to follow step by step” instructions?

6. What are visual tools? • Simply put, visual supports are a way of making auditory information visual. • Students with autism and students who are visual learners need visual supports…but most of our students would benefit from them.

7. What is a visual strategy? According to Linda Hodgdon, a visual is: • Body Language • Natural Environment Clues • Tools for Organizing and Giving Information

8. Visual supports come in many forms…. • Written words • Pictures: photos, color pictures, black and white pictures, picture-symbols like those used in the Mayer Johnson Boardmaker program • Gestures • Objects in the environment: i.e. supplies that are needed for the next activity are sitting on the table or desk where that activity will occur: • Arrangement of the environment: i.e., the chairs are set up in the reading circle

9. Everyday Examples of Visual Tools • Signs on bathroom doors • Lines in a parking lot • White lines on the side of the road • Maps • Calendars, Daily Planners • Signs, Labels • Checkbooks, telephone books • Shopping lists, notes, menus • Schedules, TV guides, theater guides • Assembly or operating instructions

10. Natural Environmental Cues • Furniture Arrangement • Location and movement of people and objects • Printed material such as signs, signals, logos, labels, prices • Written messages, instructions, choices, menus • Directions on packages, machines, or in business locations

11. Why use visual supports? Using visual tools to manage classroom communication: • Increases the effectiveness of teacher communication • Helps students perform more consistently • Makes the communication process more efficient for everyone involved.

12. Why use visual supports? Organizing the environment with visual supports can: • Create an orderliness to the environment that gives students a sense of stability • Help students experience greater structure and predictability • Help students function more independently • Enable students to become more responsible for their own performance and belongings • Increase student reliability • Make it easier for everyone to find or remember what they need

13. Why use visual supports? Using visual tools to help give directions: • Helps gain and maintain student attention • Makes the teaching of a task more routine or consistent • Standardizes directions and procedures among various teachers • Helps students learn to perform sequences faster • Increases student reliability and consistency • Gives students a greater sense of independence • Helps students stay on task • Helps students work through behavior problems • Enables students to perform more complicated or lengthy tasks with less supervision

14. How Visual Supports Help Especially with special needs populations - • They provide structure and routine • They assist with transitions • They provide forewarning • They alleviate anxiety

15. How Visual Supports Help With all children – • They build on comprehension • They assist with language development • They increase independence • They increase appropriate behaviors

16. Some Types of Visual Supports for Students • Picture Books • Story Kits • Visual Notes • Visual Organizers • Visual Schedules • Visual Task Charts • Behavior Reminder Charts • Social Stories • Vocabulary Charts/Notebooks

17. Why use visual supports? Visuals promote language development. • Using visual tools promotes language development by pairing an image in the child’s mind with what he/she hears. • This image is easier for the child to retrieve. • This “picture database” promotes understanding of language and increases verbalization.

18. Why use visual supports? Visual supports promote independence. • Visual supports can assist children in remembering : • the tasks to perform, • the sequence of steps in a job or routine, • and the behavior that is expected in a situation.

19. Why use visual supports? Visual (picture) representations of language assist with development of literacy skills. • Visual representations of words in sentences illustrate: • word order, • grammar, • and meaning.

20. Why use visual supports? Visual images increase vocabulary development. • Vocabulary development increases when students have visual images of word meaning • and when the words are categorized into groups.

21. Why use visual supports? Visual supports help children remember information longer. • Visual supports do not disappear into thin air like words do. • Children can refer back to the visual representation at any time. • Students can go back over and over again to the visual support to help them understand and remember.

22. Why use visual supports? Social interaction and verbal directions shift quickly in a classroom. • Using visual supports help children who: • listen slowly, • have difficulty sustaining attention • or difficulty shifting attention • interpret long and/or confusing directions or discourse.

23. Why use visual supports? Visual supports help control behavior. • Schedules and calendars are the most common visual tools used to give students information. • Step-by-step directions, choice boards, and classroom rules provide structure in classrooms. • They help students by creating an environment that is more predictable and understandable.

24. Visuals will help children: In the regular classroom: • Organize materials in the classroom • Organize the space in the environment • Communicate rules • Teach routines • Provide structure to the day • Clarify verbal information • Review and remember • Manage time • Access information • Learn vocabulary

25. Visuals will help children: For Individual Children: • Learn new skills • Support transitions • Stay on task • Handle changes • Guide self management • Aid memory • Speed up slow thinking • Support language retrieval • Communicate emotions • Provide structure

26. Daily Task Organizer

27. Picture Menu

28. Visual Organizer – Nouns

29. Classroom Bin Labels

30. Thunder Social Story

31. Interactive Book

32. Adapted Book

33. Visual Organizers

34. Horizontal Schedule

35. Language Support – Positional Words

36. Storyboard for Writing a Book

37. Visual Reminder

38. End of School Calendar

39. Behavior Management Cards

40. Vocabulary and Sentence Structure

41. Visual Recipe

42. Visual Choice Cards

43. Communicating No

44. Work Task Cards

45. Supporting Language I need help, please. Yes, please. No, thank you. You’re welcome.

46. Behavior Reminder Chart

47. Reinforcing Rules

48. Thematic Vocabulary Chart

49. Direction Reminders

50. End of School Day Reminder