Supporting Communication, Behavior,

and Learning with Visual Strategies

Pat Satterfield

Center for AT Excellence pat@c4atx.com

Some of this information is taken from Visual Strategies for Improving Communication, Volume 1&2, by Linda A. Hodgdon, 1995, 2011

http://praacticalaac.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Comm-Bd-collage.jpg

Agenda

•8:30 -10:00 Morning Session

•10:00 – 10:15 Break

•10:15 – 11:30 Morning Session (Continued)

•11:30 – 1:00 Lunch on your Own

• 1:00 – 4:00 Make It, Take It

Please see Deanna for your credits.

Learning Objectives

1. Participants will explain the difference between a transient and a non-transient message.

2. Participants will give three examples of activities that might be supported by visual strategies.

3. Participants will identify software and online tools that can be used to create visual supports.

4. Afternoon only: Given materials needed to make visual supports, participants will create a minimum of two examples to use with individuals they serve.

Getting Acquainted

Please introduce yourself and tell us what individuals you serve and where.

What is one thing you are hoping to learn today?

What are Visual Strategies?

Visual supports help these individuals to maintain attention, understand spoken language, sequence and organize their environment.

We can use a combination of:

• concrete items

• pictures

• symbols or printed words

Who Needs Visual Supports?

EVERYONE!

Do you use a calendar?

Keep a to-do list?

Make a shopping list before you go to the store?

Follow a recipe?

Write a note to a family member or co-worker?

Scan a menu before you order?

Use “easy to follow” instructions?

5gbfree.com

PowerPoints with just words? No charts, graphs, maps? No pictures in menus? No Graphic Organizers? No videos on YouTube on how to install a faucet?

Just Text or Text with Graphics?

Elements of Visual Communication

sites.ieee.org

Natural Visual Supports for Everyone

1. Body Language

2. Natural Environmental Cues

3. Traditional Tools for Organization and Giving Information

4. Specially Designed Tools

Visual Strategies for Improving Communication, p. 8

Who Needs Customized Visual Supports?

Young Children to Older Adults

Individuals with English as a Second Language

Autism and other Communication Disorders

Intellectual Disabilities

Attention Disorders

Central Processing Disorder

Learning Disabilities

Behavior Disorders

“But the individuals I serve…….”

• “are verbal”

• “understand what I say”

• “are just misbehaving”

• “is just not paying attention”

• “would not want to use these”

• “is too high for these”

• “already knows this”

“The use of visual strategies acknowledges the visual strength of many students and develops systems and aids to assist them in using their strengths to overcome or circumvent some of their areas of difficulty.”

Hodgdon, 2015

Just because someone understands what you say to them some of the time, does not mean that they understand all of the time…

They need less support with familiar routines.

They are good at waiting us out. If I do not understand and wait, you will help me or clarify what you want me to do.

We need to use multiple ways to increase understanding.

We need to enhance the environment for maximum learning.

“But they understand me…”

Please take a moment and think of an individual with whom you work. What kinds of supports does that individual need? As we go through the rest of the morning, be on the lookout for what might be most helpful to this individual.

Activity One

• Makes the teaching of a task more routine and consistent

• Standardizes directions and procedures among various staff

• Individuals learn to perform sequences faster

• Increases individual consistency with the task

• Builds independence

• Helps individuals to stay on task

• Supports behavior

• Enables the teaching of more complicated tasks with less supervision

http://slideplayer.com/slide/6167712/ Chase, Williams, June, 2008

Why Use Visual Supports?

Using Pictures and Symbols

Making language visible!! “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

(1,024)

Did you know that visual aids have been found to improve learning by up to 400 percent?

Did you realize that we can process visuals 60,000 times faster than text? (This is an easily found “fact” online but original research cannot be located.)

Would you guess that the average person only remembers about a fifth of what they hear? http://www.3rd-force.org/meetingnetwork/readingroom/meetingguide_pres.html

http://www.billiondollargraphics.com/infographics.html

• Transient Messages – come and gone quickly, may be missed or only partially received • Example: Spoken Instructions

• Non-Transient Messages – remain long enough to process and revisit • Example: Would you rather have a map or written directions, or have someone tell

you directions? Which one will get you to where you want to go?

“Using visual tools to mediate communication interactions and support understanding provides a non-transient foundation essential for more effective communication. It builds on individual’s strengths rather than placing more demands on their area of greatest difficulty. When visual tools are used to give these individuals information and directions, individual comprehension increases significantly. For many individuals with moderate to severe communication difficulties, the use of visually supported communication is more effective and efficient than just talking to them.”

Visual Strategies for Improving Communication , p18

Transient vs Non-Transient Messages

Whenever Needed! Everywhere!

At home

At school

At work

At the park

At the library

At the doctor

At the ball game

When and Where?

Communication

• To choose

• To request

• To comment

• To share a message

• To clarify a message

• To support positive behavior

• To model communication

• To introduce new vocabulary and concepts

Engineering the Environment – Visuals that Stay in Place

Engineering the environment is embedding augmentative communication into the classroom, home, day program in a way that ensures that individuals have access to opportunities for communication where they need it.

Engineering the environment(s) is the base foundation for modeling, training, teaching, using aided language stimulation.

Giving opportunities to communicate, teach in natural settings, and use pictures as your second language.

www.gpat.org

Visuals on the Go

You are planning an outing with a group of individuals. Where will you be going? Who will you interacts with? What kinds of messages might you want to say?

Activity Two

Aided Language Stimulation

Pointing to pictures (and words) while you are talking or singing.

www.setbc.org

www.pinterest.com

Person-Centered or Group Supports

Visuals for Literacy

Alphabet, Phonics, and Word Family Activities

Adapting Books with Pictures and Symbols for Greater Understanding

Picture-Supported Text

Adapted Comprehension Activities – WH questions, Fill in with Pictures

Vocabulary Building Activities

Graphic Organizers – Sequence, Organize information

Picture-Supported Text for Reading and Writing

• Symbolate in Boardmaker • To create materials

• Writing with Symbols • Word processing with symbols

• Pixwriter • Word Processing with symbols

• Clicker Apps • Building sentences with words

and pictures

• Clicker 7 • Word processing from symbols

Building Vocabulary with Pictures

Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center’s Department of Neuroscience published their findings Tuesday in The Journal of Neuroscience. The paper, “Adding Words to the Brain’s Visual Dictionary: Novel Word Selectively Sharpens Orthographic Representations in the VWFA,” demonstrates the brain’s ability to adapt and learn to recognize new words. The brain can add new words to its “visual dictionary” even if they are made up and have no meaning attached to them, the researchers found.

http://www.newsweek.com/your-brain-learns-new-words-pictures-so-you-can-read-faster-316778

Visuals for Writing

• Adding a Word and Picture to a Sentence

• Sequencing Pictures to Make Sentences

• Sequence of Events to Support Drafting

Visuals for Math

Counting – practice within current topic

Basic Operations

Time

Money

Visuals for Science and Social Studies

Graphics Organizers – Cycles, Timelines

Vocabulary Support

Maps

Visuals for Behavior

• Maintaining Attention

• Completing Tasks

• Increasing Awareness of Emotions

• Managing What to Do Feelings

• Social Stories

Visuals for Work and Daily Living

Learning a New Task, Managing Breaks

Performing Routine Activities –

Shopping, Cooking, Laundry

Making Your Visual Displays

• Photos

• Digital Pictures from the Internet

• Magazine pictures

• Symbol libraries • Boardmaker 6

• Picture It!

• Internet symbol libraries • Boardmaker Online

• Symbolstix

• Widget Online

• LessonPix

Progression to Symbols

First we present the real object.

Then we present a realistic graphic.

Finally we present a symbol.

We are moving from concrete to abstract in the understanding of what is being talked about.

• Text? • Top

• Bottom

• Not at all

• Color for visual enhancement or parts of speech • Background

• Border

• Title Bar

What Difference does Color and Location Make?

• Modified Fitzgerald Key

• Blue: Adjectives

• Green: Verbs

• Yellow: Pronouns

• Orange: Nouns

• White: Conjunctions

• Pink: Prepositions, social words

• Purple: Questions

• Brown: Adverbs

• Red: Important function words, negation, emergency words

• Grey: Determiners

• Goossens,’ Crain, and Elder

• Pink: Verbs

• Blue: Descriptors

• Green: Prepositions

• Yellow: Nouns

• Orange: Questions, negation, pronouns, interjections

Approaches to Color Coding

Tools for Making Visuals

Symbol Libraries

• Boardmaker 6 or Online

• Symbolstix – online

• Lesson Pix -Library plus templates to make activities, sort by speech sounds

Digital images

• personal pictures

• Internet

Accessible Learning Activities Using Symbols

PowerPoint – activities with pictures or symbols, voice, animation or print

Pictello app – take a real picture or video, add text and voice and make a story or social story

Boardmaker Online – Boardmaker Plus activities to share

Vizzle – Online Premade activities or make your own

Ablenet – Online Classroom Activity Center- free 30-day trial

Clicker 7 or Clicker apps – Clicker Sentences, Clicker Connect

HelpKidzLearn – ChooseIt! Maker 3 activities

Classroom Suite, Overlay Maker, and IntelliKeys – now free for all

Integrating Visual Supports Takes Time!

• It takes time to establish a Means of Communication and Social Interaction

• It takes time to promote Language and Speech Development

• It takes time to support Cognitive Development, Enhance Work and Educational Opportunities

• It takes time to enhance Social Participation

• How? • Aided Language Stimulation • Engineering the Environment

www.gpat.org

Resources

• Special Education Teachers on Facebook

• Visual Supports for Visual Thinkers by Lisa Rogers

• Visual Strategies for Improving Communication by Linda Hodgdon

• Teachers Pay Teachers https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/

• Dept of Education Resource Board http://admin.doe.k12.ga.us/gadoe/sla/agps.nsf

• Pinterest by Topic

Pat Satterfield

Center 4 AT Excellence

Dunamis Educational Foundation

pat@c4atx.com

Make It, Take It Instructions

• Please choose 3 visual supports or communication displays to make initially. If the folder is down to just the Master copy, check with Pat or Deanna about getting more copies. You can choose other materials after everyone has chosen their first set.

• Scissors, glue sticks, Velcro dots, and construction paper are available.

• Pat will be available to create custom displays for your classroom. Deanna will help to facilitate the lamination of your materials.

• If you would like to have any of the PPs that go along with safety or other topics, I can email them to you but will not be able to print them on-site.