Being a parent is a tough demanding job and we face many daily challenges such as getting kids ready in the mornings, getting to appointments on time, keeping a tidy house, staying on top of scheduled activities. daily self care, balancing work, home and school commitments.
When it comes to interactions with our kids some of the challenges we face each and every day as parents are:
These challenges place an extra load onto us meaning we are often:
Using visuals can help our kids:
Visuals can make life easier for parents by:
Visuals are all around us and we rely on them as adults everyday. They can be in the form of signs, text, photo’s, brochures, drawings, gestures, logos. As parents many of use rely on visuals to help us organise our time. We use reminders on our phones, calendars, diaries, emails, post it notes, to do lists and more.
We have learnt to immediately recognise these symbols and associate meaning according to our past experience and exposure to the symbol/visual. Similarly our children learn to identify and relate to symbols through exposure and experiences.
The first step in making and providing visuals for your child is to determine the level of visual that your child can understand. Your speech pathologist can help you trial a variety of different visuals to help you decide. Sometimes a variety of visual types may be used e.g. photos of people, symbols for objects and actions.
Photo visuals are a great option for some kids, especially for visuals of important people in your child’s life. It is important to consider that many children perceive photos literally and may associate a particular memory or location with the items pictured in a photo. For example if a photo of an apple is used and it was taken at school the child may link this visual with the word school or think of recess instead of the target word ‘apple.’
To find out more about photo visuals and how to make them read our blog about making photo visuals.
Symbols are a great option for many children as they can be taught to represent many forms of the same object or action. Symbols are usually the visuals we use in our practice with children as they are very versatile.
For example a symbol for “toilet” can respresent toilets in many locations whereas a photo visual of “toilet” may be seen to represent a toilet in one location such as home.
Specific representation of toilet (in the home)
Generic representation of toilet (any location)
Symbols are great representations for absract words such as “go” “want” “more” “stop” “not.” Using a symbol removes the focus from an object/place onto the apporpriate word type as seen in position or action words.
There are a variety of symbol sets available such as Boardmaker Picture Communication Symbols (PCS), Symbolstix, Makaton, KWS, Pics for PECS, Smarty Symbols, Widgit, COMPIC and more. You can view a variety of symbol set options here
“Visual schedules are effective in promoting on-task behaviour and facilitating independent transitions” between tasks. Knight, Sartini & Spriggs 2014.
“Using visuals to structure the environment can help children function more independently in the natural environment and decrease their need for adult prompts in completing daily routines” Ganz, 2007.
“It is esssential that children have a chance to use visual supports with assistance from adults until they fully understand them” Meadan, Ortrosky, Triplett, Michna and Fettig 2011.
“Visual interventions are flexible and nonintrusive tools for behaviour change that can support families and children from all cultural backgrounds” Kidder, J.E, McDonnell, A.P 2017.
Symbols need to be taught through meaningful exposure and repetition. If your child has never been to McDonalds then the golden arches symbol “M” will carry little to no meaning. However once the child has experiences at McDonalds they will associate the language (“McDonalds) and meaning (chips, happy meal, toy) with the golden arches symbol.
Just like learning new vocabulary our children need exposure and repetition to learn the meaning of visuals. When the visual is paired with a spoken word and item or activity the child begins to make an association between the visual and the object. This process takes time, repetition and consistency.
When introducing visuals it’s important to be as consistent as possible in their use. So if you are teaching your child the visual for “toilet” try to use it frequently during the day modelling the visual and word when taking your child to the toilet.
Using consistent language is also important, this means using the same verbal word with the visual each time. For example always use the word “toilet” with the visual rather than a variety of words such as ‘bathroom’ ‘loo’ ‘go potty’ ‘do wee’. Labeling the written word on the visual is a great way to ensure everyone modelling the visual uses the same language.
Sometimes families worry that using visuals will make the child “lazy” and it may hinder their spoken language development. Research shows us that visual supports actually increase a child’s language output when verbal language is consistently paired with the symbol. Miller, Light and Schlosser 2006 reported in their research review that as a result of AAC/Visual interventions speech production increased on 89% of occasions.
Read more about the impact of using visuals and AAC on verbal speech production here
To effectively teach and implement visuals you will need them ready at hand during the day. If you have a stack of visuals piling up in a drawer it’s unlikely these will be put to good use.
Consider positioning visuals around the house based on their use.
The Bathroom
Use visuals and schedules for brushing teeth, washing hands and toileting. For an example have a look at our Bathroom visual package demo
The Bedroom
Put your visual schedules, calendars and getting dressed visuals in your child’s bedroom. For an example have a look at our Getting Dressed visual package demo
Living Area or Kitchen
Use and display your daily and task schedules in common areas. Have a look at our Calm Home visuals demo to see some visuals in action
In the Car
Visuals of places can help your child make associations between the symbol and the places visited such as school, preschool or the shops. You can download some common places visuals from along with our weekly visual schedule for free here.
Involve your child in setting up and designing your visuals. When setting up a device or visual schedule for clients we often give the child a choice of 2 symbols e.g. which one do you think looks like ‘wash’?
When using the visuals with your child offer them choices and give them the opportunity to add a visual of their choice to the plan. For example when making a visual schedule for the day encourage your child to choose a play activity or the order of the tasks if possible. This will increase their co-operation and motivation to follow through with the tasks on the schedule.
The child pictured above has had input into their day by choosing the play activities toys, cars and iPad.
More tips can be found here
Learn more about visuals for your child with Autism in this podcast interview featuring our Director Shae Rodgers on the “Home Base Hope” Podcast
Download our summary handout here
Using-Visuals-to-increase-your-childs-independence-and-communication-1Book a consultation with a Speech Pathologist to help you setup visuals for your child. CONTACT US
Visit our Shop
Calm Home Visual Schedule Package (DIY Download)
Calm Home Visual Schedule Package (Ready Made)
The Bathroom Visual Package Boy
The Bathroom Visual Package Girl
Getting Dressed Visual Package
Other Blogs
Timers are a visuals best friend! Find out why and how to use them here 5 Tips for Timers
Using Visuals to Support Your Holiday
Visualising the School Day: Using visuals to make the most of each day
AAC Options: Everyone has something to say
MacDonald, L. et al (2018). The use of visual schedules and work systems to increase the on-task behaviour of students on the autism spectrum in mainstream classrooms. Journal of Research in Special Education Needs. 18 (4), 254-266
Meadan, H. et al (2011). Using visual supports with young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Teaching Exceptional Children. 43 (6), 28-35.
Kidder, J., McDonnell, A. (2017). Visual aids for positive behaviour support of young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Young Exceptional Children. 20 (3), 103-116.
