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Teaching 'Stop' with visuals (physical boundary)

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Teaching 'Stop' with visuals (physical boundary)

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Teaching 'Stop' with visual/ phsyical boundaries Teaching Plan

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Great article from PrAActical AAC re: visual supports; benefits and uses.

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We're very excited to welcome back AAC SLP Tabi Jones-Wohleber to these pages. You may remember Tabi from the wonderful AAC training materials she shared (11 full modules) or used her Classroom CORE book. Maybe you downloaded her All-In-One Visual Support Tool, used some of her great suggestions about AAC therapy with young children, or were lucky enough to attend one of her conference presentations. Her expertise, generosity, clear command of AAC practices, and commitment to ethical service provision have enriched the AAC lives many of our readers. Today, Tabi launches a new 6-part series on one of our favorite topics: Visual Supports.

Let's get started!
Visual and Environmental Supports...4 - 3 - 2 - 1!
Visual and environmental supports are the bread-and-butter of many a classroom with students with complex communication (and learning) needs. They may be presented on paper-based or electronic platforms. Understanding the purpose and process of using such tools is imperative for meaningful and purposeful implementation. This series of posts will unpack many considerations for implementing visuals and environmental supports! AND templates for creating your own low-tech visual supports will be provided along the way.

Pinterest may provide an a-la-carte variety of lovely visual tools for your classroom, but when it comes down to it a lovely tool becomes visual clutter if it does not serve its intended purpose. When discussing visual supports with teams, I try to break it down in the following ways:

Well implemented visual supports provide the following inputs to allow individuals to utilize the tool and understand how it supports the process of the intended task.

1. Cue- A visual referent shared by all communicators in the environment to establish a shared understanding.

2. Structure- An embedded feature such as a board, list, book, location, etc in which words or icons are arranged to show a process, or how/why the symbols exist as part of a bigger picture. Structure ensures that icons are not just random symbols that float in and out of view at the whim of supporting adults.

3. Permanence- V erbal cues are gone as soon as they are spoken. For those who require multi-modal input or need to spend more time processing, the permanence of visual supports allows them to linger on a symbol, or reference it again and again.

4. Predictability of Process- E very element of the structure paired with selected symbols is purposeful. How symbols are used/moved within the structure reinforces the meaning of the cue. The predictability of the relationships between the structure and the cue reinforces the function of the tool and the meaning of the interaction or task. For instance, when an individual selects "go", and the car goes, they learn that that symbol in that location makes the car "go". Likewise, when "snack" goes in the finished pocket and the next item on the schedule is "books", a child learns that pocketed symbols are finished activities and the next activity is the symbol now at the top of the list.

3 Purposes

1. Organize and prioritize time and tasks-Visual schedules, mini-schedules or task analysis checklists, first-then boards, timers, lists, planning notes, "finished" position,

2. Facilitate self-regulation & understanding of expectations-Token boards, social scripts, super symbols, power cards, self-monitoring tools, etc.

3. Access symbols for communication- Multimodal communication tools and strategies that allow individuals to communicate for a variety of purposes, in a variety of situations, with a variety of people. Both receptive and expressive skills are supported.

2 Ways Learning is Supported (often unspoken...but essential):

1. Executive functioning: The processes related to managing oneself and one's resources. These include such skills as impulse control, flexible thinking, working memory, planning and prioritizing, task initiation and organization. For many individuals, visual and environmental supports provide the necessary cues, structure, permanence, and predictability of process for these skills to be learned and demonstrated.

2. Considerations for meeting sensory needs: Visual and environmental supports can be customized in a variety of ways to help ensure an individual's sensory needs are met to facilitate readiness for communicating / learning / participating. Some require sensory input to calm them, others require it enliven them and demonstrate alertness. It is important to observe the individual and, if possible, seek their input, to determine the type of sensory inputs that may be needed as these needs differ from person to person. Click here for a table that matches sensory needs and strategies.

1. Built-in opportunities: Placing schedules in sight but out of reach allows a student to get up frequently to move schedule items to a finished bucket, thereby embedding movement breaks. But an individual that requires proprioceptive input may need "heavy work", such as returning stacks of books to the library or moving numerated jugs filled with water to engage in math activities. These activities may be items on a schedule.

2. Embedded cues: A student who is minimally attentive to visual stimuli may require an auditory cue other than speech, such as a chant, song, clap, or ding to gain and direct attention (toward a person, activity, or visual tool).

3. : Consider the size of icons, the strength of Velcro ®, the effort required to manipulate symbols, self-monitoring tools, etc. If an individual benefits from ample proprioceptive input, use of heavy Velcro ® can help provide this. So can pushing thick icons through a thin scored slot. Conversely, an individual with low tone may not be able to manipulate Velcro ® and may benefit from a dry erase design. Design features

1 Shared Language in the Environment:
Visual supports become a shared second language in the environment supporting both receptive and expressive skills.

When a visual schedule is referenced throughout the day, the inherent pauses between activities allow individuals to understand the task of transitioning to a new activity.

When tools to support self-regulation are used to guide appropriate interactions or debrief after an emotive event, they become a concrete tool for understanding expectations, processing strong feelings, etc.

When a communication tool is modeled in meaningful contexts an individual gains a greater understanding of how to engage with others.

Few individuals learn to use visual supports by simply being provided access. Embedded use of the tools ... for their intended purpose ... by everyone in the environment... is necessary.

Additionally, whenever possible, I have found it is beneficial to consolidate visual support tools for organizing tasks and time and facilitating self-regulation whenever possible. All-In-One arrangements create efficiency and simplicity for all communicators in the environment. Click here for a previous post on an All-in-One Visual Support Tool. And stay tuned for more examples and downloads in the coming weeks.

Lastly, keep in mind that we ALL use visual supports.

Do you have a calendar...wall calendar? Daily planner? Digital calendar? All of the above?

How about reminders...post-it notes? To-do lists? Siri-assisted reminders? Digital alerts?

What about apps to shape your behavior?... Calorie counters? Step counters? Meditation reminders?

How else do you keep yourself organized... meal planning? Email yourself? Designated spaces for keys/wallet/phone?

Click here for a Go-To Visual support kit to get started!
When we understand the role visual and environmental supports play in fostering our own organization, preparation, and ability to maintain our responsibilities and priorities we can more fully appreciate the importance of providing such supports to the individuals with whom we work and the necessity of teaching them how to use these tools.

Don't forget to stop by next week for the 2nd guest post in this series, Visual and Environmental Supports to Organize Time and Tasks. See you then!

This post was written by Carole Zangari

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PrAACtically Visual: A Visual & Environmental Support Countdown

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We're very excited to welcome back AAC SLP Tabi Jones-Wohleber to these pages. You may remember Tabi from the wonderful AAC training materials she shared (11 full modules) or used her Classro...

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It's that time of year again! Summer is drawing to an end and the new school year is underway. Educators have likely spent countless hours of their vacation time preparing materials to ensure a successful start to the school year. This probably includes a variety of pictures that are needed for expressive lessons such as PECS, as well as pictures required for receptive lessons such as following a visual schedule.

Back when I was a new Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), I had learned about the importance of creating and implementing a visual schedule for my students. However, I made one critical mistake. I believed that simply hanging up a schedule in the environment would have a magical effect on the learner's behavior. This, of course, is false! In order for visual schedules to be effective, we must first teach our learners what the pictures actually mean. So, prior to hanging up those schedules, start with lessons that focus on Single Picture Direction Following. Present the learner with a picture and say, "Go here/there" or "Do this". If the learner moves to the designated area, the learner is demonstrating correspondence between the picture and activity/location. If the learner doesn't independently move towards the designated area, consider physically prompting the student to the location. As always, these prompts should be systematically eliminated as soon as possible. You might also create a larger 8"x11" version of the picture direction, so that the student can affix the smaller version onto the larger version. Once the student arrives in the area, feel free to vocally label ("You're right! It is time for lunch!").

Note that it's important not to label the picture when you are providing the initial direction, as we want to be sure that the learner is responding to the picture and not what we are saying. Imagine if I said, "Go to lunch" while showing the picture. In that case, I have no idea if the student is responding to my spoken direction or the picture. Given the Single Picture Direction Following lessons, we ensure that the student is responding to the picture, which is an essential prerequisite skill to success with independently following a visual schedule.

Once your learner is independently following a variety of single pictures, next we can teach schedule following. There are lots of different schedules that work in various ways. One of our favorites is the Schedule Board Kit. With this schedule, the learner places the picture of the current activity in the black rectangle at the top of the schedule. Once the activity is complete, the student places the picture into the "finished box" at the bottom of the schedule and then places the next activity picture at the top. This process repeats across the day. The Schedule Board Kit also comes with additional Activity Boards, so that picture choices are easily embedded throughout the day.

We hope these reminders are helpful for a successful start to the school year!

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Teaching Independent Schedule Following by Catherine Horton, MS, CCC-SLP, BCBA -

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It's that time of year again! Summer is drawing to an end and the new school year is underway. Educators have likely spent countless hours of their vacation time preparing materials to ensure a successful start to the school year. This probably includes a variety of pictures that are needed for expressive lessons such as [...]

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Pyramid USA Clinical Director and Consultant, Catherine Horton, MS, CCC-SLP, BCBA, CAGS, offers some helpful tips for success with visual schedules that can be applied in the classroom or at home.
It's that time of year again! Summer is drawing to an end and the new school year is underway. Educators have probably spent countless hours of their vacation time preparing materials to ensure a successful start to the school year. This probably includes a variety of pictures that are needed for expressive lessons such as PECS, as well as pictures required for receptive lessons such as following a visual schedule.

When I was a new Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) graduate, I learned about the importance of creating and implementing a visual schedule for my students. However, I made one critical mistake. I believed that simply hanging up a schedule in the environment would have a magical effect on the learner's behavior. This, of course, is false! In order for visual schedules to be effective, we must first teach our learners what the pictures actually mean. So, prior to hanging up those schedules, start with lessons that focus on Single Picture Direction Following. Present the learner with a picture and say, "Go here/there" or "Do this". If the learner

moves to the designated area, the learner is demonstrating correspondence between the picture and activity/location. If the learner doesn't independently move towards the designated area, consider physically prompting the student to the location. As always, these prompts should be systematically eliminated as soon as possible. You might also create a larger 8"x11" version of the picture direction so that the student can affix the smaller version onto the larger version. Once the student arrives in the area, feel free to vocally label ("You're right! It is time for lunch!").

Note that it's important not to label the picture when you are providing the initial direction, as we want to be sure that the learner is responding to the picture and

not what we are saying. Imagine if I said, "Go to lunch" while showing the picture. In that case, I have no idea if the student is responding to my spoken direction or the picture. Given the Single Picture Direction Following lessons, we ensure that the student is responding to the picture, which is an essential prerequisite skill to success with independently following a visual schedule.

Once your learner is independent in following a variety of single pictures, next we can teach schedule following. There are lots of different schedules that work in various ways. One of our favorites is the Schedule Board Kit. With this schedule, the learner places the picture of the current activity in the black rectangle at the top of the schedule. Once the activity is complete, the student places the picture into the "finished box" at the bottom of the schedule and then places the next activity picture at the top. This process repeats across the day. The Schedule Board Ki t also comes with additional Activity Boards, so that picture choices are easily embedded throughout the day.

We hope these reminders are helpful for a successful start to the school year!
To learn more about Teaching Critical Communication Skills attend a live remote, in-person, or recorded online training! For ongoing support with communication skills, AAC implementation, the PECS protocol, and the Pyramid Approach, join our online community on Facebook. Search "PECS User Support" on Facebook and request to join. This active group of over 30,000 professionals, parents, and caregivers is monitored by our Pyramid Consultants from around the globe daily! Looking for upcoming workshops? Visit our training schedule! We have some great talks coming up, including
© Pyramid Educational Consultants, LLC. 2022 Written By Catherine Horton, MS, CCC-SLP, BCBA, CAGS Teaching Critical Communication Skills on September 19, 2022.

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Tips for Success with Visual Schedules -

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Pyramid Clinical Director and Consultant, Catherine Horton, MS, CCC-SLP, BCBA, CAGS, offers some helpful tips for success with visual schedules that can be applied in the classroom or at home.

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Approx 9 minutes

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Approx 9 minutes

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Harkla - Parenting & Child Development Tips

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5 Ways to Use Visual Schedules for Kids | Boost Independence & Reduce Anxiety

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approx 2 minutes

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Communication Tips & Strategies: Visual Schedules

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Lunch & Learn Visual Schedules Recording

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Lunch & Learn Visual Schedules Recording

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Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing

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Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, conference, huddle, and training rooms, as well as executive offices and classrooms. Founded in 2011, Zoom helps businesses and organizations bring their teams together in a frictionless environment to get more done.

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Presentation

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2. Evidence Based Practices: Visual Schedules

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Lunch & Learn: Evidence Based Practices Visual Schedules Calhoun ISD Intensive Support Team

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Printable slides

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2. Evidence Based Practices_ Visual Schedules.pdf

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Brief video showing the impact of visual supports

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HOW TO: ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS - SCHEDULES (Video) 

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HOW TO: ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS - SCHEDULES (Video) 

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View Video - VCU Autism Center for Excellence

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30 reasons to use and keep a visual schedule

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30 reasons to use and keep a visual schedule

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30 reasons to use and keep using a visual schedule.pdf

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25 Reasons for Using Visual Strategies-my original article.pdf

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Transition Time Helping Individuals on the Autism Spectrum Move Successfully from One Activity to Ano.pdf

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Variety of ideas to create classroom environments and systems.

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Ideas and information related to incorporating visual supports at a variety of levels

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Tips for Teaching Students to Use Visual Supports

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Tips for Teaching Students to Use Visual Supports

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Routines to teach Visual schedule/ checklists

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Transition Time Helping Individuals on the Autism Spectrum Move Successfully from One Activity to Ano.pdf

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The module was developed specifically for paraprofessionals working with elementary school students (ages 5-12) with ASD.

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Visual Cues: Introduction & Practice

Visual cues are concrete objects used to increase the learner with ASD's ability to complete a target skill or behavior. This module targets the types of visual cues, such as visual directions or instructional cues, and provides interactive case activities for each of the planning for, using, and monitoring visual cue steps.

The module was developed specifically for paraprofessionals working with elementary school students (ages 5-12) with ASD. However, special education teachers, general education teachers, other practitioners, and family members find the video examples and activity-based scenarios helpful. The corresponding Home Companion Guide may be especially helpful for families interested in using visual cues at home.

What Will I Learn?

The AFIRM module guides the learner through:

What are visual cues, including when and how to use specific types of visual cues

How to support learners with ASD by using visual cues

Activity-based scenarios that promote real-world application of visual cues.

The Visual Cues: Introduction & Practice module will take approximately 1.5 to 2 hours to complete.

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Visual Cues: Introduction & Practice Visual cues are concrete objects used to increase the learner with ASD's ability to complete a target skill or behavior. This module targets the types of visual cues, such as visual directions or instructional cues, and provides interactive case activities for each of the planning for, using, and monitoring visual cue steps.

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By using visual supports (VS), the learner with ASD might be able to process information easier and more quickly.

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Visual Supports (VS) By using visual supports (VS), the learner with ASD might be able to process information easier and more quickly. What Will I Learn? The AFIRM model guides the learner through four lessons to facilitate:

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How to decide what visual supports to use?

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How to decide what visual supports to use?

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Album with examples of visuals in real life!

Have a good example to add?
McGrathN@calhounisd.org

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AFIRM_Home Companion Guide for Visual Cues.pdf

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Implementation of Visual Boundaries: Step by Step

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Implementation of Visual Boundaries: Step by Step

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Implementation of Visual Schedules: Step by Step

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Implementation of Visual Schedules: Step by Step

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Implementation of Visual Supports: Step by Step

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Implementation of Visual Supports: Step by Step

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Overview of the use of visual supports as a strategy to increase engagement and understanding for students with extensive needs.

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Visual Supports For students with extensive learning needs

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Jump back to the beginning!

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CETA-ROR Visual and Orgizational Supports

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CETA-ROR Visual and Orgizational Supports

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Targets

Daily Schedule
Instructional Schedule
Individual Visual Schedules
Transitions
Independent Transitions
Schedule Changes
Visual Supports
Self Management Systems

Visual and Organizational Supports Examples and resources