Visual Supports

Do you make lists for the grocery store?

Do you use a calendar to help you remember your appointments and meetings?

Do you print out agendas for staff meetings?

Do you keep an e-mail until you attend to whatever task was outlined in the e-mail?

If you answered "yes" to any of the questions, chances are you use visual supports to help you organize your tasks or thoughts.

I have "stolen" an idea from my assistant for when I need to remember to bring something from home to school. I write a note, wrap it bracelet-style around the strap of my purse and staple the ends together. This way, when I pick up my purse the following morning, I have a visual reminder to bring what I wanted. (And, yes, I did actually pick up ladybugs from a local nursery and take them to school.)

Sometimes, if I remember something at home that I need to take care of at school the following day, I send myself an e-mail.

One of the first ways I integrate visual supports in the classroom is with a daily schedule. I have found that I prefer to make the schedule on sentence strips, glue the picture and a word and laminate each activity separately. Then depending where I post it, I put a magnet strip or velcro on the back. By laminating each activity separately, I can adjust the posted schedule when needed or when we have a special activity scheduled. It also makes it easier to discuss schedule changes that are unplanned. Sometimes things happen at school that are beyond the teacher's control (i.e. the art teacher goes home sick, it's raining). For children who rely on a schedule, it is nice to be able to tell them the schedule has to change, why it's changing and then post the new schedule (i.e. we go to music with Mrs. Smith's class, we have inside choice instead of playground.)

We also use visual supports during many of our Reading or Pre-Reading Lessons. Jefferson Parrish AAC has some wonderful books that can be downloaded, printed, laminated, and velcro-ed (ha! is that a new word? Maybe I could be like Rachel Ray and get a new word introduced to the dictionary.) We use these books to increase attention to task, teach basic concepts, and introduce new vocabulary. Literacy Visuals are also available for many common songs and stories. Again, I like to have each piece laminated separately. Then I can pass them out to children and have the child place the piece either in the story or on a felt board. Children love doing this and it requires active engagement in the lesson.

Visual supports can also be used to help students communicate. Students can point to choices, wants or needs. They can also hand a picture to a staff member to communicate wants/needs or thoughts. This is called a Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). Check out the Boardmaker materials at Mayer Johnson or some of the free symbols at Do2Learn.

Adding visual supports to lessons, transitions or classroom routines helps children access the learning environment and curriculum. Visual supports help people organize their lives. They help us remember what we need to do. They help us remember ideas for later use. They help us prepare for upcoming events. If as adults, we recognize the use and value of visual strategies to help us perform, shouldn't we find ways to integrate this in the classroom?

The Benefits of a Daily Routine

Have you ever watched John and Kate Plus 8? It's a TV show on Discovery Channel about a married couple who has two sets of multiples (twins and sextuplets). The twins are in elementary school and Kate is a stay at home mom with the sextuplets. Well, in one episode (I'm paraphrasing because I can't remember the exact quote) Kate says that her days with the sextuplets are.....vastly different yet shockingly the same. I laughed out loud when she said that because it completely mirrors what I do as a special education teacher. The framework is the same every single day, but the conversations and lessons are so very different. The method to ensure that each day is the same is by scheduling the day according to a routine.

Why would I bother with a routine? As an adult, think about your comfort level related to activities/events where you are familiar with and know what to expect. Think about knowing expectations.

Each morning I drive to school. I know that I need 17 minutes to drive to school, park and enter my classroom by 8:00am. I also know that students begin arriving at 8:10. I know that my plan book is on my desk, my assistant will have read what I want for table work and will have it placed on the tables. That gives me 10 minutes each morning to touch base with my assistant.

Having my routine set when I get to work REALLY helps me. Knowing how much time I need to get to school, what I will be doing and what my assistant will be doing helps me get through my grouchy morning self (also the perfect cup of coffee: just the right temperature with just the right amount of creamer hand delivered to me by my husband...that helps me get through my grouchy morning self, too.) :-)

Setting classroom and home routines helps children understand expectations and boundaries. It helps them to become familiar and comfortable within the day. A routine (as illustrated in my personal anecdote) also becomes a strategy to use during moments of stress or emotion. We tend to revert back to what is familiar and comfortable. Knowing this, it is important to create an effective routine that becomes comfortable. When scheduling an effective routine there are several things that must be kept in mind.

1) Developmentally Appropriate Practice (Ask yourself, what should my students/children be learning? What must be included? reading? centers? math?)
2) Natural times for specific activities (Children get hungry in the middle of the day. If your lunch time is not determined by the school, plan an appropriate time. Young children typically learn best in the morning block and often become tired by the afternoon. Plan academics or pre-academics in the morning and quiet or less demanding activities in the afternoon.)
3) Use the Premack principle! (The Premack principle states that students will generally perform a less desirable task to get to a more desirable task. Check out this wikipedia link for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premack I have a friend who calls this "Grandma's rule." I also use the Pink Floyd song lyrics: "If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?" to explain this principle to my college students. One example of applying the Premack principle in my classroom practice is clean up and snack. When we clean up centers then we go to the table and have a snack.
4) For teachers: check school policies/routines! (Many schools have school routines in place for entrance/dismissal, recess, lunch, specials, reading blocks, computer labs, etc. Your classroom schedule may have some flexibility in some areas but limited flexibility in others. Check first!)
5) Post your routine (Once you have scheduled your routine, post it in your home or classroom. In moments of stress, you can point out where you are in the routine and remind your student/child what comes next. It helps children conceptualize the idea that this activity will not last forever and a more desired activity will follow. Think of you posted routine as if it were an agenda for a staff meeting. When you have a printed agenda in front of you, you can check your progress throughout the meeting.)

Following are three examples of a daily schedule. One is designed for students with special needs in pre-kindergarten, the next is for students with special needs kindergarten-second grade and the final schedule is for third-fifth graders with special needs. You will notice that more specific classroom routines are embedded within the daily schedule. In his book The First Days of School, Harry Wong discusses and stresses the importance of classroom procedures. http://www.harrywong.com/

(I will discuss other specific classroom procedures in later posts.)

Pre-Kindergarten:
Entrance Routine (hang up backpack, put folder in tray, put name on chart, choose table work)
Table Work
School News
Breakfast
Morning Circle
Centers (discovery play, small group work)
Clean Up
Snack
Bathroom
Story
Gross Motor Activity
Lunch
Bathroom
Nap
Video/Interactive Stories online on the projection screen
Closing Circle (Tuesdays: computer buddies, Thursdays: book buddies)
Gross Motor Activity
Dismissal


Kindergarten-2nd grade
Entrance Routine (hangup backpack, put folder in tray, choose bell work)
Bell Work (calendar work, journal writing)
Mainstreaming
Morning Circle
Reading Groups
Snack
Recess
Math Groups
Lunch
Language Arts
Specials (art, music, pe)
Affective lesson
Developmental centers
Pack Up and Dismissal


Third Grade to Fifth Grade
Entrance Routine (hang up backpack, folder in tray, choose bell work)
Bell Work (calendar work, cursive handwriting practice)
School News
Math Groups
Specials
Class Meeting
Writers Workshop and Language Arts
Lunch
Recess
Reading Groups
Computer Lab (individual reading and math practice on computer)
Dismissal