When children find communication challenging, visual support can really help. Parents often ask me what they can do to help their children’s communication skills. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to help. Of course, communicating isn’t always about talking. It’s about getting your message across any way you can. It’s all about being understood…and then understanding what someone else communicates back. Adding in visual props, such as pictures, objects, symbols and signs, can all support effective communication. But it’s not a one-size-fits-all thing.
Visual support can be especially helpful for children with autism. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, people with autism often have a good ability to process visual information, so they are strong visual learners. Also, spoken words are very fleeting time-wise. Most exist for a third of a second, and sometimes even less. In this way, they are like fireflies, there for a glorious instant and then gone. Visual input from objects, pictures and so on is more concrete. The input simply exists for longer in time. And finally, when communication is delivered by both talking and visual support together, the listener is receiving two forms of input at once, rather than just one, so it’s easier to understand and process the incoming message.
Some sorts of visual support are easier to understand than others. In fact, they come in a ranked order, from easiest to hardest to understand. So it’s important to match visual support to the abilities of the individual. The easiest sort of visual support to understand is an object. For example, a parent says “teddy” at the same time that they hold a teddy out towards their child. Next up in the ranking are colour photographs, then black and white photographs, then drawings, cartoons and symbols and finally writing.
When children are still at an early stage of communication, the world can be a very uncertain place. When a child doesn’t understand what they hear, everything comes as a surprise and they may feel out of control. So-called ‘objects of reference’ can help to reduce uncertainty. Lessening uncertainty tends, in turn, to reduce stress and anxiety. ‘Objects of reference’ are objects that mean something to a child. They can be used to signal what is going to happen next. To use this approach, parents need to have a drawstring bag full of objects. Either they carry this from room to room, or have several bags, each filled with a matching set of objects. Examples of using an ‘object of reference’ would be:
- You want your child to get into the car: the parent says the word “car” at the same time that they show the child a car key.
- You want your child to go for their bath, the parent says the word “bath” at the same time that they show the child a rubber duck.
Another way of managing child expectations, and hopefully reducing stress, if to employ a ‘traffic light’ system. To use this approach, you need to get handy with some coloured card, laminator and scissors. It’s a simple job to make 3 disc-shaped cards, coloured red, orange and green. You can then attach them together with a short piece of chain from a hardware shop. When a child is starting an activity, the parent shows them the green card and says “go”. When you want to give the child a few minutes notice of an activity finishing, you show them the orange card and say “nearly finished”. When you want the child to stop the activity, you show them the red card and say “finished”.
PECS is a visual approach. It can help some children with autism to communicate. PECS is short for ‘Picture Exchange Communication System’. Through a series of stages, children are taught to exchange pictures for things that they want, to make choices and to express themselves. PECS has proven helpful for non-verbal children and children with limited talking. It encourages children to communicate and helps to reduce frustration.
Another approach, which can be helpful for all children, not just those with communication needs, is Makaton. This is a system of signs and symbols, which is used alongside talking. The parent uses the sign, gesturing it with their hands (and sometimes facial expression) at the same time that they say a word. Using signing alongside speaking like this helps some children to talk and reduces frustration too. The symbols are simple, black and white line drawings that represent the same set of words.
Whether children are young or older; at home, nursery or school, visual support can help. Visual schedules, calendars and communication books help children to understand what is going to happen next. They support children to understand what they hear. They help children to express themselves better. They structure time and promote independence. In terms of behaviour, they can help here too. Visual support helps to reduce stress. It also helps children to cope with change. In this way, it tends to reduce child anxiety and so improve behaviour.
If you’d like more ideas, information or advice, please get in touch with Happy Talk.
Kirsty Henderson
Speech and Language Therapist
Useful links:
http://www.pecs-unitedkingdom.com/
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