Question of the Day: Can visuals act as a crutch for my child?

At KidSpeak, LLC we use visuals in a variety of ways with all of our children! We all learn in different ways, many of us are visual learners, written learners and/or auditory learners. Kids that have autism spectrum disorders think in visuals. So we see it as our job to provide them with visuals as much as we can can to help them not only learn language (receptive and expressive), but also to learn about life: academics, social skills, play, relationships, non-verbal cues and much more! Our moto at KidSpeak, LLC is that “Visuals ROCK”!

So back to our question: Can visuals act as a crutch for my child? Can they actually hinder their language develop? Visuals are only a crutch for a child if the visuals are not changed as the children progress and grow with their language. Since our children are consistently changing, we want their visuals to constantly change. We have seen children who have worked with visuals prior to coming to KidSpeak. These children stayed at the same language level with their past therapist for over four months (if not longer) because their visuals did not change. On the other hand, we have seen kids make amazing progress when their visuals changed once every two months.

Here are a few examples:

Example One: Visual Picture Schedule: If you use a visual picture schedule for your child, you want this to grow with them. You might start by having a picture for each activity and taking the schedule with you everywhere you go. So at the beginning, you have may have a morning schedule with a new picture for each activity “brush teeth, potty, eat breakfast, potty, undress, dress, ride in car”. Once your child understands this routine and uses the language, then it is time to make a change. You can use a “morning time” picture instead and then have a “Morning Time Checklist” with all his/her steps listed. Once the child understands and uses more language, you may move to a schedule where the pictures are smaller but the words are bigger to increase pre-literacy development. The next step would be to move this schedule into a small binder like a “Day Planner”. The following step would be to move it to a written schedule with small pictures next to the words. You could even have your child write/trace the words each morning. The main goal would be moving them to a day planner! We all use day planners and most schools start using them in first or second grade so you are preparing them for a life of organization!

Example Two: Routine Lists: If you use routine lists at home, you want them to grow with your child! An example of a Routine List would be a “Bath List” where it lists the steps for taking a bath. Your first list might be to just get them to be okay with having their hair washed so you might have “play, close eyes, mommy wash hair, open eyes, it’s okay, play”. Once they are okay with their hair being washed, then it is time to move on to a new visual like one that has mommy and child taking turns washing different body parts. Once they understand and are using the language targeted on that routine list, it is time to move on to a different board! You can have many main goals here! One of the best goals is to have your child be able to participate in pretend play and give a baby or animal a bath while taking turns with another child and using their language skills. Another great goal is for them to be able to explain to a younger sibling “How to Take a Bath” and even help them take a bath!

Example Three: Visual Activity Boards: If you use visual activity boards at home, you also want them to grow with your child. A great example would be a Play-Doh® activity board. Who doesn’t like Play-Doh®? Your first board may have your color choices and a few actions like “open, roll, cut”. Then once your child is understanding and using these requesting words, you may want to add some prepositions such as “in, out”. With this one, it is limitless. You can add words to work on higher requesting skills like, “Mommy I want more purple Play-Doh® please” or words focusing on commenting such as, “like, cool, don’t like, favorite, wow”. Again there is so much more to do here!

These are just a few fun examples! Again with the main idea of visuals is that they ROCK when you change them as your child changes. Remember, you are the expert on your child and you will know when your child is ready for something new. So when do you change your visuals and how do you know if they are too hard?? If you try something for over a month and it is not working, then it’s time to try it a different way. If you have tried something for over a month and they first made great progress and now they are experiences a plateau, then it’s time to change your visuals. Oh…and don’t throw the old visuals away! You may want to bring them out again in the cases of: 1) your child is having a very hard emotional day so you may want to make things easier on them; 2) you have a new babysitter….you definitely want to make things easier; and/or 3) you are having a big family function at your house….you really want to make things easier!

Don’t forget Visuals ROCK!

Amanda and Laura
KidSpeak, LLC