One of my top tips for anyone supporting hyperlexic learners is to write things down and make things as visual as possible. That's where their strengths lie, after all.
But, where do you start? How do you know what types of visuals to use and when? How many is too many? What should you look for in a visual support? The questions go on and on...
So, if you're new to using visual supports, then these tips are for you. You'll learn all about how to start using visual supports, including what things to consider, how to adapt them to fit your needs, and so much more.
Tips for How to Start Using Visual Supports
Whether you're using a premade visual support (like any found here) or making your own from scratch (tips here!), there are a few things you need to consider first before implementing a new visual support.
1. Consider Your Child's Needs & Preferences
Before you start using visual supports, it's important to consider a few questions:
- What does your child need support with?
- What are some current challenges or struggles?
- How does your child learn best?
- What are their sensory preferences?
- What are their current interests?
- What's their current level of understanding?
Asking these types of questions can help you identify areas where visual supports might be helpful and give you an idea of what type of support to create or use.
For example, let's say your child needs help identifying emotions and how they're feeling. You know that they learn best when things are written down (because they're hyperlexic, for instance) and are paired with a simple image. You also know that they get easily overstimulated when things are visually busy and that their current interest is LEGO. They're just learning basic emotion terms. So you might want to use something like this LEGO feelings chart.
Taking the time to assess your child's needs and consider their preferences in this way is a great first step to ensuring that the visuals you plan to use will be helpful and effective. After all, visuals will be more engaging and useful when they're tailored to your individual child's needs, preferences, and interests.
2. Start Small & Build Gradually
There are lots of possible visual supports that you can use, but it's best to introduce only one or two supports at a time. That way you don't overwhelm your child. Once your child is comfortable using visual supports, then you can gradually start to introduce more.
You also want to focus on what would be high-priority and have the most immediate benefit. A perfect example was when my son first got glasses. Since he didn't need to wear them all the time, we would often find ourselves forgetting them on our way out the door to school. So, I made a little poster that showed a pair of glasses paired with text that asked, "Do you have your glasses?" I taped it to our back door that we go through when leaving for school and it worked great.
3. Use Simple & Clear Visuals
It's important to make sure that the visuals are easy to interpret. For instance, that means making sure the design isn't too busy, that there's only one image per step or concept, and that the images make sense.
You also want to make sure that the visuals are tailored to your child's level of understanding. That means carefully consider things like the text. You want to make sure that the text is clear and understandable based on your child's abilities.
4. Involve Your Child in the Process
We've already touched on how it's important to tailor the visual supports to your child's needs, preferences, and interests. And one of the best ways to do that is to involve your child in the process.
For instance, let them help you create or choose the visuals. You might even want to consider taking photos of your child and their favorite items and incorporating them into your visuals, if possible. Let them pick the colors, fonts, or images if you're creating your own.
You can even work together to figure out where to put the visual supports so that they will be accessible and visible. Then hang them up together.
And, finally, work together when using the visual support. For example, when we started using this visual schedule at our house, we started off each morning planning our day out by putting the cards into the slots of the pocket chart. We would discuss together the order of events and whatnot too.
5. Model How to Use Them
When you start to use a new visual support, it's important to show your child how to use it. That way they know when to use them, what their purpose is, etc. Showing them how they work is also a great way to practice modeling gestalts too!
For example, let's say you are using a little visual routine chart that shows the different steps for brushing your teeth. You can point to the first step and model something like "Let's grab the toothbrush!" Then, once you do that, you can ask, "What's next?" or "Let's check what's next" and point to the next step.
Or let's say you have a checklist for bedtime. Something like this. Show your child how to do a step and then check that step off on the list. You can also model gestalts like "What's next?" or "All done!" while checking items off of the list.
6. Adapt as Needed
Once you start using a visual support, it's important to monitor how well it's working for your child. Consider asking the following questions:
- Are there any tweaks that you might need to make to the design? (e.g., wording/phrasing, types of images used)
- Does it need to be more interactive? (e.g., dry erase checklist, adding velcro elements)
- Do you need to change the format? (e.g., needs to be a checklist versus a story, needs to be more portable)
- Is it working in its current location or does it need to move elsewhere? (e.g., try it in a different room)
- Has your child's interests changed? (e.g., they've moved from Pokemon to Minecraft)
- Has your child's needs changed? (e.g., need to expand emotions chart to include more advanced emotions)
- Has your child shared any feedback about the visual? (e.g., they don't like the pictures)
Based on the responses to questions like these, you should adapt and tweak the visual support so that it will better suit your needs.
Recap of Getting Started with Visual Supports
Okay, let's do a quick summary of those tips again.
- Consider your child's needs and preferences to make sure the visuals are tailored to your individual child
- Start small and build gradually to avoid overwhelming your child
- Use simple and clear visuals that are easy to interpret and are tailored to your child's level of understanding
- Involve your child in the process, everything from picking the visuals to placement of the visuals
- Model how to use them so your child knows what their purpose is and how to make the most of them
- Adapt as needed so that they better suit your needs
Now that you know how to start using visual supports, you might want to consider these different examples of visual supports for different needs.
