Okay, so this is a promised post from my other blog (you know the one, I am no longer keeping up with and posting things over here instead?)
I wanted to share with you all some ideas that we use in the "special education world" for supporting communication. Using visuals is something that we do with our students with special needs all the time, but there was many a time that I would use visuals with a typically developing preschooler. These are ways that I have used visuals and ways that you can use them in your life too!
Use pictures to provide choices. Our little ones are often able to understand and communicate their wants and needs well before they are able to communicate them verbally. This is also the idea behind baby sign-language (which I fully plan to teach my little one). Pictures are another way that little ones can learn to communicate. Pictures can be photos or line drawings that represent actual items. A great way to use this is to put photos of different foods that your young child might want to ask for on magnets and put them on the fridge that way when they want something they can point to (or you can ask "do you want this or this?"). Another way is to have pictures of favorite toys/items that they can point to tell you what they want to play with. Using this strategy will give your pre-verbal child a way to communicate and help cut down on frustration.
Use a puzzle board. What is a puzzle board you ask? Okay, so everyone knows about positive behavior support, right? And using positive reinforcement, right? So, there is something called a token economy system that requires more than one response to gain access to a reward. So for example, i have to earn 3 "tokens" that can then be traded in for a big reward. Well, that's a bit much for toddlers and preschoolers. But, a way that you can use the same idea, is to take a picture of the reward and cut it into a puzzle. The child can earn pieces of the puzzle for doing appropriate behavior (i.e. using the potty) and once they can see the whole picture they earn their reward.
Use a social story. Real social stories were created by Carol Gray. But you can use a simplified form of the idea for your young kiddo. Social stories can help when you are having difficulties with transitions. So for example, you might be moving to a new house and you are worried about your little one being okay with that. What you can do is take pictures of the new house, new room, new backyard, etc and write a story that says "I am moving to a new house. This is a picture of my new house. Mommy and Daddy will be at my new house. All of my toys will be there too. I will have a new room and here is a picture. I will sleep in my bed at my new house too." ( you get the idea). You can read the story and show pictures to your child to help prepare them. This is something that we often do for little ones that are just starting preschool or are moving to "big school"(kindergarten). You could use it if you were going on a long trip, people were coming to visit, or any other changes that you think your little one might have trouble with.
Use a visual schedule. I am the QUEEN of this. I live and breathe by my calendar. Granted mine is in PDA form, but still. I have everything on my calendar. I have now also created Google calendars for Jared's work schedule and for Maya's care schedule between my mom and Jared. It is important for me to be able to look at my day/week and know what I am going to be doing. Lots of kids need this kind of structure too. A visual schedule can be created with pictures of your daily routines. This can again be real photos or line drawings. Visual schedules can help little ones understand the sequence of events and can help with difficulty transitiong between routines. A great example is this: You have a little one who LOVES the park and hates to leave. Everytime you leave, he/she is kicking and screaming. You can show your little one a schedule: first you are going to the park, then going to the grocery, then going home to play in the baby pool. (of course, the key here is that there is something fun they get to do later). That way they see even though they are leaving something fun now, they get to do something fun later. You can also use visual schedules for things like: bedtime routines (wash face, brush teeth, read a book, time to sleep).
I hope that these ideas are helpful for you! You can go here and here for some free pictures and other resources. And this resource was created by a fellow Vandy grad. I have to say that it is more difficult for me to write about these things to explain them in person, so if something doesn't make sense let me know and I will try to explain a little better :)
Gasp! There are no pictures of little one. Double gasp...it's because I haven't taken any the last two days. New pics to come soon!
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