Sponsored by NTACT, Kathleen Zimmerman, KU, will explain and provide examples of innovations in visual support interventions to promote engagement in school, employment, and community settings for youth with disabilities. Find out how to select and create visual support interventions tailored to the needs of the individuals and settings in which you work. Come prepared with questions about how to implement and flexibly use visual supports in meaningful ways to promote engagement and independence for a variety of youth with disabilities!
LIVE EVENT: October 10, 2019 Recording available
ONLINE CHAT: October 10-October 24, 2019
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Let’s discuss Visual Supports!
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I just added a Decision Diagram for selecting Visual Supports. Try to use this in the next week and come back and tell us how it went!
“How can we best support community partners to use visual supports more consistently?”
Katie, I thought this was a really interesting question from registration. Any thoughts?
In my personal experience, lack of fidelity in implementing visual supports typically occurs for three reasons: (1) the partner does not know how to create visual supports the individual would need, (2) the partner does not know how to teach or prompt visual support use with the individual, or (3) the frequency or intensity of visual support use isn’t clear to the partner (e.g., we’ve made a statement that visual supports are helpful, but perhaps didn’t clarify they are needed any time an individual is asked to complete a task OR an individual needs a schedule each time you meet with them depicting all of the tasks or activities you all will complete).
I personally would meet with the community partner and create some visual supports together. You can model how to teach visual support use and how to deliver appropriate, strategic prompting (see reply to the comment at the very bottom of this discussion feed) to facilitate visual support use. I’d also likely create a video model for the provider about (a) how I create visuals and (b) how I prompt/support visual use so the partner can have a video to reference. This can be with the shared client or student or with adults as actors. A brief video captured on a cell phone and sent through a secure network (if it’s a client or student) or just texted/emailed with adults as actors could be helpful. You could also consider using a video conference (e.g., FaceTime, Zoom, Skype) to join in on a community partner session/activity to provide support or suggestions for how visuals could enhance an individual’s successful experience.
“Are there Chromebook extensions that can be used for visual impairments?”
I do not have specific expertise in working with students with visual impairments. However, after a brief google search, I found a magazine article about Google and Chromebook features to support students with visual impairments from the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults in partnership with the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children. The blog can be accessed using the link provided here: https://www.nfb.org/sites/www.nfb.org/files/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr36/3/fr360308.htm
Note: I do not have the content knowledge to evaluate the rigor or effectiveness of suggestions in the linked blog post, so I’d encourage you to reach out to individuals with whom you work who may have expertise in supporting students with visual impairments before you implement any of the suggestions or strategies from the blog.
“Best accommodations and supports to include in IEP’s to support visual supports?”
Visual supports can include a large array of options (e.g., first/then boards, image to cue a student to a location, schedules within activities, schedules across activities, daily schedules, work boxes, task checklists, visuals to cue a task analysis like meal preparation). I personally ALWAYS put independently using a visual that will be accessed frequently (e.g., daily schedule) as an IEP goal to ensure explicit instruction in using the intervention as well as progress monitoring are included when first introducing the visual support. Once the student has mastered the independent use of the visual support, I move it to the accommodations page. NOTE: I said when the student independently masters use, not just one year (many individuals with whom I work pretty quickly master independent use of visual supports when explicitly and systematically taught using an evidence-based instructional procedure). When thinking about the best way to include visual support use in an IEP you want to answer the following questions:
(1) what is the purpose of the visual
(2) when should the visual be used
(3) what format should be used (see presentation for further description)
(4) how often should the visual support be available (e.g., every time a transition between activities occurs, when multi-step processes are required, when the individual completes the materials preparation portion of a job task)
(5) who/how will visual support use be taught
(6) how will data be collected to monitor progress and how often will it be reviewed
(7) write SMART goal
Here’s an example of how I would answer the questions above:
Student has difficulty with transitions between classrooms at the high school.
(1) show student where they are going
(2) during all transitions
(3) digital schedule with google calendar that includes an embedded image of the location in which the student is to transition; a cell phone device will be used; laugh out loud aid (LOLA) app will be used as push notifications at pre-set times to (a) check schedule before transition and (b) confirm entry into correct new location
(4) daily (fully prepped for the day before arrival) and always accessible by the student
(5) sped teacher will verbally tell student how to use google calendar and LOLA, and model use with transitions before school starts for 2 days; paraprofessional will use constant time delay procedures with a gestural controlling prompt (NO VERBAL) delivered at a 0s delay across 2 days; if 0 errors occur, then delay will increase to 5 s
(6) each teacher will mark on-time arrival; LOLA app will collect data on student responses to prompts; could turn on location services/find my friend and GPS track if student went to correct class; paraprofessional will collect correct use data on independent schedule task analysis completion (respond to LOLA prompt to check, open google calendar app, select next activity, go to correct location, respond to LOLA prompt for arrival, put device away); data will be reviewed every 2 days until objective b is met; then data will be reviewed twice a week
(7) By October 21, 2020, Katie will independently use a calendaring application on her cell phone to transition between classrooms at school by completing 100% of tasks analysis steps correctly across 5 consecutive school days with 0 instructor prompts as measured by task analysis completion data collected by sped staff, attendance records in each course, and geo-location data captured by the electronic device to confirm entry into the correct classroom at the correct time.
(a) objective 1: task analysis with 50% independence (50% prompted by default) (make this a SMART objective-I’m shortening for space)
(b) objective 2: task analysis with 80% independence (20% prompted by default) (make this a SMART objective-I’m shortening for space)
You want to teach the ENTIRE task analysis at once because it’s a chained behavior. You can use forward or backward chaining if you’d like, or you can teach the total task. Here’s more information (including a brief video) about chaining: https://ksdetasn.org/resources/891
If a student requires any schedule or structured work system (e.g., work boxes), I’d always make it a goal to ensure you’ve explicitly taught the student how to use the visual support. Visual supports often fail because we fail to teach students explicitly how to use them.
If you want to add a visual support that does not require student manipulation OR only has 1-2 steps for use (e.g., first/then board) then I’d put it as an accommodation and still follow steps 1-6 above. Be sure in the accommodations portion of the IEP you are very specific about when the visual should be used. Terms such as “daily” or “as needed” are insufficient to ensure all staff use the visual support with fidelity. I encourage specific phrases such as “when tasks are introduced” or “as soon as staff are aware an unexpected schedule change will occur” or “during group activities in all classes.”
https://www.cdd.unm.edu/autism/pdfs/Visual%20Supports%20PHT%20Parent%20Handout.pdf
Handout for Visual Supports for Children with ASD!