The Power of Visuals

Visuals are powerful; if a student has difficulty wth receptive language, he/she is
not understanding what you say.

Visuals are a great way to help children understand and make sense of the
world around them.

A visual schedule provides students with clear parameters of the beginning and
ending of an activity so they are more likely to transition with understanding.

Research shows that generally, auditory processing is often a weakness, while

visual processing is generally a strength.

A child will understand what they see, much better than what they hear.

Visuals provide predictability and clear expectations, which decreases anxiety

and increases understanding. This in turn, decreases behaviors and maximizes
learning opportunities.

With the help of visuals children are much more likely to remain calm because
they have a better understanding of what is going to happen while they are at
school.

One of the most important reason visuals are powerful is that they are there to
refer back to. The spoken word is transient, it is said and then gone. Visuals
remain as long as the student needs to focus and process information.

1 | Denise Spencer 2018

 The Power of Visuals

HOW TO RUN AN EFFECTIVE VISUAL SCHEDULE

1. Have two longer strips with soft sided Velcro on the wall or a desk with some scratchy velcro on
the back of the strips. Place at the student’s eye level, in a visually uncluttered space. If the
student is leaving the area where the strips are and the next pic is needed, then you can take
the bottom strip off the wall and take it with you.

2. Have the student preview the schedule by moving each pic from the top strip to the bottom
strip, as you say the word on the picture symbol.

3. Have the student preview no more than 3 or 4 pics at a time from the top long strip. Then say
“what’s first?” and the student will take the first pic off the second strip and put it onto the
finished pocket strip.

4. When that activity is finished have the student put the pic into the finished pocket as you say
“_____finished.” Then they will get the next pic off the bottom strip on the wall or desk and put
it onto the finished pocket strip.

5. After the student has taken each pic off the bottom strip, (finished each activity), put up 3 or 4
more pics on the top strip for student to preview (move to bottom). Do not put pics up onto
the top strip again until all the pics from the bottom strip have been cycled through.

6. Limit your language when previewing the pics on the schedule. Say only the word that is on the
pic as the student manipulates it.

7. Have only one pic on the finished pocket strip at a time. It MUST BE what student is doing.
Do not stray away from what the student it doing (for example work becomes break or going for
a walk the student runs into the gym and it is empty so you think no harm in letting him run
around for a bit). The pic must coincide with the activity or they will not learn the meaning of
them. Whatever pic is on the finished pocket is what is happening AT ALL TIMES.

8. If possible have the strip with the preview end on a break so the student is happy and busy and
you have time to think what the next 3 or 4 pics going up will be.

9. If the schedule must be changed once the student has previewed it, use the CHANGE CARD
(purple star).

10. Use the walk pic as a separate activity and do not let the student deviate from the walk. Walk
cannot turn into a break, or gym etc. Do not use the walk pic to walk to the next activity, it is an
activity within itself.

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 The Power of Visuals

TIPS
• Use the walk pic as a separate activity and do not let student deviate from
the walk. Walk cannot turn into break, or gym etc. Do not use the walk pic
just to walk to the next activity.
• Limit your language when previewing the pics on the schedule. Say only
the word that is on the pic as the students put it onto the bottom strip.
• Make sure to use the same pcs for the same activity every time.
Consistency is important!
• Do not get into power struggles over the student manipulating the pics,
encourage him to do it, but if not you do it. If all the tips are followed the
student will most likely enjoy taking ownership of his visual schedule by
manipulating it.
• Have student put the pic on the finished pocket strip into the finished
pocket immediately once the activity is over.
• Must do what you preview with student otherwise make student part of
the change process using the change to make the change visual.
• Do not put up pcs like home, lunch, music, etc that have a time attached to
them. Preferred activities should not be previewed until 5 or 10 minutes
before the preferred event otherwise undesirable behaviour can occur.
• The pics of work and break are not automatically going to be understood.
Teach them that work means following a direction and break is their time
to do what they love without any instruction given by an adult.
• Make work brief, fun and at your student’s level, SHOW the student what
will be expected of them BEFORE you start to work… (“These three sheets,
then work finished.”) We tend to want to get as much work as possible out
of a student at one sitting, but we can come back to it and having your
student trust that work sessions will not go on and on but be predictable is
far more valuable in the long run.

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 The Power of Visuals

TIPS (con’t)

• Insert breaks throughout the day as a pro-active measure, instead of once

behavior occurs.
• Must have a TRUE BREAK. When the student does take a break, DO NOT
talk to him, place any demands on him or interact with him, unless it is
student initiated. Find a break that the student likes, not what YOU think
they should like. Do not give instructions or make them take turns.
o This is not a learning time it is break time.
• Make transitions quick and clean; break finished, pic goes into pocket,
what’s next, get next pic, start activity immediately. Lessen language.
• Do not negotiate over the schedule. This can be a slippery slope that can be
hard to undo. Do not let the student change or undo the schedule. There
can be choice within an activity (“work A” or “work B”) but not a change
from work to something else.
• Before starting work, show the student exactly what they have to do so
they can see a clear beginning and ending of their work session. Be
prepared before work comes up on the schedule what your student will be
doing for work.
• Don’t worry about always transitioning at the same time as the class, it is
more important to follow the schedule.

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 The Power of Visuals

How to put your visual schedule binder together…

1. Attach scratchy Velcro to the back of each picture symbol.

2. Put soft sided Velcro onto the plastic insert pages, spacing it apart so pics do
not overlap each other.
3. Cut out individual pics.
4. Attach pics to Velcro on the plastic insert pages.
5. Put two change pics, a fire drill and earthquake drill pic on the front of the
binder.
6. Cut out two strips of plastic approximately 20 centimetres long and 5
centimetres wide.
7. Put a strip of soft sided Velcro onto each of the two strips.
8. Make a finished pocket (directions included in package).
9. Add handouts to the front of binder.
You are ready to begin the road to making magic happen. 

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 The Power of Visuals

MAKING A FINISHED POCKET

• cut out finished pics and glue un-laminated finished pic onto a library
card

• laminate library card with finished symbol glued to pocket, take off
sticky paper right before putting into laminator

• laminate pocket upside down, sticky side up

• after cutting out pockets, take an X-Acto knife and carefully slice
across the opening of the pocket

• cut out a strip of plastic board, approximately 15 centimeters long

and put a strip of soft side Velcro on it, put scratchy sided Velcro
onto back of finished pocket and attach finished pocket to plastic
strip

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 The Power of Visuals

Key phrases – the language to use with students

• say only the word on the pic when the student is manipulating the pics
down from top to bottom strip or putting a pic onto the finished pocket

• if the student needs a verbal prompt on where to put the pic, say ”put
here” when student manipulates pics onto bottom strip

• say “what’s first?” when student takes first pic off of the previewed strip
and puts it onto the finished pocket

• say “______finished, put in” (when activity on finished pocket is finished

and student is gong to put pic into finished pocket)

• say “what’s next?” (after putting pic into finished pocket and going back to
check schedule)

7 | Denise Spencer 2018