I create and make
personalized/individualized visual resources and educational
materials for people affected by Autism and / or other disabilities
where communication is affected and their families, teachers,
therapists, care givers, etc.
These products are good for
children who are "visual learners".
I am a mother of a 26 year old
son with autism.
Eric was and still is a "visual
learner".
You can see an article with
pictures of Eric and some of the pictures he has done in the
CELEBRATE section of:
www.AutismConnects.com Link to article with pictures:
About 5 years ago I had a
meeting with a Speech Pathologist who was a member of the Autism
Team for our local school board to show him the visual products I
create and make for clients. He was amazed with my range of
materials and how they are made to adapt to the individual`s needs.
He said that these products could be used and adapted to meet the
entire school curriculum and to make the curriculum user-friendly
for students who are visual learners.
I figured out that when I work
with the pictures that a client needs:
- I will delete the backgrounds
leaving just the item, activity, place, etc.
This eliminates the distraction
factor.
- I add the exact words a family, teacher, therapist etc.
requests in any language (if words are requested).- children work better with colour- children love velcro- laminating everything makes the cards and materials
re-usable over and over again.- I can take any major task a child needs to learn and
break it down into picture sequence cards
I can make visual cards,
puzzles, visual schedules, matching materials, visual step -by-step
check lists, etc. I use pictures of the items, foods, activities and
places to make up the cards, etc.
If you have pictures of your
child`s or student`s own specific needs ie. items, family members,
foods, activities and places, I can use these to further personalize
his/her visual cards.
Children with autism understand
pictures far more easily if taken from their own environment. I can
use other picture sources such as the internet or pictures that I
have already.
I scan the pictures into my
computer then work with the pictures. I will delete backgrounds in
the pictures to remove any distraction from the item you want your
son, daughter or student to concentrate on. I can add word
descriptions (one or two words) under each picture using the exact
words that you would use with your son, daughter or student. The
pictures are then sized to the size you need, then they are printed
out and laminated.
The laminated picture cards can
be used and would have adaptations made depending on how you would
like to use them:
- the visual cards can have Velcro attached for use on a
Velcro work board (which I also make) which can be kept in a
binder for easy access.- the visual cards can have a magnet attached so they can
be used as refrigerator magnets- the visual cards can be used on a key chain. This
provides for a "hands free", easy access (because these key
chains can be attached to your belt loop), portable
communication system which can be used anywhere.
I also discovered and make
laminated, letter-sized cards with pictures, the alphabet, child`s
photo and name, etc to be used with washable markers.
This way your son, daughter or
student can learn to "colour, colour match, learn to print his or
her own name, learn to print the alphabet, etc." This also could
help him or her with his or her fine motor skills.
Products:1. Toileting, hand washing, bedtime sequence 2. Choice
boards:- outings eg. McDonald`s, Canadian Tire, Toys R Us, Loblaws,
Wal-Mart, Zellers- park, bicycle, trampoline- snacks, food and drinks- pre-school and school activities- Emotions (no thermometer) - "I feel .."3. Picture key chains - to attach to belt loops for easy and
quick access.4. Dressing Program: for Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, rain
and bed-time.5. Puzzles - farm animals (full colour cartoon)- "5 Little Monkies"6. Visual Schedules: hand washing, brushing teeth, toileting,
dressing, bedtime, pre-school and school 7. Emotions - choice
board with "I feel."- emotion thermometers- calming sequence8. Visual materials to support ABA/IBI programs:- numbers, colours, shapes, alphabet9. Visuals to support "Social Stories": eg.- birth of a sibling- telephone etiquette- going to the movies10. Visual materials to support Music programs- pictures of instruments and activities- puzzle - Old McDonald had a Farm- puzzle - The Wheels on the Bus11. Learning materials:- alphabets - block letters and cursive letters with upper
and lower case- alphabet letters are all single cards good for learning the
alphabet and pairing with pictures to learn spelling.- clocks - to teach time with both regular and digital clocks- Circle of Life- Community helpers12. Communication "PECS" books/binders
Visual communication books can
be made using pictures (combinations of symbols and photographs)
with words. Each word in a sentence would have a picture associated
with it and each word and picture can be laminated so that different
combinations of words with pictures can be put together to create
sentences.
The illustration shows a page
from a "mini-PECS book" and below the book is an example of a
sentence that can be made. The picture symbols used are from
Mayer-Johnson's BOARDMAKER program (www.mayer-johnson.com).
The original design and format of this particular PECS book comes
from Mr Brandon Herscovitch of ABACS.LLC."
