Comment: Visuals for Communication & Adapting Behavior

As a special education teacher visuals were high on the priority list with me and our educational assistants for communication, adapting behavior and scheduling. What a difference visuals can make in someones life and for everyone supporting them. I too used happy & not so happy faces :) , :I and :(

This also became a great method for one young man with autism to self evaluate his own work. He rated himself on every activity/project he did and he was so honest in his evaluations! This visual notation on his work schedule would then remind him of how well he had done or that he needed more effort the next time. When using a visual schedule created with a series of cards (velcro) we had an assortment of "faces cards" Later when he had a written work schedule there was a self evaluation column where he drew the appropriate face. We also evaluated his work with the same visual notation, noting when our evaluations were the same as his, which was most frequent!