Communicating is a fundamental necessity. Interacting, functioning, and inclusion are all dependent on being able to communicate with other people.
For some people receptive language disorders associated with autism, aphasia, cognitive deficits, fetal alcohol syndrome, dementia, and many other neurological disorders can make communicating with spoken words difficult.
In many instances solutions may lie in things as basic as images and pictures. Picture schedules and communication boards can help to improve understanding and use of language.
There’s a new site, Picture Schedules and Communication Boards that offers visual aids designed to teach new behaviors, preview the steps of upcoming events, or provide checklists for everyday tasks. Premade schedules and boards describe typical activities and settings such as “getting ready for school” or a social communication board that teaches social language and turn taking skills.
Customers can choose from premade picture schedules and communication boards
or they may design their own. There are over 5000 images that can be searched to customize a visual support. The customer chooses a template, searches for the right image, and inserts the
image into the template. Text can also be customized. The customer is then prompted to choose a “physical delivery option” that includes download, print, or laminate. Premade schedules and boards feature Stillwater Speech images. These images are designed to be free of race and culture bias.
www.languageimages.com includes a forum for discussions, posting articles,
and a calendar for conferences. They also have an information page with
descriptions of how to create and implement visual supports.
Check this site out! These visual tools are extremely effective low cost solutions.
On the subject of using pictures to communicate, I thought that I would point out the following. For those using Mac OS X, look at Layout Kitchen by Asisstiveware Software at .