Simple Visuals can make a HUGE Difference

Visuals are a must in every special education classroom. They will help your class run much smoother! I absolutely love my hard core rule following students. You know who I'm talking about, I'm sure you have them too. They might forget the rules, but once reminded of them they will try their hardest to follow them! Let's use that to our advantage!

Since my students often forget, or don't realize what they are doing, simple written visuals like those above can work wonders! Not everything needs to be made with board maker, although I do love the symbol support especially for my emerging/non-readers readers. (Psst...You will see a LOT of boardmaker symbol support in my classroom like the ones below that I keep velcroed to a rug stapled on the wall in my classroom or ones that I keep on my lanyard! But I want to show you that they aren't the only way to go!)
Similar keychain rule cards found here.

We use "quiet voice" for a lot of my script-ers. A lot of times our students with autism might not even realize they are talking while scripting. All I have to do is point to the visual and then this student is redirected, and also reminded of his strategies. This student's strategies to reduce scripting in the classroom are to write down his thoughts, or the other option is to listen and participate. He typically knows which one is best for his needs at the moment.

The "write small" visual has been awesome in having the student adjust his own writing to an appropriate size. No other prompts needed! I just place it on his desk. If only everything could be that easy, right?

That's just a few of the visuals you'll see in my room, and these are ones that I made while teaching, like in the moment. Seriously took no time and made such a BIG difference!

What are some of the best spur-of-the-moment visuals that work in your classroom?

1 comment

  1. My kids had a hard time reading and differentiating between d and b, so I quickly drew a man with big d and b ears, called him Mr. db, and slapped him on the wall. It was an awful picture and I took it down at the end of the year but it was so effective!

    -Maria

    ReplyDelete

(C) Brie Holtrop- Breezy Special Ed. Powered by Blogger.
Back to Top