Visual Strategies for Improving Communication . Practical Supports for School & Home

Editorial Review
This bestseller is the most comprehensive book to explain the use of visual strategies to improve communication for students with autism spectrum disorders and other students who experience moderate to severe communication impairments. It is full of easy to use techniques and strategies that will help these students participate more effectively in social interactions and life routines.

What is it?
a ground-breaking resource.
contains dozens of visual supports that are beautifully illustrated and described.
an exceptional collection of practical ideas and techniques
filled with creative strategies for improving the behavior and communication of students with autism, ADHD, cognitive impairments, language and learning disabilities and more...
a "how to" book designed to assist teachers, SLP's and parents in devising solutions to the communication and self-management challenges that are common in these students.

Who is this book for? Teachers, parents, Speech Therapists and other people who work and live with students with autism spectrum disorders or other communication challenges. The strategies in this book have application for students with a variety of disability labels and special needs.

What is the book about? One of the major areas of difficulty for students with autism spectrum disorders is the development of social and communication skills. Communication breakdowns can be a "root" cause of problems in social interaction, educational performance, and behavior. While it is common for educational programming to focus on developing communication skills, that focus in most settings tends to be directed toward developing the student's expressive communication. Comparatively little attention is directed toward increasing the student's ability to understand the communication in his life. This book demonstrates why an inability to effectively take in and understand information can be a significant factor in these student's performance. Visual Strategies for Improving Communication contains numerous easy to use systems and strategies that have proven to help these students significantly improve their ability to understand, express themselves, participate in home and school routines and improve overall behavior.

Tell me more. . . . It is commonly recognized that communication is one of the primary areas of difficulty for persons who experience autism. Understanding the communication of others, trying to figure out what is happening or not happening, handling changes and transitions, and interpreting cues and signals in the environment can all be areas of difficulty for this population. Organizing, sequencing, and remembering what to do or when to do it can all cause problems. Stepping out of familiar environments and routines increases stress. The frustration of not understanding can lead students to ritual and rigidity and a lack of flexibility with change. In the midst of these areas of difficulty, it is recognized that most individuals who experience autism display a relative strength in visual skills. Capitalizing on that strength, the use of visual strategies to support communication has provided the structure necessary to substantially alter many problem situations.

How are the students helped? The first goal when working with these students is to create an environment that will support communication and make communication breakdowns less likely to occur. This is accomplished in part by developing a system of visual tools and aids to increase communication effectiveness. Schedules, aids to give directions, and aids to give information, and aids to establish and communicate rules are tools designed to increase the student's understanding of what is happening around him. A second goal, improving student independence and participation, is met with the presence of visual tools.

What is in the book? This book offers a comprehensive collection of visual tools that have proven successful with students of varying ages and ability levels. It contains:
lots of samples and examples of visual tools and how to use them
tons of ideas for improving communication in school and home environments
assessment for community participation
guide for planning communication tools
plenty of ideas for integrating visual strategies into the student's lives
and lots more. . . . . .
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Customer Reviews

Just what I ordered!

2005-09-24
The book was exactly what I ordered and it was sent promptly! Great Price! Thanks!

Got a visual learner with special needs? This is for you!

2003-10-03
My autistic son is a visual learner. He watches TV, computer and other children and will learn from them. In addition - abstract concepts and teaching basic academics can be done with a lot of visual support vs. auditory presentations alone.

This is a strong book to identify the issues for special needs kids and using visual strategies to solving them. I highly recommend this book.

Overflowing with useful and practical ideas! 2001-10-02
I have read a lot of books on autism and I would highly recommend this one! The author details, in a very clear way, why
"visual supports" work well for everyone, but especially for those who have communication related disorders. Then she goes beyond the explanations to give you real examples you can use and directions on how to implement them. She has a very practical approach and acknowledges the differences and similarites needed between school and home programs.

I think this book would be invaluable to a teacher of special needs children and also the "regular ed" teacher who has a wide range of children and their individual needs to consider. Parents and caregivers will also benefit greatly from this book as it has many examples that go beyond the school experience.

One of my favorite quotes from the book is "Imagine being on one of those whirlwind package tours of Europe; sixteen cities in 7 days. You discover the tour agent forgot to give you an itinerary. Every day you don't know where you are goin, what you are going to see or when you are going to eat. Frustrating? That is how many of our students feel about life on a daily basis. It is one of the reasons we see students cling to ritual and routine."

This book is literally packed with ideas and is well worth the cover price. ....

Must resource for working & living with children with autism 1999-07-08
When I first started working with students with autistic characteristics this became an incredible tool. I continue to use this tool with these students and other students for whom a more visual learning approach helps build success!

Wonderful ideas that assist children with autism 1998-08-01
My youngest daughter has autism. Last summer my wife and I brought her to a summer camp. We could not tell our daughter that she was going to spend 5 nights and 6 days at camp because we have no communication system with her. We brought her to camp, left her there with the counselor and she cried. Every morning she packed her bag, lugged it to her counselor and said, Bye Camp". How would you behave if you were in my daughter's situation?

Linda Hodgdon's book, "Visual Strategies for Improving Communication", shows parents, educators and other professionals how to use picture schedules, calandars, visual bridges and other visual tools that help my daughter become more aware of what is happening in the world around her.

"Visual Stategies for Improving Communication" is a wonderful book written in an easy to read format showing many examples on how to implement visual tools for children with autism and many other communication and behavior diso! rders