The Importance Of Visual Communication For Children With Autism

There are many different obstacles autism spectrum individuals have to overcome in their daily lives; social insecurities, eye contact, appropriate spatial awareness etc. But in most cases, their biggest hurdle is mostly their communication skills; it’s been shown that communication impairment is at the heart of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and that children with ASD can show a wide range of communication skills as discussed by Agius and Vance (2015). According to Agius and Vance, there is up to a 30% positive diagnosis of children with ASD who will forever remain nonverbal (no consistent verbal communication). With such a high percentage of ASD children it is recommended that their communication and learning needs are to be addressed by using the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), it has been shown as an effective intervention that addresses individuals with ASD and their learning and communication needs (Ogletree, Morrow-Odom, & Westling, 2015). PECS has helped children and young adults with ASD communicate with those around them; their teachers, peers, parents etc.

Autism is a developmental disorder, which is characterized by a dyad of difficulties in a) communication and social interaction and b) restricted interests and imagination (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Individuals on the Autism Spectrum might find it challenging to understand what other people think or what the reasons for their behaviours are, as their ‘theory of mind’ may not be well developed (Schuwerk, Vuori & Sodian, 2015). It is possible that this is why they might behave in socially inappropriate ways, being unable to differentiate between different contexts, while they might also find it difficult to make friends. Moreover, it is likely that they are fond of routines, repetition and structure (Carnahan, Musti-Rao, & Bailey, 2009), as they might be nervous with unknown, new situations. In addition, some of them might not do eye contact with other people, whereas some others might not endure to be touched and might have a difficulty developing speech (Jordan, 2005). Individuals on the Autism Spectrum might sometimes be prohibited to initiate conversations and might struggle with finding different ways to play and behave, due to the possible deficit of imagination, which in some cases might result in them having a narrow sphere of interests. Nevertheless, it should be noted that this group of people is rather heterogeneous, as characteristics of autism may differ from one individual to another (Gwynette, 2013). Another point is that people with Autism

The method describes the participants as two children diagnosed with autism and had language skills that were appropriate for the Social Stories intervention. The participants were in two different general education kindergarten classrooms, full-time at a public elementary school. The fist participant, Matt, was a 6-year-old Asian American boy who had a teaching assistant assigned to his classroom and the second participant, Ted, was a 5-year-old Caucasian boy who had a teaching assistant assigned to accompany throughout the school day. The participants received training sessions one to four times per-week that were conducted in private rooms for 10 to 20 minutes in the morning before class at each participant’s school. The participants only read Social Stories that only pertained to their individual targeted behaviors for intervention. The stories used had no pictures, only large text on white paper. The participants were read one story per

H., Carpenter, M., Le, L., LeBlanc, L. A., & Kellet, K. (2002). Using the picture exchange communication system (PECS) with children with autism: Assessment of PECS acquisition, speech, social‐communicative behavior, and problem behavior. Journal of applied behavior analysis, 35(3), 213-231.

Some children with autism communicate well to drama and role play activities to help them learn greetings, turn talking in conversations and watching for cues in social groups. Role playing in the classroom gives the child opportunities to observe acceptable social interactions. In a mainstream setting, it is important for the child to work on his pragmatics. An example could be: pairing up the student with a peer to help with social skills and in other settings such as the cafeteria or

A well-known ASD adult, Temple Grandin suggests caregivers of ASD children that if the environments are organized to the “think in pictures” nature of ASD children, learning will be a lot easier for such children. She explains this nature to the Language-based thinkers as she translates every word that she hears or reads into the pictures and even movies. (Grandin, 1996) According to literature reviews conducted by Dettmer (2000) and Meadan(2011), the researches up to date the papers were published, agreed on the success of using visual supports to aid ASD children to social interactions, sequence and organize their life, transitions between activities, maintain attention, auditory processing, and behavioral challenges (Dettmer et al.,

His fingernails are penetrating my skin and his grip is getting tighter with each progressively loud screech. “Michael”, I sharply continuously say, as I attempt to slowly gain ability to release each finger from my imprisoned arm. I am not in shock or unprepared for this situation, as Michael has autism and is working on his communication skills and behavioral outbreaks. Minutes pass, the screaming has stopped, his tears are still visible, but he is starting to focus on pushing a fire truck back and fourth. I sit patiently waiting for him to completely calm down; I’m waiting to hear him hum.

In “Brief Report: Increasing Communication Skills for an Elementary-Aged Student with Autism Using the Picture Exchange Communication System” (Kamps, Kemmerer, Kravits & Potucek, 2002) the researchers used a unique characteristic which is implementing PECS in different settings by mother, school teachers and peers. The study demonstrated that “ Molly’s use of the system helped her become a much more spontaneous person using the icons in home and school activities” (Kamps, Kemmerer, Kravits & Potucek, 2002,

In the article, “Family Connections: Visual Supports for Promoting Social Skills in Young Children: A Family Perspective,” (2012), it speaks about how children who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to have a difficult time with social, emotional, and other behavior challenges at home. This can be a very difficult thing when trying to communicate and trying to build relationships with people. The article states that, “many children with ASD require specialized supports to experience success in developing social interaction and communication skills” (Moody, 2012, p. 191). Therefore, the article suggests that using visual supports are very effective. Furthermore, it discusses how important social skills are, how visual supports can

Play is an occupation in which all children should engage in to enhance development. Play should be enjoyable, fun, impulsive and naturally motivating. When children engage in play, they are able to discover their surrounding environments, experiment with ideas, and learn from experience (Garvey, 1977; Rubin, Fein & Vandenberg, 1983; Smith & Vollstedt, 1985, as cited by Mastrangelo, 2009). Due to social, cognitive and emotional difficulties, children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are unable to develop play skills at the same rate as children without

Another set of toys that autistic children interacted with were Lego blocks often using the bright colors and showing a rewarded reflection after their creation was done. When the autistic children came together to actually build, they gave one another a certain assignment (unaware of what they were doing) that they actually had to do in a moderate way. The toys in this study stood for human beings and the reaction they have to certain movements, words, and

A widely used communication tool for with children of autism is a system known as The Picture Exchange System (PECS). This system provides opportunities for communication for children with limited or no functional speech the ability to communicate non-verbally. PECS provides children with autism to communicate non-verbally, enhances children the ability to develop a verbal communication, which limit on appropriate behaviors and enables increase socialization. PECS is composed of six phases- Phase 1), learn how to communicate, 2) Distance and Persistence, 3) Picture Discrimination, 4) Sentence Structure, 5) Answering Questions, and 6) Commenting. (Green, & Sandt, 2013) Utilizing the PAC System children are taught to approach a person, present a picture of a desired item exchange for that item. All communication that can be symbolized on a picture will facilitate communication from both the child and the person the child is communicating.

In general, Autism is characterized to have children struggle with social difficulties, communication challenges and a tendency to have repetitive behaviors. One of the ways families struggle with children having autism is that there is parental stress involved. For children to target social skills they are able to work on body basics, participation, wants and needs, and finally beginning a conversation. According to the article “Effects of a Social Skills Intervention on Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Peers with Shared Deficits” it mentions how the clinic is doing two clinical trials on two little boys. Therefore, this article shows graphs for the two children that are slowly improving on their social skills. On the other hand,

Play is a tactic that allows children explore their own interests and increased joy of learning too. When a child is having trouble speaking, a teacher can model how a child uses nice hands along with articulating the words. Playing with the child could help them with vocabulary and help them use their words for behavior too. Due to active promotion of play and therapy, many children achieve to improve their speech and language along with their playing abilities (Ullrich and Marten, 2016). The improvement of these skills allows the child to catch up with other children in their age group, which is a crucial aspect for a child's long-term development as it profits from its peer group (Ullrich and Marten, 2016). “Children expressing a low degree of pragmatic competence may not comprehend the contextual norms of the public context where peer group influence is the predominant force of children’s play and interaction” (Leonard, Milich, & Lorch, 2011). Carter (2001) assessed the interpretation of language skills increasing due to engaged play interaction, but it may be less likely for children with Autism to interact with toys or other games (Carter, 2001). She articulates how providing choices for children with behavioral issues, increases their chance of engaging and adapting to the opportunities given in the following:

The topic for today's reading was Augmentative Communication Systems-Sign Languages, PECS. In the assigned reading and module, we observe that a characteristic of autism is difficulty developing and using verbal speech to communicate with others. The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is used to help children with autism to develop a system for communicating with others across multiple environments. It is used most often with learners that are non-verbal, but can also be used with learners with limited verbal skills. PECS can be used across age ranges, starting in preschool, to help individuals with ASD communicate with others. In fact, research has shown that learners can use PECS to increases their work production