[ by Brian S. Friedlander, Ph.D. ]

One of the areas of assistive technology which has really piqued my curiosity has been the use of software that is capable of creating visual supports for children that require it. In my research I have found a number of articles, books, and Internet sites that talk about the importance of providing children with autism and other developmental disorders with visually supported materials to help them understand their environment and the expectations for their behavior. As a psychologist in my own practice, I often recommend to parents that they put up schedules on the refrigerator and place charts in their children's room to display bedtime or school time routines. Some of the children that I work with, with attentional disorders and or Asperger Syndrome respond positively to the visual supports and their parents begin to see positive changes in the way their children cope with change and can begin to carry out routines more independently.

As part of my assistive technology workshops, I generally spend some time demonstrating both Boardmaker and Picture It. For those of you who work with children with autism, developmental disorders, attentional disorders, and or language based difficulties it is important to consider these tools in helping children to better understand their learning and social environments. The preeminent tool in the field for creating visually supported materials is Boardmaker from Mayer-Johnson (http://www.mayer-johnson.com/) company. Boardmaker is a simply a database of graphic picture communication symbols (PCS) that can be searched on the computer. Boardmaker comes with over 3000 picture communication symbols (available in Black/White or Color) which can be used to design and print communication boards, calendars, and schedules. The program comes with a large set of templates so that you have a starting out point to drop in your graphics. Boardmaker is relatively easy to use and gives you a wide range of picture communication symbols that can be used across a wide variety of settings. To use Boardmaker simply set up your board, search the database for the picture you want and paste in the picture. Often times there is more than one picture for a particular concept or word and you have the capability to view each picture in the database before deciding which one you would like to use. Additionally, digital pictures and clip art can be pasted into your Boardmaker collection to expand the library. Mayer-Johnson also sells addendum libraries that can be used with Boardmaker to expand on the number of picture communication symbols.

Picture It from Slater Software (http://www.slatersoftware.com/) is another wonderful tool for creating visually supported material. I have to tell you that when I do workshops most of the participants are amazed at the way this software application works. Picture It was really developed with the teacher in mind and is really a teachers tool. The program is really easy to use and in less than three minutes you can start to develop stories or directions that include text and accompanying pictures to give emergent readers the chance to practice reading with visual clues. The program is ideal for beginning readers and provides visual clues for students to begin to help them develop a sight vocabulary. The program is also ideal for use with children with pervasive developmental disorders, autism, English as a second language, learning disabled,developmental disorders, hearing impaired, and children with cognitive impairments.

Here is how Picture It works. Just type what you want into the story text window, select the Parse text command from the Edit menu, and Print out your document. As soon as you press the Parse text command Picture It looks up the picture from the picture library and places it into your document. The picture library contains 1850 Black/White or Color pictures. Picture It is an ideal tool for students who are struggling with reading and need picture cues to help them to decipher words. Or imagine working with a student who is having trouble reading but you want them to be able to be included in a reading activity with their classmates. The program is very flexible and graphics from other programs can be used with Picture It.

Picture It is also ideal to use with children who present with behavioral disorders. With Picture It, a teacher can easily create step by step directions for specific tasks. Likewise, social stories or scripts can be created with picture cues to help the student understand the desired behaviors. While programs such as Boardmaker are ideal for the picture database, Picture It makes it really easy for teachers to adapt curriculum materials and for creating educational activities that are supported by pictures. The program is truly a wonderful teachers tool and one that should be looked at for those that work with children who are struggling to access text.

While Picture It and Boardmaker are wonderful tools there are some educators that feel that their symbology are too abstract and not readily understood by the children they work with. In my search for new products to create visually supported materials I came across a new library of graphics from a company called Kidaccess (http://www.kidaccess.com/). Kidaccess has created a program called EYE-CONS. Eye CONS is a database of over 800 realistic color graphic images that are more abstract than photos, but more concrete than the picture communication symbols that you would find in BoardMaker or Picture It. The graphics ship on a CD and the pictures are stored in a GIF format which makes it ideal for use with word processors or paint and draw programs. Because the graphic images are stored on the CD and accessed through your browser the program can be used in cross platform environments (both Mac or Windows). The pictures come in 1-inch, 2-inch, and 4-inch versions to meet your specific needs. The graphic images are grouped by themes and can be quickly searched or previewed using your Internet browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer). The company also sells what are called theme packs. Each pack contains a single sheet of restickable stickers and an instruction & idea booklet. Some of the themes include: morning routine, car trip, dentist trip, get ready for school, self care, etc. The reusable stickers are are wonderful way to get started with creating visually supported materials. You can order a theme pack of stickers and begin to use it immediately with the children you work with. The images on the stickers are very realistic and colorful and will definitely get your child's attention.

For those of you who are interested in finding out more information about how to create visually supported materials please refer to these texts:

Augmentative and Alternative Communication by David R. Beukelman & Pat Mirenda -Second Edition Brookes Publishing 1998 (Excellent resources on use of symbols for alternative communication)

Solving Behavior Problems in Autism by Linda A. Hodgdon Quirk Roberts Publishing 1999 (http://www.usevisualstrategies.com/)

Visual Strategies for Improving Communication by Linda A. Hodgdon Quirk Roberts Publishing 1995 (http://www.usevisualstrategies.com/)

For those of you who are looking for workshops on how to use Boardmaker, Picture It , and Eye CONS to create visually supported materials I will be offering a workshop on October 4, 2001 called Let's Get Visual at the Burlington County Educational Technology Training Center, 900 Briggs Road, Suite 115, Mt. Laurel, NJ, 08054 For more information go to http://www.lr.k12.nj.us/ETTC/ or call 856-222-9311 x3882 (ETTC)

If your agency or school is interested in a customized workshop on how to use these programs please feel free to email me (bhcpub@bellatlantic.net).

Brian S. Friedlander, Ph.D
174 Stephensburg Road
Port Murray, NJ 07865
Email: bhcpub@bellatlantic.net
908-852-3460
Fax 908-979-9196
Assistive Technology Consultation Services and Workshops

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