I was attending an IEP meeting for a student who will be moving to intermediate school next year. He currently has a visual schedule on his desk. The team decided that next year, all visuals would be removed from his school day. The rationale was that this would help him to be more independent and blend in better with peers. But I can assure you, there's nothing like a good melt-down to make other students aware that a child has a "problem." And for me, as an autism consultant, implementing visual supports for kids who don't transition well is an Autism 101 strategy.
I sat silently listening to the team discuss this action, and then could not help but join in the discussion, as I truly was perplexed! I carefully explained my confusion to the team: Here was a student who was thriving with his visuals, had a history of extensive melt-down behavior without them, and yet the team was considering removing them in the name of "independence?"
Many children with autism lack sufficient working memory. Some of these children also have receptive language difficulties. As an example, a teacher may think that if she meets with her student with autism in the morning to review the order of events for the school day, a schedule will not be necessary. However, when a student lacks working memory, he may not be able to hold all of that information in his brain so that he can keep it readily available for reference. Thus, when there is a transition, or something happens that is different from the normal routine of the day, the student may become escalated. So too, because for his language deficit, he may not process all that the teacher had carefully explained. When one does not process directions, he most likely will have difficulty with appropriate follow-through. The visual schedules serve to bridge the gap between working memory deficits, language processing impairment, and functioning normally without transition problems.
Visual schedules can be in word format or picture format. We need to make sure we are using a picture schedule for kids who can't read and a word schedule for kids that can. This may seem like a silly thing to write, but I have seen word schedules in pre-school and kindergarten classrooms where kids are not yet able to read! These schedules are not for the student, they are for the staff! Pairing the words with pictures is even better -- it adds more clarity for the student, and it helps him to learn functional use of language Taking photos to use as pictures is also more meaningful than using icons. Students will recognize and remember pictures better than symbols.
We're sometimes used to seeing visual schedules on student desks, but they can also be designed to be more discrete. Schedules can be created for the inside of a binder, the insider of a locker door, in a pocket or purse, or inside a student's desk. Whatever the team decides, it should be appropriate for the needs of the student.
Ideally, we want our students to make progress towards independence. But we have to remember that autism is not something we can "fix". If the supports are working, that means they are helping to accommodate the disability. Often, the visual supports are enabling the student to be more independent because they help his behavior to be more appropriate.
So my advice to you is this: if a student is more independent with visual supports and less independent without them., then by all means keep those visuals in place!
