Visual supports have been proven to be a highly effective way to communicate with, and teach, a student with an autism spectrum disorder or other learning difficulty. This book is packed with simple, effective tools to assist in the education of students with special education needs. They can be adapted to be used with young children and older learners with a range of educational needs, including nonverbal learners. Based on the author's years of teaching experience, the book covers how the classroom environment is laid out, how to use schedules and time planning aids, different education approaches and the teaching of social rules and appropriate behavior. All the visual supports are clearly explained alongside examples and photos showing them in use in the classroom. The supports are also included on the accompanying online downloadable content as blank templates. This will be a welcome resource of easy-to-use ideas for mainstream and special education teachers. Therapists, parents and anyone working with students with learning difficulties will also find many of the ideas useful.

2014 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice "What’s going on in this picture?" With this one question and a carefully chosen work of art, teachers can start their students down a path toward deeper learning and other skills now encouraged by the Common Core State Standards. The Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) teaching method has been successfully implemented in schools, districts, and cultural institutions nationwide, including bilingual schools in California, West Orange Public Schools in New Jersey, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It provides for open-ended yet highly structured discussions of visual art, and significantly increases students’ critical thinking, language, and literacy skills along the way. Philip Yenawine, former education director of New York’s Museum of Modern Art and cocreator of the VTS curriculum, writes engagingly about his years of experience with elementary school students in the classroom. He reveals how VTS was developed and demonstrates how teachers are using art—as well as poems, primary documents, and other visual artifacts—to increase a variety of skills, including writing, listening, and speaking, across a range of subjects. The book shows how VTS can be easily and effectively integrated into elementary classroom lessons in just ten hours of a school year to create learner-centered environments where students at all levels are involved in rich, absorbing discussions.

Visuals of all kinds (photographs, checklists, line drawings, cartoons, flowcharts, stick figures, etc.) are commonly used as supports for individuals on the autism spectrum who tend to think and learn visually. However, not all visuals are created equal and, therefore, visuals don't all work equally well. This companion to Learning With a Visual Brain in an Auditory World helps the reader understand how to match the developmental levels of pictures and visuals to the developmental level of the person looking at the visual. In this way, appropriate visuals provide the language development for children with autism spectrum disorders. Drawing from their experience with children and youth for decades, the authors also show how effective communication can help reduce the confusion and anxiety that often lead to behavioral outbursts. --Google Books.

Children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often present parents and educators with perplexing symptoms. This book presents strategies that are based on the language of the way individuals with ASD learn.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE NAUTILUS GOLD AWARD “A powerful and provocative testament to the diverse coalition of minds we’ll need to face the mounting challenges of the twenty-first century.” —Steve Silberman “An absolute eye-opener.” —Frans de Waal A landmark book that reveals, celebrates, and advocates for the special minds and contributions of visual thinkers A quarter of a century after her memoir, Thinking in Pictures, forever changed how the world understood autism, Temple Grandin— “an anthropologist on Mars,” as Oliver Sacks dubbed her—transforms our awareness of the different ways our brains are wired. Do you have a keen sense of direction, a love of puzzles, the ability to assemble furniture without crying? You are likely a visual thinker. With her genius for demystifying science, Grandin draws on cutting-edge research to take us inside visual thinking. Visual thinkers constitute a far greater proportion of the population than previously believed, she reveals, and a more varied one, from the photo-realistic “object visualizers” like Grandin herself, with their intuitive knack for design and problem solving, to the abstract, mathematically inclined “visual spatial” thinkers who excel in pattern recognition and systemic thinking. She also makes us understand how a world increasingly geared to the verbal tends to sideline visual thinkers, screening them out at school and passing over them in the workplace. Rather than continuing to waste their singular gifts, driving a collective loss in productivity and innovation, Grandin proposes new approaches to educating, parenting, employing, and collaborating with visual thinkers. In a highly competitive world, this important book helps us see, we need every mind on board.

In this unprecedented book, a gifted animal scientist who is also autistic, delivers a report on autism, written from her unique perspective. What emerges is the document of an extraordinary human being, one who bridges the gulf between her condition and our own, shedding light on the riddle of our common identity.

Provides information on ways to help students communicate in a visual world.

Writing can be a special challenge for artists and designers, who tend to be more visual than verbal. Writing for Visual Thinkers is designed to help people who think in pictures gain skills and confidence in their writing abilities. Andrea Marks approaches the craft of writing from many directions, all with the ultimate goal of unlocking the reader's verbal potential. This new and expanded edition introduces brainstorming techniques that focus on writing and explores the various connections between verbal and visual thinking. Writing for Visual Thinkers includes a companion CD with an ebook containing hundreds of links to articles, books, websites, blogs, wikis, video, and audio podcasts by writers and designers including Ellen Lupton, Steven Heller, and Jessica Helfand.

A comprehensive guide to visual learning strategies with easy-to-use activities. Emojis . . . avatars . . . icons . . . Our world is becoming increasingly reliant on visual communication. Yet our classrooms still heavily focus on traditional oral and written instruction. In this first-of-its-kind resource, Dr. Susan Daniels channels over twenty years of research and experience into a comprehensive guide of visual learning strategies that enable educators to rise to the challenges of 21st century education no matter what age range they serve within the K–8 population. This hands-on resource helps educators create a “visual toolbox” of tools that promote visual literacy across the curriculum, and it offers interactive activities to encourage visual learning and communication in all students via mind maps and visual journals. Drawing on her experience working with gifted, creative, and twice-exceptional children, Dr. Susan Daniels has created visual learning strategies that all children can benefit from. Digital content includes customizable forms and examples of completed forms as well as a PDF presentation for professional development.