Most learners are the visual learners. Though, concrete visual support in the form of objects is all around but it not possible to bring it to the classroom or take students to it. However, hand drawn visuals, visual symbols, pictures and short visual films can make the semi-concrete and semi-abstract reality to be brought to the classroom and on-line learning.
Furthermore, to assist those who struggle with understanding or expressing language, visual supports is required to be used invariably. For children with special needs visual supports and their use can be modify to meet the individual needs of learners.
Visual supports can help children with specific learning disabilities make them included and acquire concepts and skills. For this, the visual supports in the form of teacher-made visual codes can be used to meet the individual needs of learners.
Thus, visual supports create mental images to benefit children with special needs, specifically autism and learning disabilities who have average IQ.
The visual support is extremely useful for the following cognitive tasks:
· Allowing students to focus
· Making abstract concepts more visually concrete
· Allowing students to express their thoughts
· Bringing routine, structure, and sequence
· Serving as a tool to assist with transitions
· Creating a visual support schedule will bring order, quiet, and structure
For children with learning disabilities, a visual schedule display lets them know the sequence and follow multi-step directions better. In fact all students can benefit from the teacher made visual supports in the classroom and more so the children with special needs.
In the case of on-line education, at least one-third of the session time used for illustrating content through visuals both still or animated. However, for e-Learning visuals could consist of images, short videos, drawings, short video clips and infographics such as charts, graphs, posters, sketch notes and other visual aids. There exist examples that with the help of modern technology, various visual support material can be made highly interactive and engaging.
However, all this requires teacher preparation, training and follow-up so that creation and use of visual support in teaching, off-line or on-line, becomes the part of teacher behaviour.
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