"If you have space in your library for only one book on visual supports, make it Visual Supports for People with Autism. Marlene J. Cohen, EdD, BCBA, and Donna L. Sloan, MA, BCBA, have written a reader-friendly text that reviews numerous visual strategies.
In addition to discussing the strategies, Dr. Cohen and Sloan have included a photo or drawing with each strategy, helping to put visual supports to work for the reader. The authors draw on their considerable experience working with adolescents and adults on the autism spectrum at the Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center in New Brunswick, NJ.
They begin explaining the value of visual supports and the ones that are commonly used. Compelling motivations for using visual strategies are outlined in the beginning chapters. The next six chapters cite the supports that are most effective for specific goals and help the reader choose the best strategies to use with specific clients.
The second chapter looks at supports for language development. It presents many of the better known devices, such as picture cues and graphic organizers, as well as some lesser known strategies like caterpillar organizers and Thinking Stories.
Chapter 4 outlines visual supports to increase memory and reviews the various steps used to get information into long-term memory. The next chapter discusses supports for temporal sequential skills, such as time organization, math and multi-step tasks.
Chapter 6 tackles attending skills. Attending is a problem for most people on the autism spectrum, and the authors’ suggestions are functional and effective.
The final chapter discusses how and when to fade the various visual supports. This is a significant step, which is missing in many books on visual supports.
All of the visual supports noted in the book are low-tech and most can be made with materials found in the home or classroom. Clear, concise writing and abundant illustrations make this an ideal book for families, teachers, therapists, and anyone else working with people with autism or other developmental delays and those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder."
-ADVANCE for Speech-Language Pathologists & Audiologists, January 21, 2008
"If you were browsing at a local bookstore, you would probably skip over this book. Generally, therapists look first at publications that pertain to physical rehabilitation. Visual Supports for People with Autism: A Guide for Parents and Professionals appears to be more for an educator/classroom instructor.
As occupational therapists in the school system or similar settings, we don’t usually think about making visual supports to assist in our therapy sessions; we usually associate the classroom teacher or speech language pathologist with this type of media aid.
But, have you ever had a student diagnosed with autism for whom you felt you could do more? This book will help you develop tailored visual media for teaching a student specific skills in therapy, the classroom or any other setting.
Throughout the book, the authors have provided pictures, illustrations, how-to’s and finished examples so there is no confusion. They have designed and used these examples themselves; you can modify them to meet the specific needs of your students.
The chapter titles explain the topic content. Some of the topics covered are features of a good visual support, commonly used visual supports, temporal sequential skills, using visual supports to increase attending and strategies for fading visual supports; those are just the tip of the iceberg of information that is in this publication. This book can be read in its entirety or used as a reference when looking for specific information on a particular topic.
This book could prove to be very helpful to any parent, educator or occupational therapist who works with children with autism."
-ADVANCE for Occupational Therapy Practitioners, September 29, 2008
"Visual supports is a formal term for referring to those tricks and methods that help us in our daily routines, e.g., to-do lists, maps, calendars, and highlighting text. For those with autism spectrum disorders, visual supports can aid in compensating for weaknesses with processing auditory input, particularly speech. Cohen and Sloan, both certified behavior analysts with the Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center at Rutgers University, write clearly and base their work on such strong sources as David Sousa's How the Brain Learns and the works of Mel Levine. The more than 140 illustrations and photographs provide inspiration for how to 'draw on your child's strengths to support areas of weakness,' which should be a goal for all educators and parents.
Adding to the book's many practical suggestions are an informative chapter on how to fade visual supports when appropriate and an extensive list of references and recommended reading. Although this guide is written for parents and teachers and none of the supports is difficult or expensive to create, it will probably be used mainly as a reference by teachers. Recommended for academic libraries and public libraries with autism collections."
-Library Journal, April 15, 2007
"This book highlights the importance of using visual supports when teaching people with autism, recognizing that for many, auditory information is very challenging to process and a multi-sensory approach is most effective. The introductory chapters explain commonly used visual support systems, including activity schedules, checklists, social stories, sign language, pictures and photos and the PECS program (picture exchange communication system). Factors such as durability, portability, developmental levels and the amount of effort required to effectively use a system are discussed as issues for determining a visual strategy.
Subsequent chapters provide extensive information about how visual supports can help with the development of language, attention, sequencing, memory, motivation and social skills. This section is full of practical ideas, with visuals on how to design teaching materials. The final chapter includes strategies for fading visual supports. The book concludes with a case study that highlights the immense gains possible when visual supports are added to a teaching program.
This book is easy to read and full of many concrete, hands-on visual strategies to implement. It can be read cover to cover or simply referred to by specific chapter. I recommend this book to both parents and professionals as an excellent overview of visual supports and their benefit to persons with autism."
-Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, December 2008
