Implications & Positive Collateral Gains

Implications

Supporting Neurodiverse Learners by Using Visual Supports as a Tier 1 Intervention revealed the benefits of the use of visual supports for neurodiverse (all) learners in grade 1 and 2 (primary) classrooms.  Benefits to students were seen when visual supports were accessible and explicitly taught.  When visuals were introduced with intention and were co-created with students, they were used even more regularly by learners and led to student pride and confidence in visual use. Other benefits for students included increased independence and independent problem-solving as well as increased ability to prompt or communicate with peers with clarity.

For teachers, use of visual supports when time to create the visual supports and when materials to easily and efficiently create the visual supports were present, produced a reduction of pre-lesson preparation work to create visual supports (because they would be created, during the lesson, with learners), a reduced financial cost to purchase commercialized or digital visual supports (because visuals were being co-created with learners) and a reduction in the need for individualized prompting/pre-teaching and re-teaching.  Also, teachers had reduced planning in the way of instruction giving to substitute/guest teachers because the visuals revealed vocabulary and procedures students were learning in the classroom.

For other adults entering or working within a classroom, visual supports give these adults confidence that they are using consistent vocabulary and procedures to the teacher, and confidence that they understand the general classroom expectations and expectations in the immediate moment because visuals are present.  Adults can confidently prompt learners using the vocabulary from the lessons because it is available in visual supports in the classroom.  (This eases the need for a teacher to stop teaching to orient an adult as to what expectations are when an adult arrives to support.)

In summary, there will be success in implementing visual supports as a Tier 1 intervention when the acronym of ICE is applied.  ICE represents the reminders of Intentionality, Co-creation, and Explicit Taught which will lead to the success of using visual supports as a Tier 1 intervention for all learners, and for all adults supporting and teaching in classrooms.

Click this link to review Data and Data Summaries.

If you are a fellow researcher interested in seeing more about the data collection instruments and seeing the data, please reach out to Mary Barrow at powerofvisuals@outlook.com.

Positive Unanticipated or Collateral Gains/Learnings

Some additional findings, over the course of this study, included discovering the value of teachers of similar grade ranges having the chance for collegial collaboration and problem-solving, as well as the value of collegial sharing.  Teachers participating in this study had three opportunities to "see" (through the display of photos of the visual supports in each other’s classrooms) what other teachers were doing and using to support the teaching of curricular outcomes and this sharing was reported by all teachers in the study to be one of the most valuable aspects of participating in the study.  This finding has implications for professional development opportunities offered to teachers and urges the inclusion of opportunities for grade-alike/similar teachers from different schools (perhaps even different divisions) to spend time collaborating.  

As a follow up to this study, investigating formats that can allow such collegial collaboration in cost-effective and efficient ways is an excellent research question.  Similarly, investigating whether the same benefit is seen through virtual collaboration as the in-person discussion is another strong research topic.  (Although the presentation of contents and visuals of each other’s classrooms were presented digitally, with the exception of two teachers having the benefit of spending time in each other’s classrooms regularly because they taught in the same school during this study), teachers talked through the inclusions in their classrooms face to face.  The vulnerability of these teachers to share, to explain their thinking in how their classroom visual supports and physical settings were structured, and to be open to peer commentary in response, during the course of Supporting Neurodiverse Learners by Using Visual Supports as a Tier 1 Intervention occurred face to face, and over the course of several weeks of connecting with each other for the purposes of this study.  I do intend to set up a virtual sharing and collaborative opportunity in follow up to this study.

Similarly, it was exciting to see that use of visual supports could begin to positively impact a shift of power dynamics in a classroom to allow for more student independence, contribution to visual supports used in classrooms, and successful peer prompting (a step toward decolonization).

Video: What Teachers will Continue to Use

The Supporting Neurodiverse Learners by Using Visual Supports as a Tier 1 Intervention Study was funded by McDowell Foundation and was supported by Regina Public Schools.  For additional information, including implications and implications for further research, please see Summary of Study Findings - Supporting Neurodiverse Learners by Using Visual Supports as a Tier 1 Intervention.