Study's Outcomes

Collateral Gains/Findings of Supporting Neurodiverse Learners by Using Visual Supports as a Tier 1 Intervention

Strong Collegial Collaboration (networking, collaborative problem-solving, and sharing of ideas and resources) and Collegial Support/Mentorship occurred as a part of this project.  

Factors that may have contributed to the group learning from each other and growing together may have included:

• Teacher participation was voluntary (by expression of interest).

• Teachers were motivated to learn more about the topic (expression of interest was used to invite participation).

• A combination of formal and informal structures were used - there was some background presented on McDowell Foundation, on evidence around visual supports, around how to use Lesson Pix but, because participants were also creating visual supports for their classrooms, there was time to collaborate during laminating, velcroing, and cutting and teachers talked about challenges they were facing and offered solutions to each other.

• Teachers got to meet the researcher and work with me at central office (researcher’s space) and in their classrooms (teacher’s space) - there was reciprocity.

• Participating teachers were aware from the beginning that the project would span over months and that they would interact with me and fellow participants over a course of months, which is different than a session where you might sit next to someone from a few hours then not have opportunity to interact with the person again.

• Teachers entered the project knowing that their classroom would have commonalities to other classrooms selected for the project - similar grade levels, including neurodivergent students, had administrators supportive of the project, working with support staff in their classrooms . . . so teachers had a starting point to connect with each other based on common circumstances.

• Multi-part design - because teachers would have the chance to come together 2-3 times during the study as they worked, teachers gave feedback to each other about how they tried an idea shared in the group and what went well/what they had to adapt, etc.  Bringing these teachers together more than once strengthened their bond and their willingness to be vulnerable, to share and to pose questions of each other.

• Teachers “saw” each other’s rooms each time I worked with them - although the design of this project did not allow for teachers to visit each other’s rooms in person (although two classrooms from the same school did participate and this led to opportunities to collaborate), I was documenting the visual supports that each classroom was using in written and photo form.  So, each time I worked with the other teachers, I was able to show photos from the other classrooms.  And, twice, teachers were able to talk about the visual supports they had implemented, why, what was working and what they planned to change.  So, teachers gained ideas from each other.

• As teachers got to know each other they were willing to be vulnerable and honest about their experiences and they supported each other.

Staff Members (Educational Assistants, Consultants/Coordinators, Other Teachers and Administrators) took an interest in the project and wanted to learn and benefit from their teacher’s learning.

Factors that may have contributed to the interest by other staff members:

• Administrators had to give approval for teachers to express interest in participation by the classroom teachers.

• Administrators were aware of the complexity of the classrooms of teachers who expressed interest given study and had an interest in how this intervention might support in these rooms.

• I had a connection to Educational Assistants (EA’s)  through other PD offerings in our division so when I visited their classrooms they were interested in talking with and learning from me in their schools.

• EA’s have the same goals and are looking for students to advance in many of the same areas - independence, transitioning supports, reduced need for individualized instructions, task intuition, and students feeling a part of the classroom community.

• EA’s were seeing changes/additions to the visual supports used in rooms or how they were being modeled and introduced; they had talked to teachers about this but were eager to learn more 

One school gave time to their teacher participant, mid-study, during a professional development day to briefly present on findings so far.  This participant shared some of the items from: Supporting Neurodiverse Students by Incorporating Visual Strategies and Supports as a Tier 1 Intervention in Grade One and Two classrooms - Mid Implementation (updated on Jan 23)

This teacher then had the chance to work with a colleague teaching in upper elementary around adding visual supports to a particular lesson.  Very positive feedback was given around the quality of discussion which was higher than general based on the support used.  As such, participant teachers were able to share their knowledge and learnings with peers, support staff and administrators in schools, increasing the impact of the project.

Regina Public Schools Intensive Support teachers were surveyed in spring of 2023 about desired PD.  Their requests, alongside the value of seeing spaces of colleagues teaching in a similar grade level/environment, as determined by Supporting Neurodiverse Learners by Using Visual Supports as a Tier 1 Intervention has led our team to add visits to classrooms of their colleagues as part of our professional development for Intensive Support Program Teachers this school year.

Unanticipated Positive Outcomes:

• Co-creation of visual supports in the classroom led to feelings of pride.

• Students felt a sense of success when reflecting on visual supports they had used frequently but now need to use less frequently. 

• Students are very aware of and access and use environmental print in the classroom even if they were not explicitly taught, in the current school year, to do so - e.g. names from nametags, month labels on storage boxes, etc.  However, students did not mention or attend to, during interviews, items on teacher’s desks, etc.

• Use of visual supports as a Tier 1 strategy helped learners to communicate with each other (prompting peers when peer asked about next steps in an assignment/project for example) and to communicate with peers (when visual supports were used for communication/comprehension support with a learner).

• Students used visual supports to prompt or explain steps/expectations to each other. 

• In one classroom, a move to co-created visual supports reduced commercialized products posted in the room (reduced cost of these items for the teacher).

• When co-created visuals were used, there was a shifting 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)

Unanticipated Outcomes:

• When a student visual view of a visual support is blocked, they are unlikely to reference or speak about a visual support that is in the room (out of sight, out of mind).

• Students habituate to visuals that are on the walls/in the environment for a long time and so it is important to move, highlight, add or change an element within, reteach or remind about particular supports as the year goes on.

• Early in the study, teachers stated that having a visual supports bank of materials would be useful to them.  During the study, banks of visual supports divided by topic, and access to Lesson Pix to create visual supports, were provided.  In two cases visual supports were given to a teacher to use in their rooms but researcher did not observe their use in follow up classroom visits.  Teachers noted that having visual supports that matched their style/the aesthetic of the room was important to them (even though this research study revealed that quickly produced visuals, in the moment - a sticky note reminder, a diagram on the board, etc. were as effective as referenced as often as beautified visual supports).  Teachers frequently sought out online printable resources even if others were provided/rather than making their own.  This led to the editable visuals in the Visuals Bank on this site.

• Opportunity for resource sharing and collaboration for researcher and other Student Achievement Coordinator Colleagues - for teachers in Regina Public Schools, one of the teachers in the research study mentioned using and referring colleagues to the document “Reflecting on Classroom Environment and Culture - A Tool for Teachers Prepared by Erin Kolish” - I reviewed the tool to ensure it was in alignment with findings of this research study, and worked with Erin to revise a couple of points within the checklist to be in alignment - this resource is a part of Regina Public Schools Primary Literacy Assessment Toolkit (if within Regina Public Schools teachers have access on ProSchool).  This research has, and will, continue to inform practice within not only my work in Intensive Supports Department but also throughout Student Achievement Department/in schools.

Other Outcomes of Note:

• Collaboration among similar grade level teachers was highly supportive and developed participants professionally.

• Too many visual supports can lead students to notice the supports less or to tune them out.  

• Encouraging student use of visual supports - There were circumstances where a whole class visual support was created but a particular learner who may benefit greatly from interaction with this support might not automatically engage with it.
  
  

Sometimes:

• Individualized teaching (pre-teaching or re-teaching) may need to occur for one or more learners (even though the item was presented to the group).

• Some learners will need repeated exposures to a visual support before they begin to use it.

• Some learners will need prompting (then prompt fading) when they are in a situation where they could refer to the visual support and they do not yet do so independently.

• Some learners need to be explicitly told that the visual that is presented for the class is for them too (some learners might not know that when a teacher addresses the class, or says things like “class” or “everyone” that they are included in that group).

• Sometimes certain learners need a certain way to interact with the visual support (e.g. one learner who needs to reference the schedule often may be put in charge of moving the arrow to point to where the class is on the visual schedule, to flip the card over, etc.)

• Some learners benefit from a specific why/how a tool can help them.

• Some students need to debrief how a tool did help them (be guided through considering this) in order to want to use the tool again. 

• Some learners will still need a more individualized tool even though a whole class tool is present.

Questions to be Considered to Move This Particular Research Forward and to Share the Findings: (Researchers interested in collaborating with Mary Barrow around research into some of these areas should email powerofvisuals@outlook.com.)

• How can access to standard materials (see School-Wide Implementation and Administrator Checklist) be made available in schools (In Regina Public, in SK, in other places where visual supports will be implemented as a Tier 1 Strategy)?

• How can teachers be given time to visit other classrooms and collaborate with other teachers of the same grade range, given that this opportunity proved strong in it’s professional development of teachers in this study? 

• Will the package of materials created at the end of Supporting Neurodiverse Learners by Using Visual Supports as a Tier 1 Intervention be as supportive without professional development component that was available during this research study?

• Will the package of materials created at the end of Supporting Neurodiverse Learners by Using Visual Supports as a Tier 1 Intervention be as supportive without collegial collaboration with similar grade level teachers that was available during this research study?

A potential follow-up research questions/topics list has been provided to the McDowell Committee.  If you are a researcher interested in collaborating on topics related to this project, please email Mary Barrow, the researcher at powerofvisuals@outlook.com for broader research projects that could arise as a result of this study.

Click this link to review Data and Data Summaries.

Video: Key Takeaways 

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 outcomes, please see Summary of Study Findings - Supporting Neurodiverse Learners by Using Visual Supports as a Tier 1 Intervention.