The Benefits to Classroom Teachers:

When the purposes and use of visual supports are explicitly taught, with intention, referenced regularly by staff in the classroom, co-created with learners, moved around the room (or put away and brought back out as needed), and when material resources were available to support efficient creation of visual supports, Supporting Neurodiverse Learners by Using Visual Supports as a Tier 1 Intervention found evidence of:

• Ability to spend time with individual learners or teaching in a small group setting due to increased independence on the part of many learners

• Referring learners back to visual supports, supports the teaching of problem-solving on the part of the learners (general prompts like “is there a visual support that can help you to solve this problem/answer this question” could successfully be used by teachers) which will lead to increased problem solving on the part of learners (and reduced need for individualized instructions or problem solving interactions with learners) 

• A reduction in individualized questions from learners during work time was noted by staff members in classrooms because of increased peer support (peer prompting) through referencing a peer back to a procedural visual support or by reminding peers of where they could look to find information they were seeking.

• Use of visual supports class wide means that for students requiring adaptations to increase comprehension, or who require individualized interventions for executive functioning challenges including task initiation, following multi-step verbal instructions,  and transitions, by using and teaching universally available visual supports class wide (as a Tier 1 intervention) is reduced.  (Teacher planning and preparation for these individualized supports is reduced because use of visual supports is part of universally designed planning).

• Increased initiation - some students find the executive functioning skill of initiation challenging - they have trouble knowing where to start.  When teachers used a list (visually supported at the primary grade levels, often) or visual task strip for a common task, students understood where to start.  Increased student initiation on tasks means that teachers have increased time to work with individuals or small groups because less time is needed to support the initiation of some learners.

• When visuals are co-created and students feel ownership, increased pride, and increased sense of community occur within the classroom.

• Co-creation of visual supports in the classroom, reduces teacher spending on online and commercialized pre-prepared materials/posters.

Video: Benefits for Teachers and the Importance of
Collegial Collaboration