Book Description
This bestseller is the most comprehensive book to explain the use of visual strategies to improve communication for students with autism spectrum disorders and other students who experience moderate to severe communication impairments. It is full of easy to use techniques and strategies that will help these students participate more effectively in social interactions and life routines.
What is it?
a ground-breaking resource.
contains dozens of visual supports that are beautifully illustrated and described.
an exceptional collection of practical ideas and techniques
filled with creative strategies for improving the behavior and communication of students with autism, ADHD, cognitive impairments, language and learning disabilities and more...
a "how to" book designed to assist teachers, SLP's and parents in devising solutions to the communication and self-management challenges that are common in these students.
Who is this book for? Teachers, parents, Speech Therapists and other people who work and live with students with autism spectrum disorders or other communication challenges. The strategies in this book have application for students with a variety of disability labels and special needs.
What is the book about? One of the major areas of difficulty for students with autism spectrum disorders is the development of social and communication skills. Communication breakdowns can be a "root" cause of problems in social interaction, educational performance, and behavior. While it is common for educational programming to focus on developing communication skills, that focus in most settings tends to be directed toward developing the student's expressive communication. Comparatively little attention is directed toward increasing the student's ability to understand the communication in his life. This book demonstrates why an inability to effectively take in and understand information can be a significant factor in these student's performance. Visual Strategies for Improving Communication contains numerous easy to use systems and strategies that have proven to help these students significantly improve their ability to understand, express themselves, participate in home and school routines and improve overall behavior.
Tell me more. . . . It is commonly recognized that communication is one of the primary areas of difficulty for persons who experience autism. Understanding the communication of others, trying to figure out what is happening or not happening, handling changes and transitions, and interpreting cues and signals in the environment can all be areas of difficulty for this population. Organizing, sequencing, and remembering what to do or when to do it can all cause problems. Stepping out of familiar environments and routines increases stress. The frustration of not understanding can lead students to ritual and rigidity and a lack of flexibility with change. In the midst of these areas of difficulty, it is recognized that most individuals who experience autism display a relative strength in visual skills. Capitalizing on that strength, the use of visual strategies to support communication has provided the structure necessary to substantially alter many problem situations.
How are the students helped? The first goal when working with these students is to create an environment that will support communication and make communication breakdowns less likely to occur. This is accomplished in part by developing a system of visual tools and aids to increase communication effectiveness. Schedules, aids to give directions, and aids to give information, and aids to establish and communicate rules are tools designed to increase the student's understanding of what is happening around him. A second goal, improving student independence and participation, is met with the presence of visual tools.
What is in the book? This book offers a comprehensive collection of visual tools that have proven successful with students of varying ages and ability levels. It contains:
lots of samples and examples of visual tools and how to use them
tons of ideas for improving communication in school and home environments
assessment for community participation
guide for planning communication tools
plenty of ideas for integrating visual strategies into the student's lives
and lots more. . . . . .
Customer Reviews:
Just what I ordered!.......2005-09-24
The book was exactly what I ordered and it was sent promptly! Great Price! Thanks!
Got a visual learner with special needs? This is for you!.......2003-10-03
My autistic son is a visual learner. He watches TV, computer and other children and will learn from them. In addition - abstract concepts and teaching basic academics can be done with a lot of visual support vs. auditory presentations alone.
This is a strong book to identify the issues for special needs kids and using visual strategies to solving them. I highly recommend this book.
Overflowing with useful and practical ideas!.......2001-10-03
I have read a lot of books on autism and I would highly recommend this one! The author details, in a very clear way, why
"visual supports" work well for everyone, but especially for those who have communication related disorders. Then she goes beyond the explanations to give you real examples you can use and directions on how to implement them. She has a very practical approach and acknowledges the differences and similarites needed between school and home programs.
I think this book would be invaluable to a teacher of special needs children and also the "regular ed" teacher who has a wide range of children and their individual needs to consider. Parents and caregivers will also benefit greatly from this book as it has many examples that go beyond the school experience.
One of my favorite quotes from the book is "Imagine being on one of those whirlwind package tours of Europe; sixteen cities in 7 days. You discover the tour agent forgot to give you an itinerary. Every day you don't know where you are goin, what you are going to see or when you are going to eat. Frustrating? That is how many of our students feel about life on a daily basis. It is one of the reasons we see students cling to ritual and routine."
This book is literally packed with ideas and is well worth the cover price. ....
Must resource for working & living with children with autism.......1999-07-08
When I first started working with students with autistic characteristics this became an incredible tool. I continue to use this tool with these students and other students for whom a more visual learning approach helps build success!
Wonderful ideas that assist children with autism.......1998-08-01
My youngest daughter has autism. Last summer my wife and I brought her to a summer camp. We could not tell our daughter that she was going to spend 5 nights and 6 days at camp because we have no communication system with her. We brought her to camp, left her there with the counselor and she cried. Every morning she packed her bag, lugged it to her counselor and said, Bye Camp". How would you behave if you were in my daughter's situation?
Linda Hodgdon's book, "Visual Strategies for Improving Communication", shows parents, educators and other professionals how to use picture schedules, calandars, visual bridges and other visual tools that help my daughter become more aware of what is happening in the world around her.
"Visual Stategies for Improving Communication" is a wonderful book written in an easy to read format showing many examples on how to implement visual tools for children with autism and many other communication and behavior diso! rders
Customer Reviews:
Be Warned--A Terrible Composition Textbook.......2007-09-26
No one has commented on this book but I feel obligated to warn college instructors and professors who might consider the use of this textbook. Quite simply, don't. This is the fourth introduction to composition text I've used and by far the worst. Although sleek looking and extremely usable, the readings are terrible; shallow, short, and redundant. The book aims to incorporate multiple literacies into the composition classroom, an idea I like and still think potentially fruitful. But "Seeing and Writing" never goes beyond putting a photo next to and essay and saying "compare." If the essays had any rhetorical or intellectual richness this might not be such a bad idea. But my students rarely find much to say about these essays, usually astute enough to note the obviousness of most of the writing.
Some of my colleagues have claimed the book panders to contemporary students, which I find unfair. However, it most certainly underestimates them.
Book Description
More often workplace writing and document design takes a backseat in a company's mission/product. This book offers strategies and tools for document design of ALL types. Readers will extend to visual design the approach they assimilate in their writing and editing. It focuses on the kinds of situations and practical documents that employees encounter daily, with a special focus on audience, purpose, and context of the message. Topics include: perception and design; visual analysis; extra-textual design; pictures, and more. Writers and editors who design documents.
Part of the Allyn & Bacon Series in Technical Writing, edited by Sam Dragga, Texas Tech University.
Customer Reviews:
Dreadful.......2007-05-21
This book was required for a graduate course in visual communications. The book is written in a style of chest-puffing academic balderdash that renders it useless and unreadable. Crummy paper and truly ugly illustrations add to the miasma. I usually keep classroom texts but I'm selling back this one. I won't get much money though because it's so poorly bound that it looks much more used than it really was. Poor unlucky student who buys it.
Poor quality.......2005-09-12
The content of this book is not bad, but the actual quality of product is horrendous.
I have had this text for about a week and the pages have already become unbound. Some of the pages look like they were printed on a photocopier running out of ink. The text is fine, but the graphs look terrible. One would think that a book about design would have put more thought into their own design and production run.
My gripe is simply that this book is too much money for the truly piss-poor physical quality. $76 for a book whose binding became unglued in the first week? $76 for a text whose pages look like they were printed on with an empty toner cartridge? This is a sick joke! Designing Visual Language is a piece of junk and Allyn & Bacon should be ashamed of themselves for having no quality control.
Addendum...
I'm wondering why people have not found this review helpful. Is it because they want to buy a book that is poorly made? If so, I invite you to buy the book. Unless Allyn & Bacon make some serious changes, you'll soon think, "Maybe his review WAS helpful after all!" but by that time you'll be out $76.
Designing Visual Language.......2001-07-14
It reads kind of like a text book, but the information is very good. I am trying to learn about graphic design in my free time and this book has helped me to better understand the basics of visual communication. I have also reciently read "The non-designers design book", which I also recommend. This book starts at the beginning and helps you to understand what you must do, and take into account in order to make something visually pleasing. It has helped me in my design efforts. The book was lent to me and now I plan on buying it, it was so good. I might even look into the rest of the books in the series. (The Allyn & Bacon series in Technical Communication) All in all a good book. I give it 4 stars
Book Description
This timely resource explains the concept of multiliteracies and provides you with the knowledge, resources, attitudes, and strategies your elementary and middle school students need to succeed in a changing world.
Authors Michèle Anstey and Geoff Bull present a range of new and established ideas about literacy, emphasizing successful practices. Chapters cover how teachers can
Rely less on print texts
Respond to new trends in children's literature
Balance guided reading, outcomes-based curricula, and schoolwide approaches to planning
New concepts are accompanied by reflection strategies to help you think about your understandings of literacy, multiliteracies, and texts. Plus, all chapters include "Theory Into Practice: Classroom Application" sections that demonstrate how you can incorporate multiliteracies every day in your teaching.
Copublished with the Australian Literacy Educators' Association
Customer Reviews:
The Realities of Students & Literacy.......2006-11-03
This book is an excellent introduction to the idea of multiliteracies. The previous reviewer implies that the concept is without weight, yet a careful read of this book shows that in reality our children are inundated with multimodal texts throughout their lives. Therefore it is the responsibility of a good educator to teach them how to negotiate and make sense of those texts. This is not to say that print texts are obsolete. Print texts are just part of a larger set of texts we face in today's world. The authors carefully lead the reader through ways of thinking about text, what the implications are for learning, and what the responsible educator can do to better prepare his or her student for the multimodal world.
Introduction to the Idea that Teaching Literacy Isn't Just About Reading a Book.......2006-10-18
This is an introductory text into multiliteracies. The idea is that literacy is not just about reading a book, but magazines, graphic novels, reading on the internet and computer, and film (video). It is a new idea creeping up in the world of education. I just hope it doesn't become the latest fad everyone has to adhere to.
Book Description
The signs are everywhere--for those who can read them. Because of television, advertising, and the Internet, the primary literacy of the 21st century will be visual. It's no longer enough to read and write text. Our students must learn to process both words and pictures. They must be able to move gracefully and fluently between text and images, between literal and figurative worlds.
This practical book examines the effect on education of a primarily visual world. Author Lynell Burmark provides guidance on many topics, including:
A definition and history of visual literacy
The uses of different typefaces and fonts
The effect of color
Using visuals to welcome students
A new approach to presentations
Combining real and virtual worlds
Teaching visual literacy can enhance student learning in K-12 classrooms and also improve students' options in the workplace. From print materials to computer-based presentations and the myriad graphical sites on the World Wide Web, an image-rich curriculum can reach more students and teach them more quickly and meaningfully than traditional written student reports and text-based, verbal instruction ever could.
Visual Literacy offers a wealth of practical tips and strategies for powerful, effective presentations--by both teachers and students. This book invites educators and students to examine new vistas with a critical eye, as they learn to see and see to learn.
Customer Reviews:
Great for teachers.......2007-09-28
Visual Literacy is a great book for novice to expert teachers. It provides information about appropriate fonts to use in teacher-created materials, using color in the classroom based on research, how to create a visually pleasing classroom from the door to the walls, etc. I recommend this book to you if you want to learn how to use visuals effectively with your students. It will change how you teach and how much they learn!
A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF HOW TO SEE.......2002-06-07
This book establishes a bold new frontier in our understanding of what it means to see. Dr. Burmark, long renowned as a leader in powerful presentations, here puts in writing -- and, of couse, a wealth of intriguing images -- how and why we interpret what we see. With a graceful, engaging style, she covers the history of visuals and how we came to this age of images. She explores the power of color in a beautifully presented color section of the book. Her section on effective use of imagery in computer presentations once again raises the bar on the whole field -- hopefully, we'll see fewer and fewer text-based presentations that use the screen only as a giant teleprompter. The book is filled with humor and wit; this is a fun, entertaining read! It's also one of the most useful and informative books I've come across in a very long time, with plentiful references to resources and materials. ...
Book Description
This book is an introduction to reading visual culture. It explains which methods are available to the undergraduate student and shows exactly how to use them. The book begins with a discussion of general themes and recent debates, on the meaning of culture and the function of the visual, that offers a critical inquiry into the relation of visual images to social identities and social relations. Gillian Rose then goes on to investigate in detail the different methods for interpreting visual images. The strengths and weaknesses of each method are discussed in relation to a detailed case study, as well as to the more general issues outlined in the introduction. These methods include: - Compositional interpretation - Content analysis - Semiology - Psychoanalysis - Discourse analysis - Audience analysis An integrated primer on studying visual culture, illustrated throughout, and with key terms cross-referenced and defined, Visual Methodologies will be the first reference for any undergraduate in the social sciences beginning research.
Book Description
From charts, texts, and graphs to illustrations, icons, and screens, we live in an information age saturated with visual language. Yet the underlying principles that provide structure for visual language have long eluded scholars of rhetoric, design, and engineering. To function as a language that reliably conveys meaning, visual language must embody codes that normalize its practices among both the designers who employ it and the readers who interpret it.
In this wide-ranging analysis, Charles Kostelnick and Michael Hassett demonstrate how visual language in professional communication—text design, data displays, illustrations—is shaped by conventional practices that are invented, codified, and modified by users in visual discourse communities. Drawing on rhetorical theory, design studies, and a broad array of historical and contemporary examples, Shaping Information: The Rhetoric of Visual Conventions explores the processes by which conventions evolve and proliferate and shows how conventions serve as the medium that designers use to shape, stabilize, and streamline visual information.
Kostelnick and Hassett extend contemporary theories that define rhetoric as a social act, arguing that visual conventions also thrive within discourse communities and are fragile forms that vary widely in their longevity and scope. Shaping Information: The Rhetoric of Visual Conventions is a thorough guide for scholars, teachers and practitioners of rhetoric and business and technical communication and for professionals in engineering, science, design, and business.
Book Description
This is the only text to offer substantial coverage of issues specific to all forms of visual communication. It helps students analyze visual messages using a technique similar to the one used to evaluate words. It offers physiological and theoretical background on visual perception, then moves to discussion of various media (including typography, graphic design, informational graphics, photography, television, video, and interactive media) and the very visible role they play in our lives.
Customer Reviews:
Review of Visual Communication.......2006-11-07
This is a great book. I am thoroughly enjoying reading it. Its easy reading helps when studying for a test.
Images with messages.......2003-08-17
Lester's text offers the most comprehensive overview of visual communication I have come across. His preferred framework is clearly semiotic, but he offers a fair treatment of other theories as well. Section one covers the biological functions of seeing, including the role of the brain, the retina and the eye. He favors the active version of visual processing over the passive version.
Section two covers what we see which can be summarized with four basic visual perception cues; color, form, depth and movement. Lester discusses how the brain divides and sorts visual messages and explains that how we see helps to explain why we see. Also in section two he introduces the theories of visual communication which he divides into two subdivisions, sensual and perceptual. Sensual theories are based on the physical senses and boil down to the idea that direct or mediated images are composed of light and little else. A visual sensation is a stimulus from the outside that activates nerve cells within your sense organs. These produce raw data and include such theories as gestalt, constructivism and ecological. Gestalt theories conclude that perception is a result of a combination of sensations, and not individual sensual elements (p 52). According to Gestalt laws, there are five factors that identify whether objects in a visual field can be recognized as being in the foreground (positive space) or background (negative space); symmetry, convexity, meaning, area, orientation and attention to visual forms that make up pictures (p 56). Perceptual theories are concerned with the meaning that humans associate with the images they see. In other words these theories have to do with what is done in the brain after combining all the information from your sensual organs. Lester categorizes semiotic and cognitive theories as the perceptual theories (p 67-68). Semiology is a complex system of analysis and the author's overview is quite helpful. Cognitive theories postulate that visual perception is a function of meanings that we associate with objects through learned behavior or intelligent assumptions. Key theorists are Irving Biederman who determined that only 36 geons (geometric ions) are needed to make all objects, Richard Gregory, and Carolyn bloomer who suggests that perception is not stable, rather activities such as habituation, dissonance, projection, expectation, memory selectivity, culture and words can affect visual perception.
In section three, Lester covers visual ethics; visual persuasion in advertising, PR and journalism, and pictorial stereotyping. Section four offers six perspectives for analyzing any image; personal, historical, technical, ethical, cultural and critical, using all of these perspectives he goes on to analyze examples of typography (chapter 8), graphic design (chapter 9), informational graphics (chapter 10), cartoons (chapter 11), photography (chapter 12), motion pictures (chapter 13), television/video (chapter 14), computers (chapter 15), and interactive media (chapter 16). Lester's perspective choices for visual analysis are somewhat unique to him, although there are similarities within or across categories to other perspectives for example his technical analysis is similar to a compositional analysis one might see described in an art history text. This book is an excellent jumping off point for further research into the emerging visual communication field.
It makes you appreciate things you didn't notice before.......2000-05-08
This book was a eye opening experience that allows you to appreciate something most of us take for granted -- SIGHT. It encourages you to look beyond the physicality of sight and to become acutely aware of the images you see from day-to-day.
Dr. Lester has performed a service for myself and anyone else who reads this book. It drives you to absorb more of the world that we "see" everyday.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in graphical design, imagery, or to those who want a deeped appreciation for the power that images play in our lives!
Book Description
Pictures for Language Learning is richly illustrated and provides a valuable guide to the role of pictures and other visual materials in language teaching. It brings together a wealth of ideas on how to use pictures in a wide range of language learning situations. The first section discusses the contribution visuals can make to all the classroom settings in providing real opportunities for students to communicate, whether they are working as a class, in groups or in pairs. Sections B and C contain over 200 practical suggestions for picture-generated language work. These make use of visual materials which are readily available to teachers anywhere or illustrations which have been kept simple so that they can be copied easily. The activities can be integrated into all stages of the language teaching process and advice is given on how to adapt the ideas to suit different teaching environments. The final section describes the process of setting up a picture library and offers guidance on where to begin looking for visuals, how to categorise pictures and different methods of storage.
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Books Index
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General
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Solving Behavior Problems in Autism (Visual Strategies Series)
Do-Watch-Listen-Say: Social and Communication Intervention for Children with Autism
Activity Schedules for Children With Autism: Teaching Independent Behavior (Topics in Autism) (Topics in Autism)
A Picture's Worth: PECS and Other Visual Communication Strategies in Autism (Topics in Autism)
A Treasure Chest of Behavioral Strategies for Individuals with Autism
