ABOUT THE BOOK
While the employment of visual supports is an accepted and relatively non-controversial topic in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) treatment, the authors contend that students with ASD are often introduced to visual support systems that create an artificial limit to what those students are able to express. They offer a new approach, developed during the last decade and more extensively during the last three years, that is systematic and comprehensive.
Visual Language in Autism provides a wide-ranging system of visual representation linking cognition and language, tied to the daily activities of children as they progress through their lives in school, home, and in the community. In providing such an inclusive use of symbolism, the book helps to aid individuals with ASD integrate basic activities of being, doing, knowing, and expressing. Such integration is a prerequisite for orientation to space, time, and particularly, relationships. The book provides a range of assessments of experiential world knowledge, and levels of visual representation that are mapped to language and cognition.
The book helps clinicians and educators provide a systematic progression of visual symbolism, leading the student from basic perception to metalinguistic understanding and use. A strong visual language also provides an organizational matrix that can be mapped to conceptual understanding, which is likely to enhance a student’s overall communication ability and, in turn, enable the person with ASD to relate to the world of objects and events, and to find his or her way to relationships with family, friends, and community.
CONTENTS
- Introduction.
- Introduction to Autism Spectrum and Related Disorders.
- Understanding Language Comprehension Deficits and Visual Processing.
- Executive Skill Development in Autism Spectrum Disorder.
- Experiential Knowledge Development as it relates to Autism Spectrum Disorder.
- A Model for Visual Supports Assessment.
- Assessment Using Standard Communication Measures.
- Assessment Using Non-Standard Measures Of Ability And Performance.
- Interpretation of Non-standardized Measures of Ability and Performance.
- Intervention.Skills and Experiential Knowledge Assessment.
- Increasing Spoken Language Comprehension Through Visual Supports.
- Applying The Visual Instruction Mode In Program Planning.
- Applying The Visual Organization Mode In Program Planning.
- Applying The Visual Expressive Mode In Program Planning.
- The Alternative And Augmentative Communication Decision Checklist: Communication
- Options When Speech Is Not Functional.
- Using Electronic Screen Media In Program Planning.
- Final Thoughts.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Howard C. Shane, Ph.D., is Director of the Center for Communication Enhancement at Children's Hospital Boston and an Associate Professor of Otology and Laryngology at the Harvard Medical School and Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the MGH Institute of Health Professions.
Sharon Weiss-Kapp, M.Ed CCC-SLP, is Clinical Assistant Professor, in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department, at MGH Institute of Health Professions, an academic affiliate of Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts.
AUDIENCE
Primary:
Speech and Language Pathologists
