METHOD

WHAT DOES "EVIDENCE-BASED" MEAN?

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The Functional Language at Home and School series is designed on evidence-based practices. But, what exactly does that mean? Here are the industry standards, also demonstrated "in action" in the above video.

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The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) defines evidence-based practice as the integration of high-quality research evidence with practitioner expertise and client preferences and values into the process of making clinical decisions.
 

• Visual supports can be implemented with individuals across the age range, beginning in preschool and extending through middle school age. Effective visual supports in early childhood settings include visual schedules to increase task engagement, visual scripts to encourage social interaction, and picture cues to support play skill development (Krantz & McClannahan, 1998; Massey & Wheeler, 2000; Morrison, Sainato, Ben Chaaban, & Endo, 2002).

 

• Visual supports are any tool presented visually that supports an individual as he or she moves through the day. Visual supports might include but are not limited to, pictures, written words, objects within the environment,  arrangement of the environment or visual boundaries, schedules, maps, labels, organization systems, timelines, and scripts. They are used across settings to support individuals with ASD (National Research Council, 2001).

 

• Visual cues are believed to have multiple facilitating mechanisms that could support cognitive capacity. They may reduce the memory load, encourage better quality encoding, reduce demands for processing quickly, and emphasize linguistic features (Ebbels, S., & van der Lely, H. (2001).