Welcome to Visual Supports & Beyond!
This is a site about making
creative visual and other supports for neurodiverse (mainly autistic and
ADHD) children. It's about children because that is
where my experience lies, but the theories behind what I do is just as
easily applied to adults. The site is currently being
revised. It's been 10 years since I originally put it together, and in
that time I've learned a lot and my thinking has evolved.
Now,
when someone has an obvious disability or difference, such as
person who can't walk, its not too difficult to understand the extra
things they will need in order to live as independently and fully as
possible. To start with they'll need a wheelchair.
But also there are ramps or lifts to replace steps, maybe a hoist (and
training for carers to use it), specialist bathing and toileting
equipment (whole rooms in some cases), adapted vehicles, physio
routines, coordinating sets of carers and family members, teams of
professionals to provide and maintain all the equipment, the list goes
on. There is a network of people and things around our person
who can't walk, compensating and adapting for the fact that they can't walk in a
world designed for walking people.
The differences in
neurodiverse people are not so visually obvious,
especially in people who don't have an associated learning disability. That does not mean their differences don't
cause them (and others) as many difficulties, both our person who can't
walk and an autistic or ADHD person live in a world that is not designed for
them.
So how do we organise a 'framework' for a neurodiverse person?
If we look at our person who can't walk, they didn't just pop down to
see their local doctor who said "yup, you can't walk, that means you get a
wheelchair, a hoist and a ramp on your front door". They
were seen and assessed by multiple professionals who looked at exactly
how their disability affects them, what they could learn to do with
extra support, what they would always struggle to do, and exactly what
they would need to live as independently as possible. Their
framework was tailored to their unique set of difficulties.
Back to our
neurodiverse person, as we can't see their differences, its
harder to work out what they need help with. We need to look
at how their autism or/and ADHD affects their ability to function in a neurotypical
(NT) world, and what we need to provide to enable them to be happy and
even flourish. If we try and change neurodiverse people to make them fit
in the NT world, we run the risk of damaging them. If you ram a square
peg into a round hole, you damage the peg. If you try and force our
person who can't walk to go up some stairs unaided, they'll get injured.
Why? - First I'll look at the bits about autism that I
think are important to keep in mind when planning, creating and
delivering a visual support.
What? - Then I'll show you lots of examples of things
I've made over the years, anonymised of course!
How? - Finally we'll look at some of the tools, tips
and tricks I use when creating a visual or other support.
Occasionally I put my thoughts on a particular topic down on paper ahead
of a talk or meeting, if I think these are useful, I'll link to them
below. Please remember, these represent my current
view/opinion/thinking and are open to discussion and review!