What Are Visual Supports?

Visual Support is a way of presenting information using visual aides, including individual or sequences of objects, photographs, logos,  pictures, symbols, to enhance  the childs active participation and understanding.  (Definition from the SCERTS model, 2007)

Visual supports are concrete, consistent, and do not require the difficult motor planning that some sign language does.

Visual supports can quickly be generalized across many areas of the child’s life and easily used by family members, staff, peers, and community contacts without extensive training.  The child should have his visual supports available to him throughout his day, including at home, at daycare, at friends’ houses, out in the community and everywhere else he might be.

Visual supports will not delay the development of speech and, in fact, there is evidence that the use of visual support systems enhance the development of speech.

Focus on Strategies:

The Hanen Approach

An Innovative Model of Early Language Intervention (adapted from www.Hanen.org)

The Hanen approach has led the way in changing the face of early language Intervention.  In the 1960s and 70s, there was little or no parental involvement in children’s speech therapy.  In the 1970s, research began to demonstrate that parents’ involvement in their child’s early intervention was critical and that the earlier parents were involved in their child’s Intervention program, the better were the outcomes for the child.

This required a significant change to how speech pathology/therapy was offered to young children.  In 1975, Ayala Hanen Manolson, a speech-language pathologist in Montreal, Canda, developed an innovative program for groups of parents whose children had language delays.  This program provided parents with intensive training on how to help their children develop improved communication skills.  The success of this program, which became It Takes Two To Talk – The Hanen Program® for Parents, led to the establishment of The Hanen Centre.

Putting Parents First to Help Children Best

The basic notion that launched The Hanen Centre is quite simple – parents are their child’s first and best teachers!  After all, it is parents who have the strongest bond with their children and who can help their children learn in real-life situations, where the best learning takes place.  The beauty of the Hanen approach is that it helps parents use typical, everyday situations such as going to the park or having a bath as opportunities for the child to learn to learn to communicate.  Once parents know how to do this, “therapy” occurs throughout the child’s day – and not only with the speech-language pathologist.

What sets Hanen apart?

Ongoing Program Development and Research

They strive to meet the ever-changing needs of children with, or at risk of language delays, and their families and caregivers.  They do this by conducting ongoing program development and research.  Their efforts include continually revising their existing programs and resources to keep them on the leading edge, reflective of the most current research in their field.  They also aim to make their resources suitable for diverse populations and cultures throughout the world.

Principles of Adult Learning

The Hanen approach puts parents and others who care for and work with young children front-and-center as language facilitators.  It is, therefore, essential that these adults receive the most effective training possible.  With this in mind, The Hanen Centre draws extensively upon what is known about how adults learn best.  These ‘principles of adult learning,’ as they are called, recognize that the learner rather than the teacher has the most important role in the learning process.

Adult learners learn best when information is relevant to them, when it is provided in a variety of interesting formats and when they are actively involved in the learning process.  In addition, new skills must be learned and cemented with lots of practice, which is an integral part of the Hanen approach.  Hanen Programs also use videotaping and feedback to help learners see what is working and what they need to change.

This is the approach Hanen takes when working with parents and caregivers, as well as when providing professional development to speech-language pathologists and other professionals.

With this firm foundation, they are able to provide the most effective and rewarding learning experiences for everyone involved in helping children communicate to the best of their abilities.

Combination of Group Training and Video Feedback in Hanen Programs

Learning to facilitate their child’s communication development often means that parents have to change the way they interact with and talk to the child.  Research has shown that responsive language input – i.e. input that is prompt, positive and directly related to the child’s topic of interest – has been consistently associated with optimal child language outcomes.  Many parents have to learn to become more responsive, which means giving up trying to teach the child and learning to observe, wait and listen to him and to follow his lead when he communicates.  This may require a significant change in parents’ Interactive behavior, which requires a lot more than a speech-language pathologist making suggestions as to what will help the child.

It Takes Two To Talk is now widely recognized as providing effective early language intervention for young children and has since been followed by other Hanen Programs for Parents each one geared to the child’s diagnosis and individual needs.