A Myth About Visual Schedules Lives On – Again:(:(

June 8, 2012 by Robin Parker - Leave your thoughts

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A myth about visual schedules continues to rear its ugly head in a prAACtical situation. Another family was instructed to discontinue a visual schedule because “the schedule will become a crutch, the schedule will result in dependence, and the schedule can not be used forever or all over town”.

I need to start with an apology for not following up after my earlier post when I first realized that the visual schedule myth lived on. Maybe my punishment was hearing the same myth repeated (though it doesn’t seem fair that a student was impacted in the process). But maybe it was a teaching opportunity for me. It certainly made me respond quickly.

So now for the down and dirty summary of my conversation with the other ‘professional’ . Having the conversation was my attempt at helping my student receive the visual language supports that she needed. I have to admit, it seemed that the ‘professional’ cared deeply about helping the student. So during our conversation, I tried a few strategies:

Respect– I approached the ‘professional’ with respect and humility.
Resources– I offered to send resources to support the philosophy of AAC systems
Explanations– I offered explanations of schedules, mini-schedules, calendars and the different ways to use them
Compliment- I tried to compliment when appropriate (ok- I failed miserably here until the end when I tried to end on a more positive note)
Offered to demonstrate effectiveness of visual schedules
Common Ground- Tried to find common ground where ever possible. I did notice that at times we were in agreement in practice if not terminology or philosophy.

So were the strategies effective? a meek yes. The professional will probably be using monthly, daily, and mini schedules with the student. And that is the most important thing. However, in our long sometimes heated discussion I realized that the ‘professional’ had an underlying philosophy about AAC systems that was incorrect. The faulty assumption was that she thought that communication with a symbol was communication of dependence instead of a victory for authentic communication, language, and/or understanding.

So what did I do…..I tried really hard to take my own emotion out of it (I really needed a self calming visual support) and instead remembered that a variety of schedules would be used. I will also let the student’s improvements speak for themselves. I will update this post in a few weeks to let you know if “the ‘proof was in the pudding’ as the saying goes.

by Choice works