This afternoon has been spent designing choice boards for a young lady with limited spoken language. After visiting a number of possible day services for when she leaves college, we wanted to enable her to make her own choices. Each board shows one of the services, with a number of photos from her visit. This helps to visually remind her of what each service is like, and will help her to indicate which ones she prefers.
Each image has been separately laminated, and attached to the board with velcro dots. This means that once she starts, the relevant images can be detached and added to a weekly visual timetable.
Laminators are now fairly inexpensive and open up a whole new world for parents, carers and professionals. Visual supports reduce stress and aid communication, memory and choice, even for clients who are verbally fluent. Don't underestimate how powerful they can be - particularly in this case, by giving our client her 'voice'.