Around Town Round Up- Visual Supports for Staff

We are always advocating for the use of visual supports for our students. However, what about visual supports for staff? These are just as important! Visual supports for staff can help staff work more efficiently and independently. They are also a great way to make sure everyone remembers important details when things are hectic. An effective special education classroom includes visual support for staff and we have gathered some great examples from our teams around the Miami Valley in today's Around Town Round Up.

Classroom Schedule
The most basic visual support that can be provided for classroom staff is a classroom schedule that dictates the sequence of activities and routines for the day.

Susan Trissell
Westwood Elementary, Dayton

Jackie Vollmer
Driscoll Elementary, Centerville

Nicia Cook
Kenwood Elementary, Springfield

Student Schedules

It can also be helpful to display copies of individual student schedules so that staff can assist students with where they need to transition to. This also eliminates the need to interrupt instruction to determine where an individual student needs to go. 

Jackie Vollmer
Driscoll Elementary, Centerville

Lisa Bauer
Northmont Middle School, Northmont

Color coding can be used to help staff know which students they are responsible for at a given time. Assign each staff member a color and then highlight the student's schedule in that color to indicate their staff coverage. 

Pandy Pugh
Indian Riffle Elementary, Kettering

Ashley Holtz
Kleptz ELC, Northmont

Amy Beanblossom
Arcanum Elementary, Arcanum

Paras who work 1:1 with students can use the student's schedule to know what to prime them for and can it may include more detailed notes on working with that student. 

Wendy Sondergaard
Rushmore Elementary, Huber Heights

 We love this portable student schedule that the 1:1 para can keep on their lanyard!

Lindy McDaniel
Considerate Classroom

Even when the schedule is well established, visual reminders like specials or related service times make it easy to quickly reference these changes in the schedule. 

Carrie Prickett
Jane Chance Elementary, Miamisburg

Annette Stine
Kyle Elementary, Troy

Individual Staff Member Schedules and Lesson Plans

To provide further independence for staff, provide them with their own schedule and lesson plans so they know exactly what is expected from them throughout the day.

Amy Beanblossom
Arcanum Elementary, Arcanum

Christine Scarborough
Tecumseh Elementary, Xenia

Jackie Vollmer
Driscoll Elementary, Centerville

Reminders on lesson materials can also be great, quick visual supports to reference in the middle of instruction!

Jamie Minnish
Prass Elementary, Kettering

Jamie Minnish
Prass Elementary, Kettering

Lindsey Woods
Fairborn Primary, Fairborn

Student Goals

Visual supports can also be a way for staff to quickly reference student goals and how to best support students in meeting their goals. 

Karyn Smith
Tri-Village High School, Tri-Village

Jackie Vollmer
Driscoll Elementary, Centerville

Our Emotion Cue Cards for Staff are a great visual support for supporting behavior. On the front, staff writes what a student looks like in the green, yellow, and red zone. Then on the back, staff writes how to respond to the student's behavior. This visual support helps all staff working with the student respond to behavior in a consistent way.

Visual Cues and Post-It Note Reminders

There is no limit to ways visual supports can be used for staff in the classroom. In addition to schedules and plans. Visual supports can be displayed throughout the classroom to cue staff and help them remember important details. 

Jamie Minnish
Prass Elementary, Kettering

Jamie Minnish
Prass Elementary, Kettering

Jamie Minnish
Prass Elementary, Kettering

ALIST Spotlight- Amy D'Amico MCESC Learning Center West

Earlier this month we discussed Core Words and how they can be a great place to start when facilitating the use of language in the classroom. So we thought this would be the perfect time to shine our ALIST Spotlight on Amy D'Amico at Montgomery County ESC Learning Center West who loves to use core words with her students.

Amy shares "I have known about core vocabulary for years but I have been unsure how to implement the strategy with my students because of the nature of my caseload. Most of my students have AAC systems but often there are multiple types of AAC systems with different symbol sets in one classroom and often I have students at various levels of language development in a single classroom. This is quite challenging and overwhelming. Focusing on core vocabulary has helped simplify how I provide speech services. I now focus more on teaching language and language function than teaching how to locate fringe vocabulary on all the different devices. It has also improved self-advocacy because if I can teach them to say "Stop", "Go away", "I like that" or "I don't want that", they will have more control over their lives.

Here are some great pictures of Amy in action using core word supports with her students:

Keep up the great work, Amy! Your students are lucky to have you and it is great to see how you are helping them to develop their functional communication using core words!


For more information on using core words in the classroom, check out our previous post:

Communication Corner- Core Words

Organization Station- More Ideas for Data Collection

Teams ask us all the time about the best methods for data collection. There are so many options available that it can definitely be a challenge to find methods that are both efficient and thorough. In today's Organization Station, we have gathered some great ideas from around the Miami Valley to help make this decision easier.

General Data Collection
Our first examples are pretty general and can be used to gather data on any goal. They are great for quick data collection! While they work well for individuals who know the student's IEP goals really well (such as their Intervention Specialist) they may be a more challenging method for other staff members who are less familiar (such as paraprofessionals or support staff).

Using color-coded post-it notes, this IS records data on her clipboard and then transfers it to color coded sheets on the wall. This data can later be transferred to an IEP program or data binder.

Amy Beanblossom
Arcanum Elementary, Arcanum

A similar approach is the use of shipping labels that can be used to gather data for a variety of students at one time and then transferred to their respective data binders later. This is a great system for data collection during a group activity.

Ann-Marie Small
Driscoll Elementary, Centerville

This is another basic sheet that can be used to record any goal and is organized to record two goals per student. Goals can be written in ahead of time to provide more guidance if you want to use this type of system with support staff or paraprofessionals.

Laurie Maravetz
Schaefer Middle School, Springfield

Behavior Data Collection
When it comes to behavior data, it is important to target specific behaviors that you want to monitor. This is especially important when a student engages in a variety of interfering behaviors. Prioritize the behaviors to focus on starting with the most dangerous, then those that are destructive, then disruptive, and finally distracting. It is also important to be specific so that all staff knows exactly what behavior to monitor and track.

When we are initially looking for patterns of behavior we recommend scatterplot data collection. The scatterplot can look at a whole month's worth of data and can determine if there are patterns to the time of day or day of the week the behavior occurs. It is easy to track because you do not need to track the frequency or specific instances of behavior. You only need to determine if the behavior occurred within a 15 minute period. We recommend assigning each behavior being tracked (between 2-3 behaviors at a time) a colored highlighter. This is a very visual data collection tool which allows you to present it without added work and it can be quickly analyzed.

Rylie Jarrett
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

Angie Kleinhans
Stebbins High School, Mad River

This data collection tool can be used as a scatterplot to track several targeted behaviors across the day for a week. Like the scatterplot above, staff can simply mark the box if the behavior occurs during the time given.

Mary Nolan
Valley Forge Elementary, Huber Heights

Some teams use individual behavior plans as a way for students to monitor their behavior throughout the day as well as a way to collect behavior data. As mentioned above, specific behaviors should still be prioritized to help the student know what to work on and to help staff know what to prioritize. Rather than listing the negative behaviors and tracking frequency, staff should list what they want the student to do instead and track their success with applying the replacement behavior. When a student has a variety of behaviors, it can feel overwhelming to them and to staff to try to tackle everything at once. So start with small, manageable steps.

These smiley face behavior sheets can be modified to include 1, 2, or 3 separate behaviors.

Debi Gnau
Mad River Preschool, Mad River

Leslie Mann
Demmitt Elementary, Vandalia

These point sheets are similar examples of tracking specific replacement behaviors. When using a behavior system, many teams have students set goals for students to meet. When these goals are met, students typically earn a motivating item or activity. Make sure these expectations are clearly communicated. Use the data from the behavior sheets to determine the frequency of reinforcement needed. Do they need multiple rewards daily...

Mary Nolan
Valley Forge Elementary, Huber Heights

at the end of the day...

Heather Balkcom
Springcreek Primary, Piqua

or weekly?

Korie Jacobs
Mad River Middle School, Mad River

Self-Management
Some teams use data collection to determine the effectiveness of supports they have implemented. We frequently see this type of data collection for sensory and self-management supports. Sometimes this data is taken by staff. It can be analyzed to determine if new strategies are needed or if the frequency of providing supports needs modified.

Rylie Jarrett
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

Or students can begin self-monitoring their self-management strategies. Self-monitoring is a great strategy in this area to help students begin recognizing how well they are implementing the strategies they have learned so they become more self-aware of their needs.

Leslie Mann
Demmitt Elementary, Vandalia

Michele Glynn and Kathy Healy
Minneapolis Public Schools

Michele Glynn and Kathy Healy
Minneapolis Public Schools

Check out our favorite book on data collection for more ideas:

Communication Corner- Core Words

When teaching a student how to communicate, it is often difficult to know where to start. Core words are a great place to start because they are often words that hold a lot of meaning and they are used frequently across the day.  Core words include words such as:

• Protest words: no, stop, done
• Attention seeking words: look, help, hi
• Requesting words: want, more, go
• Location words: up/down, on/off, in/out
• Pronouns: I, you, me, it
• Descriptive words: good/bad, big/little, fast/slow

These are words that can be used in many different situations to meet important communication functions. Core words can be expressed with verbal language, sign language, pictures and communication devices. Most dynamic communication devices have a grid of core words as the home page to make it easy to access the most frequently used core words.

Fringe Words vs Core Words

If we talk about core words, we have to talk about fringe words.  Fringe words are typically nouns. They are very specific to the situation and may not be used repeatedly across the day. Fringe words are more concrete and easily represented by a picture, while core words can be more difficult to represent with a picture. If you are training a student to use Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), you will start by teaching fringe words. This is because when teaching an exchange, it is easier to exchange a picture for an object. When teaching fringe words it is best to start with words that are highly motivating for the student. Pair core words with fringe words to expand communication.  On more advanced communication devices, core words are often the home page and the user must navigate to find the fringe words. This is because there are many more fringe words than core words.

Teach use of core words across the day

Repeated practice is essential to developing functional use of language. We love how our ALIST speech and language pathologist Ann-Marie Small provides direct instruction of core words to her students through a variety of engaging activities. 

First students read a Core Word Vocabulary Book which provides many repetitions of the targeted word. These books can be found here: AdaptEd for Special Ed Core Vocabulary Books TPT

Ann-Marie Small
Driscoll Elementary, Centerville

Then, Ann-Marie provides practical practice through fun activities. For the core word "find" students played a game of elf hide and seek. They had many opportunities to talk about how they had to "find" the elf! 

Ann-Marie Small
Driscoll Elementary, Centerville

Ann-Marie Small
Driscoll Elementary, Centerville

Books from previous lessons are incorporated into the library so students can practice them over and over. 

Ann-Marie Small
Driscoll Elementary, Centerville

Ann-Marie collaborates with her teachers so that the core word instruction is incorporated into the classroom. There are visual reminders provided to staff as well as posted on the classroom doors so that any visitors can help to facilitate the core words.

Ann-Marie Small
Driscoll Elementary, Centerville

Consider how target core words can be modeled and facilitated across the day. Look at the student’s schedule and make a plan to incorporate use of the target core words. Many of our teams do a “core word of the week” to encourage all staff to practice the use of a target word. They use these great visuals from Speech Room News. The visuals can be passed out to staff members and/or posted around the classroom to provide reminders for staff. These visual reminders can be found here: Speech Room News Core Word of the Week TPT

Rachel Engle and Rebecca Spidel
Horace Mann Elementary, Springfield

Rachel Engle and Rebecca Spidel
Horace Mann Elementary, Springfield

Laurie Maravetz and Mitch Duncan
Schaefer Middle School, Springfield

In addition to modeling use of the core word, it will be important to expect the learner to initiate use of the word for communication. Instead of prompting, entice the use of the word and wait. As soon as the core word is communicated, respond in a meaningful way to reinforce the learner. The goal is to develop functional and spontaneous use of powerful core words.

Once the students start to develop a repertoire of core words, many of our teams have posted PECS cards and designated core word boards in the classroom for easy access to the vocabulary throughout the day. 

Mitch Duncan
Springfield High School, Springfield

Casey Lathrop and Katie Bigelow
Brookville Elementary, Brookville

Allison Clements
Schnell Elementary, West Carrollton

Susie Stoner and Heather Costa
Bradford Elementary, Bradford