From Silence to Speech: A Therapeutic Connection
Structured visual supports are a key resource for promoting communication, thinking, and emotional growth in children with autism or ADHD. They are not simply ‘pictures that make things easier to understand,’ but real mediators that lighten the child’s cognitive load and encourage executive functions as well as social skills. This photo, for example, shows a page from one of the Feuerstein Method tools.
Purpose of This Work
1. Structuring Thought and Reducing Anxiety
Children with autism or ADHD benefit from visual supports because they make spoken language clearer and help the child know what will happen next activities.
2. Supporting Functional Communication
Model sentences such as ‘I see ___’ or ‘Io vedo ___’ allow children to express observations, needs, or emotions even when verbal language is limited or absent.
3. Practicing Observation and Shared Attention
The Observe sheet reminds the child to look carefully at the picture before answering: a key exercise for children who find it difficult to stay focused.
4. Developing Logical Sequences
With several carefully chosen images, including some that are not directly related, the child learns to build short stories or chains of actions.
“I see a boy running” → “I see a car” → “He is afraid” → “ Io vedo un bambino” → etc etc
5. Strengthening Emotional Regulation
Some images, such as in this photo where the learner is working with the tool, Identify the Emotions They are used to recognize situations and emotions in others and in oneself—an essential skill for understanding social cues.
How to Use It
Step 1 – Adult-Led Mediation
The adult guides the child with specific questions such as ‘Tell me what you see’ or ‘Let’s find all the details.’ To make the task easier, as shown in this photo, the page can be covered so that only the target image remains visible. This strategy especially helps develop theThis strategy especially helps develop selective attention and inhibitory control..
These skills make it possible to focus on relevant stimuli, ignore distractions, and stop inappropriate responses, becoming essential for for planning, la problem-solving, and self-regulation.with a direct impact on success at school, at work, and in social life.
Step 2 – Guided Choice
The child selects the correct picture from several options, including some that are unrelated, and completes the sentence.
Step 3 – Escalation of Complexity
Gradually, details, inferences, and emotional states are introduced:
“I see a girl. She is happy” “ Vedo una ragazza, lei è felice “.
In Brief
Structured visual support is not a ‘compensatory aid,’ but rather but rather a means of cognitive enhancement.It allows the child to transform images into words, words into thought, and thought into relationships. It is a true link between visual thinking and verbal language, but also between inner disorder and outer order—a fundamental tool for children on the spectrum, as well as for those with ADHD or learning difficulties.
Article by Dr. Maria Signorile
English 
Italiano
Leave a Reply