McDowell Salon Series
Supporting Neurodiverse Students by Incorporating Visual Strategies and Supports as a Tier One Intervention in Kindergarten Classrooms
Researcher: Mary Barrow
Date: December 4, 2024
Time: 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.
Supporting neurodiverse learners by using visual supports as a Tier 1 intervention was a McDowell Foundation funded, Regina Public Schools supported, examination of what could be learned by using visual supports as a whole-class support in Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grades 1-2 classrooms. The study links closely to Regina Public Schools Autism Strategy (Neurodiversity Affirming Strategy) as it examined how an intervention frequently recommended to classroom teachers for particular students could be planned for and brought into the classroom, not just for neurodivergent learners but for all members of a class.
The use of visual supports is an evidence-based practice for neurodivergent learners (with a large evidence-base, in particular, around the use of visual supports for autistic learners). In the COVID or post-COVID landscape, teachers are noticing young learners with less “readiness” skills than their previous groups of students. They are noticing students with less problem-solving skills, memory skills and/or independence skills. As such, the researcher entered this work hypothesizing that using visual supports class-wide would meet the needs of not only neurodivergent learners, but also of all learners in the classroom while being open to examining barriers and possible solutions to the use of visual supports in primary classrooms. It was hypothesized that use of visual supports could also benefit teachers and other adults working in Grades 1 and 2 classrooms.
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