Language Binder

Hi all, this blog post is a personal account as the title suggests. If you're looking for more information about communicating with visual supports or about how to use the Viz Kids app, there are entries being posted each month. This post is about my personal journey from not understanding children with autism to having a deep respect for them, and why it led me to become a special education teacher and creator of Viz Kids. In 2020 we found ourselves in a pandemic, and like many I was reevaluating how I would spend my time once the lock down was lifted. I was a work-from-home software developer, but I desperately wanted to have wonderful relationships like I had earlier in my career as a caregiver and teacher. I decided to learn sign language with the idea that I would adopt a Deaf child. How exciting would that be! A child that I can care for and share a secret language with appealed to me deeply. But seeing that the adoption process was going to take awhile, I decided to return t

Children learn how to speak by hearing their family speak. However, it takes years for them to develop the physical and mental skills to produce spoken language. Many opportunities to communicate are missed during this time, and this can frustrate the child (and parent). Using visual supports will help with communication during this period of development. Additionally, the visual supports can help develop spoken language if you model spoken language while using the visual supports. Modeling spoken language with visual supports is easy with the Viz Kids app. Since the app can transform your spoken language into visual supports, you can record your statement while making eye contact with your child, and then show them the visual supports on your phone. For example, you can record the following while making eye contact with your child: "First, we are getting in the car, and then we are playing in the park." The app will show a visual of a car (which you can replace with an imag