Using Tactile Symbols to Enhance Communication This video is posted online with the following chapter markers: Chapter 1. Communication Forms - Chapter 2. What areTactile Symbols? - Chapter 3. Enhancing Communication - Chapter 4. Making Tactile Symbols - Using Tactile Symbols to Enhance Communication Transcript [Silence] Chapter 1. Communication Forms David Wiley: Hello. I’m David Wiley, and I work for the Texas Deafblind Project, in the Outreach Program at Texas School for the Blind & Visually Impaired. We are here to discuss Using Tactile Symbols to Enhance Communication for students who are deafblind or visually impaired with additional disabilities. If you are unfamiliar with tactile symbols, this is what they look like. [ Slide start: ] These are some of the symbols used with students here at TSBVI. But before getting into specifics on these symbols, [ Slide end: ] a good place to start a discussion on tactile communication symbols is to generally talk about what communication forms are and how we use them. [ Slide start: ] We all use many forms of communication to get messages to and from other people. Communication forms that you may typically use include speech, sign language, printed words, braille, pictures, gestures, objects, and so forth. So tactile symbols are just another form. We typically use various communication forms in different ways, and they have different strengths and weaknesses. Why do we use more than one form? Simply because different forms have different uses, and we choose what form or combination of forms works best for what we need to communicate in any situation. [ Slide start: ] It may help if we break down forms of communication into two broad categories: Dynamic, and static. Some communication forms are called dynamic, meaning that they are constantly changing and full of energy. Dynamic forms are easily changeable, flexible, and immediately available. Examples of dynamic forms are...speech, sign language, and gestures. We use them all the time. The other broad category is Static communication forms. They are called static because they don’t change and they stay put so you can study them, and can continue to be with you, now and in the future. [ Slide end: ] Static forms include print, Braille, pictures, objects, and, our topic for the day tactile symbols. So both of these two broad categories of communications forms have distinctly different strengths and weaknesses, which affects how and when we choose to use them. In fact, I’m using both right now, during this presentation, talking to you and gesturing, but also showing occasional pictures and graphic slides for you to look at and read, and posting a handout that you may have downloaded to have in front of you. So lets discuss the strengths and weakness of both categories. [ Slide start: ] There are several strengths of those Dynamic Forms, like speech, ASL, and signed English or gestures. First, they are Immediately available. You can use them wherever you are, whenever you need to. There is typically no need for equipment or preparation. If you have something to say, you just say it! There are unlimited topics you can bring up. [ Slide end: ] These forms are very flexible, and you can change topics on a dime. I can be discussing my work, and quick as a wink, say, "Hey, I’m hungry! Where do you want to eat?" And point which way to go, and then out of the blue ask, "How you think the Dallas Cowboys are going to do this year?" We can be walking down the sidewalk, signing about my family, see a store, and quickly change the topics to shopping. Dynamic forms are flexible, changeable, and always ready to go. When the situation changes, you're still ready. So definitely, these are important forms of communication. But, there are weaknesses to these forms. First of all, communication using dynamic forms is temporary. As soon as I stop signing or talking, my words are gone forever, out into the cosmos, and can only be retrieved from memory. As a result, the message is hard to review, and is easy to miss or misinterpret. Dynamic communication forms can’t be easily reviewed. You left potentially saying, “Did I get that correctly? I’m not sure I understood.” And it just gets worse when you try to remember what was said earlier today, much less yesterday, or last week. But, not to worry. We have static communication forms, [ Slide start: ] like print, braille, pictures, maps, which have their own different set of strengths. These are tangible forms of communication that you can hold in your hand or tape to the wall. What is good about these static forms is that they can be checked for gaps and accuracy. You can reread something if you didn’t get it. That’s good, because you can't re-listen to a conversation. [ Slide end: ] Messages using static forms can for studied for more complete understanding. You have probably asked for, or heard of somebody asking someone to put a complicated message in writing. Now you may want some sort of agreement in writing because you want get it signed as a binding contract, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean that if someone wants to make a deal with you, you may say, “Put it in writing!” because you want to study it, sort it out, make sure you aren’t forgetting something; so you will have a more complete understanding. That is a major advantage of this kind of communication. Another advantage of static forms is that they can be kept for future reference. You don’t have to rely on your memory. You can check back later. This is why we write grocery lists, and ask friends to draw us maps, even though they just told us which way to go. And, what is truly beneficial, is the message is still available, even if the person who created it isn’t present. So static communication form are extremely important for us. [ Slide start: ] But they also have weaknesses. For starters, static communication forms are harder to produce than dynamic forms. Creating a document takes more preparation time than just saying what’s on your mind. These tangible forms require materials, like printers and paper and markers and staplers, or in the case of tactile symbols, posterboard, Velcro, and glue guns. Additionally, static forms are limited in topics. Generally speaking, they can refer to what is prepared, and are limited to the original message. A lecture is dynamic, flexible, and can go in any direction I chose at this moment. But the handout can only ever say what the original message is. It can't change. So typically people use both dynamic and static communication forms daily. [ Slide start: ] Every one needs both dynamic and static communication forms, and uses both kinds, both expressively and receptively. For any student to be a complete communicator, you must consider how they're using both dynamic and static communication forms. [ Slide end: ] Chapter 2. What areTactile Symbols? So what are these tactile symbols we are discussing here today, and who needs to use them, and why? [ Slide start: ] Most basically, tactile symbols are a static communication form that can be recognized by touch. This makes them a very valuable communication form for students who are blind or deafblind, [ Slide end: ] that don’t have another practical static form with which they can record information, or retrieve recorded information. How do tactile symbols compare to other static communication forms that you may be more familiar with, and how they are used? [ Slide start: ] Well, tactile symbols are an alternative to braille for students who do not read -- who haven't learned to read -- or students who cannot visually access print, and cannot easily recognize braille letters by touch for some reason, like not enough sensitivity in the fingertips. In that way, tactile symbols are used similar to braille for non-readers. Secondly, tactile symbols are a communication form that can be used like pictures for someone who has trouble seeing and recognizing pictures. [ Slide end: ] Many people are familiar with the use of picture symbols for students who haven’t been able to successfully learn to read. Tactile symbols are an alternative for a student who would be the kind of student you would use picture symbols with, but who cannot see pictures well enough to make them practical for the student to use. And third, many of you are familiar with using objects as basic representative symbols for emerging communicators. A spoon representing lunch, or a ball representing the gymnasium, perhaps used in a calendar box or anticipation basket. Tactile symbols are used the same way, but are smaller, so they are a more flexible and portable and an alternative to objects in that way. So tactile symbols are a way for a teacher and his or her student who does not read print or braille, and who can’t easily see pictures, to “write things down" -- to record information, for many reasons. [ Slide start: ] All the reasons that we all depend on static communication forms, all the time. For example, to record messages for future reference, be it schedules, or lists, or whatever information you or the student may want to make available for later. This will increase the student’s independence, [ Slide end: ] because they can gather information on their own, without the teacher always needing to stop, step in and intervene to personally convey information that the student needs. As with any static, tangible communication system, the student can more easily check it on his own, when needing information. Tactile symbols can also reduce misunderstandings by facilitating study and reflection. As with all static forms, a student can reflect on the message using these symbols, and feel more comfortable that he or she fully understands. Finally, tactile symbols aren’t just used to convey information to the student, but can also encourage the student’s communicative expression. Because the tangible symbols can be studied, and are more concrete than dynamic forms, they may provide more confidence in meaning for the student. A student may sometimes find it easier to expressively communicate by pointing to or handing over a tactile symbol than using speech or sign. In communication, more is better! [ Slide start: ] We all use a multitude of communication forms. When we learn a new one, we tend to put it in the toolbox as another one to use when the need arises. So tactile symbols shouldn’t be used "instead of," but "in addition to" many other communication forms for a student. [ Slide end: ] I always find it troubling when I ask about communication abilities for a student, and the response is just one thing. "The student uses sign," or "speech," or "pictures," just one thing! We all use so many, it is hard to image that a student could get by just using one form of communication. Or when people inquire about communication methods as an either or proposition. "Should we be using sign or object symbols?" Like using one would detract from the other. In truth, using multiple forms enhances and supports the others. Or worse yet, I’ve inquired about students using certain forms of communication forms and methods, and heard that a student used to use that form, but doesn’t any more, because they learned something else new. That just doesn’t compute for me! We usually don’t discard way to communicate when we learn another. “Yeah, I used to use speech, but then I learned to read, so I don’t used speech any more!" "I used to gesture, but I gave that up, because it was too primitive!” We all use multiple communication forms in different ways. The same should be true for everyone. Would you use object symbols? You bet you would; in a noisy restaurant to tell a waiter across the room that you would like another drink. In another situation you might use speech. So tactile symbols are not "instead of" other communication forms, they are "in addition to" other forms. Does using multiple communication forms help learners? Evidence shows it does. Teachers traditionally use multiple methods to get point across to their students. From writing on the chalk board -- now that’s showing my age -- or a white board, or the smart board, to showing pictures or models. PowerPoint -- for both the good and the bad -- has become an increasingly standard thing to use in a lecture like this. Why? Why not just talk to typical students in regular classes if the students understand speech? Well, I got this list from the faculty page on a university website. [ Slide start: ] The potential benefits of using presentation graphics include; engaging multiple learning styles, increasing visual impact, improving audience focus, providing annotations and highlights, analyzing and synthesizing complexities… [ Slide end: ] If typical learner benefits from learning through more than one channel, wouldn’t blind or deafblind students, who can’t read or see pictures also benefit? One way we can provide this benefit is tactile symbols. It will help the students find their individual learning style and increase the impact of the message. The symbols may help the student focus, and provide additional information, or highlight what is important about what is being said. And finally, it can help simplify complex interactions, by helping the student reflect on the message and have a fuller understanding. Just like for every student. Chapter 3. Enhancing Communication Before getting down to how to make and use the symbols, I want to talk for a minute about creating successful interactions for a student who may not be strong communicators. There are three basic components of communication must be working together. [ Slide start: ] Just introducing a new communication form, like tactile symbols, won’t improve interactions for a student, unless communication is addressed in all three of these components. So Form refers to how you communicate; speech, print, sign, braille, symbol. As we've been discussing, everybody needs a repertoire of those. [ Slide end: ] Equally important, are Functions – why you communicate; to request, to reject, to greet, to inform, to offer. To have successfully interactions a student must understand how to participate in all manner of exchanges for various purposes. Students who aren’t strong communicators may have trouble with many of these functions. Adding a new communication form doesn’t help, if the students doesn’t have a good reason and isn’t motivated to interact. So in addition to teaching new forms, you must create situations for the student to use them successfully, for all different reasons. And finally, Topics are what you communicate about. A student may have the know-how, but if he or she does have any topics, or very few, you can expect communication breakdowns. You all probably know a student who is stuck on one or two topics—mom, cokes, trucks, Disney princesses, or Justin Bieber. Communication is hard if you don’t have enough experiences to have lots of interests that you know something about. So part of being a better communicator is being busier, and having lots of activities that happen routinely enough that you are familiar with them, and this leads to more successful interactions. So, if you want a student to learn and use tactile symbols, he needs to value them, and view them a useful. [ Slide start: ] The first step, have a message that needs to be given or received. Don’t start with, "We are going to introduce tactile symbols and things are going to be better." [ Slide end: ] Hopefully the starting point is you would like to find more successful ways to inform the student about things, and there are messages that you would like the student be more successful in giving you. Before making a symbol, you should think through why it is you need it. [ Slide start: ] Second, make sure that the message is motivating and interesting to the student. [ Slide end: ] The student will buy in if they think the message is important, too. The first symbols you use should be for things the student really cares about. Next, you must use the symbols routinely. Use them everyday, in multiple situations, not just in special circumstances, or when there is a communication breakdown. The student needs to feel confident understanding and using the symbols, and that come from using them in routine interactions when everything is going smoothly. Next, using the symbols will be successful when there is a structure to organize them. A little later we are going to go into this in more depth. But this would include calendars, lists, books; places the student expects to encounter the symbols. More on that later. [ Slide start: ] If you want the student to value the symbols, you have to make sure the messages given with the symbols are accurate and reliable. [ Slide end: ] When you communicate using tactile symbols, it is in essence putting your message in writing. Usually when putting something in writing, we take care to make sure that it's right. A good place to start using symbols routinely, is to begin the day discussing the day's events with the student, providing a schedule to the student using the symbols. This is a good place to illustrate the importance of accurate and reliable information. I got this information from a website more about business than education. But I thought these points about human behavior applied very nicely to what I know about students with sensory impairments, who have trouble gathering incidental information, and know what is going on around them. [ Slide start: ] It address the need that people have to be able to predict. One of the things we are constantly doing is predicting the future, whether it is the micro-predictions of movement or forecasts of what might happen next year. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] We need to be able to predict -- feel in control -- a basic need we have is for a sense of control. If we can predict what will happen, this gives us a lot better chance to control things. If we do not know what will happen next, then we cannot relax and we must constantly be on the lookout for danger! [ Slide end: ] Well, now danger might be a little dramatic, but if we can’t predict what is going to happen, it certainly gives us a sense of anxiety. We all feel more comfortable when we know what is going to happen next. [ Slide start: ] We need to be able to predict to be able to make decisions. In our ruminating and decision-making we are constantly looking forward, trying to decide the best course of action to achieve our goals and avoid potential discomforts. If we can predict accurately, then we will make good decisions and be successful in meeting our goals and objectives. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Being a to predict helps us have a better understanding of cause and effect. Being able to predict is about connecting cause and effect. If we can connect the cause of today to the effect of tomorrow, we can predict. And if we can create a chain of these, we can predict what will happen next week. Being able to explain cause and effect meets yet another need and allows us to appear rational to other people, thus appearing predictable; and hence, meeting their needs for prediction and control. [ Slide end: ] So what’s the big deal? Here is how, as a businessman, you would use this anticipation and ability to predict. [ Slide start: ] Be predictable with other people and they will trust you and like you more easily. [ Slide end: ] Student’s who don’t get reliable information incidentally from the environment, and aren’t strong communicators, often have difficulty forming trusting relationships. Being predictable helps with this. OK, these next two are what a business man might do, by being unpredictable, but definitely not what we would want to do with our students. [ Slide start: ] You can also be deliberately unpredictable to put them off balance, causing confusion that you can then utilize. Ugh! When people cannot predict and do not know what to do, they will look to other people. So create a new situation for them, then show them what to do. Ugh! [ Laughter ] [ Slide end: ] So if you want your students to be off-balance, confused, and dependent on others, be unpredictable. The opposite is true if the students can anticipate and reliably predict what the day’s events are. Less confusion and more independence. If you want to try tactile symbols for your student, where do you start? [ Slide start: ] First you need to determine if your student is familiar with symbolic communication? [ Slide end: ] If your student is a strong verbal or sign language communicator, they are symbolic communicators, and should be able learn the meaning of the tactile symbols. If in the past, the student understood and effectively used picture symbols, but no longer can use them because of vision loss, they understand symbolism and should be able to transition to using tactile symbols accessed through touch. If the student has become adept at using object symbols to represent activities, it may be time to pair the tactile symbols with the object symbols, and see if the students can make the transition. If none of those are true and the student is non-verbal, pre-linguistic, or in the earliest stages of emerging language, and has not been using any kind of symbols to represent activities people, and ideas, it may be too early for tactile symbols. It would be better to start with symbols that are less abstract, like entire objects; a spoon, a wash cloth, a medicine cup, and make tactile symbols a goal for the future. [ Slide start: ] In order for tactile symbols, or any symbols really, to be meaningful, you must begin by creating recognizable and consistent activity routines which provide topics for conversation. [ Slide end: ] Tactile symbols are labels. They must label something, and the best place to start is labeling is familiar activity routines. To reduce confusion, it is best to create a regular schedule of activity routines that are motivating, interesting, and predictable for the student; rather than random activities that occur in a haphazard fashion. Hopefully the student will reach the point where the symbols are a good way to represent things that are novel, but that isn’t where to start. [ Slide start: ] Next, when thinking about the activities, determine what you need to communicate about and create symbols accordingly. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] You and your student might need symbols [ Slide start: ] for activities or actions; like lunch, or physical therapy, gym class, class work, rest time, [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] going to the toilet, taking a walk, work training, or going home. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Or locations; like the classroom, cafeteria, gymnasium, playground, or library. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] It can be people; including a symbol for the student himself, teachers and staff, family, and classmates. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Maybe materials, objects, foods. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Large and small. This could be anything from milk to the school bus. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] It could be time frames; days of the week, the names of the months. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] And emotions. Now, this is not the place to start, [ Slide end: ] because it is so abstract, but as the student progresses, symbols for emotion can be very helpful. [ Slide start: ] In addition to the symbols themselves, you must create frameworks in which to routinely use the symbols. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] The tactile symbols may be used to create and support; calendars and datebooks, choice menus, [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] lists, step-by-step instructions [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] and recipes, [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] experience or memory books, [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] timepieces. [ Slide end: ] You need to create consistent recognizable formats to organize, access, and transport the symbols. Most of the frameworks we discussed can fit into one or more of these formats; depending on what works best for the student in different situations. Calendars, choice menus, lists, recipes, and experience stories can each fit into more than on of this list of formats; [ Slide start: ] charts and boards, sequence strips, [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] boxes and trays, [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] books and binders, albums [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] wallets [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] So, that is how to get started. To succeed with tactile symbols, you should consider these tips, all of which we have touched on already. Use the symbols regularly, so they become second nature to the student and teacher. It is easier to learn during routine situations, so don’t just use symbols during stressful or confusing times. Use symbols to assist during conversations, pairing them with other communication forms. Find ways to give the student access to the symbols, for using them expressively and receptively. [ Slide end: ] Remember, the tactile symbols don’t just go one way. They are supposed to be interactive, so both you and the students can use them both receptively and expressively. The symbols shouldn't be tucked away in a closet or you desk drawer, and only used when the teacher has something to say. [ Slide start: ] Find a workable way to leave the symbols available to the student, [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] so he or she can introduce a topic, [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] and make a request. [ Slide end: ] Reliably follow through on what is communicated, even if you must adjust your expectations. That’s one way to be predictable, and when things change, explain the changes to the student. Around Austin there are several kinds of community calendars, in newspapers, or on the radio or online, [ Slide start: ] to fill you in on upcoming events and community activities. I’m sure they have them in your town as well. Do you ever look at a local events calendar to plan an outing for yourself, or your family, or friends? What would be your response if it was often wrong about what was happening, [ Slide end: ] and when and where? If you pack up the family, and went off to a concert, festival, or parade, and nothing was there! Or you had the wrong day or the wrong place. If this happened more that once, if you are like me, you would quit consulting the community calendar. Unfortunately, sometimes I go into a classroom using symbols such as these tactile symbols on a student schedule, and I look it over and say, “I see from the calendar you're going to PE today. Did that happen yet? How did it go?” And the teacher would say something like, "You know we decided not to got. We got behind with another activity, and the student is tired today, and you know, the weather...we had music time instead." But if it is on the schedule, and it's written in symbols, and you didn’t go; you have lost your predictability, and the student doesn’t trust the information. Then I’m not surprised to hear, "The student isn’t interested in the symbols anyway." Chapter 4. Making Tactile Symbols So, that is how you use tactile symbols. How do you make them First you need to decide what the symbols should be. [ Slide start: ] If only one student is in the environment using symbols, technically, the symbols themselves are can be arbitrary. But many years ago at TSBVI we started standardizing the symbols the assist the students and staff and caregivers to move from one setting to another, or changing teachers, or being promoted to a new school. We have put our standardized symbols online into a kind of tactile symbol dictionary. If you want, you can use that as a starting point. But even if you take advantage of a standardized system, because every student’s situation -- their activities, their places, people they know and so forth -- is different, symbols often must be custom-made. If you are starting from scratch with a symbol, try to pick something that will make sense to the student. A part, or a piece of an object symbol often works. In some cases it just must be...have to be arbitrary, because there is no obvious item to place on the symbol. [ Slide end: ] When that's the case, the student will learn the meaning through repeated association. All symbols eventually deteriorate, so plan time for symbols to be repaired or replaced. [ Slide start: ] Speaking of replacement, it always helps to use materials that are easily available when replacement is needed. When possible, give the student responsibility for his or her symbols. Get the student involved in making, storing, and caring for the symbols. This will help increase how the student values the symbols, and help them be more independent in using them. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Some commonly needed materials are poster board, Velcro, a hot glue gun, background textures, carpet remnants. Why don't we have a look at some of these things in action. [ Video start: ] Wiley: Various stages... [ door opens and closes in the background ] [ Video end: ] I've put some resources in you handout of some places you can learn more about tactile symbols. [ Slide start: ] [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] [ Silence ] [ Slide end: ] Well, thanks for listening, and I hope you and your student can be successful using tactile symbols in the future. [ Silence ]