We, AsIAm, Ireland’s Autism Charity, are delighted to support parents of autistic people to understand the importance and use of visual supports in the daily lives of their autistic family members. This strengths-focused course aims to help parents understand autism through a neuro-affirming lens. We’ll help parents identify the key differences in social communication, imagination and interaction that autistic people experience. Autistic strengths are the focal point of this course, with autistic visual processing taking centre stage to empower parents to understand the why behind using visual supports.

We’ll introduce you to the exceptional nature of autistic visual processing strengths and the importance of empowering this strength through visual supports. You’ll learn what visual supports are, how to use them, what makes visual support genuinely effective, and how to design visual supports from a UDL perspective. You’ll gain practical knowledge on using various visual supports from the autistic community members attending school, the workforce and raising families sharing their experiences.

Listen to psychologist, Dr Emma Bagnall, support and frame for parents the importance of using visual supports throughout their daily lives. Senior speech and language therapists and Amanda McGuinness provide expert advice on topics such as the importance of using visual supports, avoiding the use of PECS, symbolism in the use and design of visual supports, introducing visual supports with your family member, supporting AAC users to utilise visual supports and using visual supports as a gestalt language processor.