In the context of disability, it is evident that many people may present alterations in cognitive development; which leads to academic failure, difficulty in interaction in the family and social context, preventing participation in contexts accessible to all. Therefore, the challenge is to promote favorable and understandable environments, considering those proposals that facilitate inclusion.
The pictographic method proposes the use of representative images that allow the evocation of certain messages; the acquisition of learning and the evocation of the same for participation in the school, social and family environment. By proposing this approach and focusing it on the possibilities of children and adolescents and the pictographic resources that can be offered to them for their cognitive and communicative development, it is highlighted that people with disabilities manage to receive information better when it is presented in a visual form accompanied by oral communication because it allows school accessibility due to the fact that it develops the predisposing factors for learning (memory, attention, concentration), facilitates participation in school activities, to achieve true educational inclusion, facilitates the acquisition of skills for the execution of daily life activities through pictographic routine sequences for ADL.
Teaching them to understand and use pictograms in their daily lives provides them with a tool that improves their understanding, clarifies their thinking and allows them to communicate their ideas to others. People with disabilities need help to develop their inner eye, that is, to visualize the ability to generate and manipulate images, help in a wide variety of tasks, including remembering information, learning to spell words, establishing routines for independence in self-care that provide tools for participation in the environment and resolution of practical problems, understanding frequent contexts and being able to spatially locate themselves within them. Following instructions with visual aids becomes effective because they internalize through the image a model that allows them an effective guide to develop.
The use of pictographic images becomes relevant in most of the subjects taught within the school context, therefore, some of the work areas of the study plan are based on the use of the pictographic tool to improve observation, the perception of relationships that can often be represented visually and the possibility of evoking the acquired knowledge when oral communication is not possible, providing an instrument that improves their understanding, allows them to clarify their thinking and communicate their ideas to others.
All existing forms of visual support become a wide possibility to facilitate cognitive accessibility in environments.
By Ana Perez Mendoza
Bachelor of Special Education
Master's degree in Inclusive and Intercultural Education
Pictogram author: Sergio Palao. Source: ARASAAC ( http://www.arasaac.org ). License: CC (BY-NC-SA). Property: Government of Aragon (Spain)
Comments