Make It Monday: My Ultimate Visual Binder

As some of you know, I love making visuals for my clients to use during music therapy sessions. I have a dream where my clients can communicate anything with me using the visuals that are present, but I am far from that reality. I am, however, working towards that goal, slowly but surely.

Now, what most of my clients do is not the protocol involved with PECS - our Speech Language Pathologists have not really gone into the protocol with our clients - but they do understand how to use visuals to get what they want/need. My visuals are often PECS sized but are not part of Boardmaker (a program). After all, it is difficult to come up with one picture that can universally indicate "Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight" (a fun song title!). So, I don't really worry about whether or not the song will translate outside the music therapy clinic - I probably should, but I don't. Within my clinic, my students know that a particular card, often hand-drawn and very amateurish, will lead them into singing a preferred song.

I am in the process of making my very own ULTIMATE VISUAL BINDER! (I wish I could make that all sparkly and eye catching because I love this stuff!!) I am trying to figure out several things during this exercise - first, what type of things do my clients need to be communicating; second, how to best support their communication; and third, how to do all this without taking up all of my storage spaces. These things are a bit confounding, but I'm figuring it out as I go and as I use these things with my clients.

Here's what I have in my binder so far...

• Letters
• Numbers
• Emotions
• Yes/No indication card
• First/Then indication cards
• Instruments
• Movements
• Bathroom, break
• Opposite pairs
• Direction cards
• Schedule choice board

I've found examples for most of these communication options for free on various websites, and the rest have been purchases from Teachers Pay Teachers. Just so you know, I do not get any financial benefit or any other type of benefit from sharing links or materials or products - if I recommend something, it is because I use it and like it - nothing more. Also, all of the files that I share are available for use - I remain within the copyright expectations of the original author always!

(If you are interested in where I found many of these files, check out this post. The links are there!) 

I have these pages in a couple of binders. For my own need to organize, I have put the letters and numbers on yellow pages, the emotions on blue pages, the movement cards on red pages (all of these colors correspond to my TME color-coding system), and others on black or white pages. These pages are simply for storage purposes, and all the visuals have Velcro on them so I can transfer them to other background pages or areas for ease in use. Keeping in mind the different visual acuities that clients bring into the music therapy session, I also have white or black presentation formats in several places around the room so they are within easy reach and not very distracting to my clients.

My next goal? Making visuals to correspond with favorite songs of specific clients. I will need someway to introduce those pictures to the clients in a way that makes sense with communication goals and protocols. I'll post those in my Teachers Pay Teachers store as I get them finished. Until then, any suggestions for visuals are more than welcome!!

Happy Monday, all!