Visual Supports in Practice: Supporting Learning and Navigating Transitions
This article originally appeared in START Connecting in March 2026.
As the school year progresses and planning for the next year begins, inclusive classrooms remain active spaces where students learn, communicate, and grow in ways that reflect their individual strengths. Visual supports create clear expectations, support communication modalities, and give students tools to participate more independently in daily routines and classroom activities.
This time of year offers an opportunity to prepare for upcoming transitions. Visual supports that help students succeed now can also serve as tools in new classrooms, routines, and environments.
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Why Visual Supports Matter
Visual supports are cues used alongside, or in place of, spoken language to help communicate information. As an evidence-based practice, they can benefit students in a wide range of learning environments, including inclusive classrooms (Steinbrenner et al., 2020).
Unlike verbal instructions, visual supports remain available for students to reference as needed. This ongoing access can support understanding, increase independence, and help students participate more fully in learning activities. Visual supports also allow students to access information and complete tasks with less reliance on adult prompting.
Visual supports make information more accessible and support students in navigating classroom routines and expectations, and may include pictures, symbols, objects, gestures, written words, or augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems. The Visual Supports AFIRM Module provides detailed information about setting up these types of supports in a classroom setting.
Because visual information remains available for students to reference, these supports can increase clarity and predictability throughout the school day. This consistency can be especially helpful during transitions, such as moving between activities, entering new environments, or preparing for changes in routine.
How to Implement Visual Supports
Visual supports are most effective when they are thoughtfully designed, intentionally taught, and adjusted over time to match student needs. Accessibility should guide their design. Some students benefit from high contrast visuals, larger fonts, textured materials, or visuals paired with audio.
When used consistently, visual supports can become a natural part of classroom routines through schedules, classroom materials, and clearly identified spaces. Implementing these supports typically involves three steps: creating the visuals, teaching students how to use them, and adjusting the supports based on student response and engagement.
Create Visuals:
- Identify the purpose of the visual support.
- Keep the design simple and clear to support understanding.
- Use real photos when possible and include familiar people, materials, and classroom spaces.
- Ensure visuals are meaningful and relevant to the students’ experiences and engagement.
- Choose formats that are appropriate for that student's age and environment (e.g., pictures vs. technology-based).
Teach Visuals:
- Introduce visual supports as a tool to access routines and learning.
- Model how to use the visual, and use thinking aloud as a supportive learning strategy.
- Invite students to interact with the visual independently.
- Provide specific and encouraging feedback.
- Refer to visuals consistently during routines and transitions.
- Repeat the model-and-practice cycle to support confidence and independence.
Adjust Visuals:
- Observe how students are using the visuals and how they support engagement.
- Reduce adult prompts gradually as the student progresses.
- Consider how the visual supports might evolve (e.g., moving from pictures and words to just words, adding new information to match the situation).
- Determine when a visual support is not effective and adjust the design, placement, or instruction as needed.
Visual supports work best when they are flexible and individualized, aligning with strengths, communication modalities, and ways of engaging in the educational environment.
Smooth Transitions from Spring to Fall
As the school year concludes and fall planning begins, visual supports can help create continuity across classrooms, routines, and relationships. The strategies that support access and engagement now can also help students navigate the changes that come with a new school year.
Spring is a good time for teams to reflect on the visual supports that have been most effective. Schedules, choice boards, checklists, and visual cues that students already understand can be adapted for new settings and evolve to reflect the student's growth in independent use of the visual system over the course of the school year.
Preparing students for upcoming changes may include:
- Reviewing familiar visual schedules and discussing how routines may look similar or different next year.
- Creating simple visuals that preview new environments, staff members, or daily routines.
- Practicing transitions using walkthroughs, photos, or short visits when possible.
- Ensuring portable visual tools such as visual cards, schedule rings, or digital checklists can move with the student across settings.
Families are important partners in the support of visuals. Sharing visuals and checklists with families can help reinforce routines at home and support students as they prepare for upcoming changes.
What’s Next
Reflecting on the visual strategies that supported students this year allows educators to intentionally carry those supports forward. When visual supports are designed, taught, and adapted across environments, they become tools students can use beyond a single classroom. Preparing and sharing these supports before the transition to fall can reduce uncertainty, strengthen independence, and help students begin the new school year with greater confidence. Over time, learning to use tools such as schedules and checklists can support access to learning and autonomy well beyond the classroom.
Written By: Sarah Laurence, M.Ed. - General Education Consultant and Jennifer Vivian, M.Ed. - General Education Consultant
Resources
Sam, A., & AFIRM Team. (2024). Visual supports. Autism Focused Intervention Resources and Modules (AFIRM), Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. https://afirm-modules.fpg.unc.edu/Visual-Supports/content/
Steinbrenner, J. R., Hume, K., Odom, S. L., Morin, K. L., Nowell, S. W., Tomaszewski, B., Szendrey, S., McIntyre, N. S., Yücesoy Özkan, Ş., & Savage, M. N. (2020). Evidence based practices for children, youth, and young adults with autism. Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
U.S. Department of Education. (2025). Building and sustaining inclusive educational practices (Guidance on inclusive practices). https://www.ed.gov/media/document/inclusive-practices-guidance-109436.pdf