Fundamentals

This guide has been written to support the communication of people who find speech and movement difficult. When speech can’t be understood and using hands or a finger to point is difficult, eye pointing to photos, symbols or text can be a fast and effective way of communicating a wide range of messages.

Though we seldom think about it, we all make use of our eyes when communicating with others. We roll our eyes to express exasperation or amusement, point with our eyes to people or objects to draw others’ attention to them, and use them to express a wide range of emotions. This guide seeks to take this natural use of our eyes a step further to enable access to and use of a large visual language.

If someone needs to use symbols to support their face-to-face communication, the symbols will always be just one part of their communication repertoire. In a simple ‘sentence’ someone might use a mixture of facial expression, vocalisation, eye pointing, signing or gesture. For some, their communication book will be their main tool for communication, while for others it may be used alongside an electronic communication aid.

All learners, whatever their age and difficulties, can communicate. They’ll have worked extremely hard to develop this communication, however limited it may seem. It’s vital to respect and value these communication strategies. Act on them and praise them. Try to think of the symbols as adding to the learner’s current system. Have fun learning symbol communication and get started with stress-free situations.

In the excitement of developing a new communication book, don’t try and force the learner to use it themselves before they are ready. They need time to build up skills, experience and confidence. Keep responding to their individual communication, whatever form it might take. Have fun learning the symbols together, keep the book available and be patient.

Sometimes people worry that if a person is encouraged to use symbols to support their communication, this will hold back or stop their speech from developing. Please be reassured that this is not the case. In fact, quite the opposite can be true! It does no harm at all to develop language and communication skills with the support of symbols. These skills will provide the foundations for the use of speech should that develop in time.

When introducing a communication book with symbols to a learner you are effectively introducing a new language, a visual language. In the same way that it would be incredibly difficult to learn a new language if you never heard it spoken to you, it is almost impossible for someone to learn to use this visual language without ever seeing anyone else use it. In setting up a communication book, you are therefore committing to using this language yourself, and to encouraging its use by others. You need to show the learner how it’s done by pointing to the symbols in the book while you talk. We refer to this as modelling.

Learning a new language takes a lot of time and effort, and a visual language is no exception. Supplying a visual language is not a ‘quick fix’, but with support, guidance and enthusiasm, using symbols to support communication can make a real difference to someone’s ability to communicate effectively. There’s no right or wrong way to develop communication through eye pointing but following this guide will help you and the learner build a system of symbols and pictures, step by step, at a speed that suits you both. You can learn together in fun, relaxed activities where the learner can take control and you can learn the value of being the responder.

Note that this guide is about developing and supporting a communication book for people who can point to symbols using their eyes. The one caveat to this is that the encoding approach may also be useful for someone who is accessing symbols by pointing directly with a part of their body (e.g. a fist) but doesn’t have the dexterity to point to a large enough array of symbols to meet their language needs. While adaptations will be required to the resources to make them suitable for access in this way, many of the layout ideas, symbols, aims and objectives may still be useful.

For more information about what to do if pointing, including eye pointing, is difficult, see the free eBook Access to Symbol-Based Resources when Pointing is Difficult available from Ace Centre's website here.

If someone is able to point to symbols using a finger or other body part, the Ace Centre guide, Developing and Using a Communication Book would be a more appropriate starting point. See Ace Centre's website here for more information.