A young man with verbalisation challenges is starting to communicate more and more thanks to Visual Aids therapy.
Murray Brown, a resident at Trinity House, has started to tell the team his likes and dislikes, and what he would like to do that day, thanks to a series of prompt cards.
And not only is he getting to grips by pointing at the cards he wants, but the process is also actually encouraging him to vocalise the words.
Team Leader at Trinity House, in Seaham, Marion Pownall, said the simple, but powerful, tool kit was making a real difference for Murray.
She said: “We started by laying out the cards such as ‘park’, ‘drive’ or ‘walk’ and then encouraging Murray to point to the things he wanted to do that day.
“He took to it really well and before we knew it we were adding cards for foods, drinks, places to go – and even one for Netflix!
“What’s truly wonderful is now Murray is picking the cards up himself and coming to us with more complex sentence structures and actually saying the words and his preferences for the day.”
And as well as seeing the direct benefit of being able to communicate more and more Marion has noticed other changes in Murray.
She added: “You can see that the visual aids are really helping him to grow in confidence and generally be happier all round – it’s truly wonderful to see someone coming out of their shell.”
And this looks like just the start for Murray.
Marion now has plans to introduce phonics-style word cards so she can really help him grow his vocabulary in the months ahead.
