Speak

About this visual support

Speech has no pause button. It is expected in real time, and if it is delayed somebody else fills in, changes the subject or answers on your behalf. For anyone who needs a few extra seconds to find the right word, that means the conversation has often moved on before the sentence is finished, and after enough such occasions it becomes easier to say nothing at all.

Visual support means communication does not have to compete with the pace. A picture holds the topic in place while the words are searched for, and the listener knows something is coming instead of reading the silence as an answer. The same pictures can be used at school and at home, so the expressions are familiar in both places.

A concrete tip is to wait five seconds longer than feels natural before filling in. That silence is often exactly what was needed. In Routined picture cards can be at hand in conversations where words tend to take time, and the app can be tried for fourteen days at no cost.