FIT Conference 2025: How to Make Adaptive Visuals

If you go in your notebook, this session is just blanks and the

reason why is because of what you're about to watch on the

video. So you just follow along with

the video and follow along with what she has for you.

But I believe this will be very helpful for you.

So Diane, take it away. OK, so in a little minute we're

going to play a video. I've never done this before, so

hopefully, hopefully it works. But we're going to play a video,

a speed up video of me creating a visual for our classroom for

tomorrow. And I'm going to kind of walk

through, talk you through my thought process while I'm making

it, but also like how to do it. But before we do that, I want to

talk just for a minute. I want to talk about something

called PEX PECS. PEX.

PEX or PEC stands for the Picture Exchange Communication

system PEX and it is a tool I'm going to read directly from the

website in a minute, but it is a tool that children that have

speech delays or are non verbal. It's just it's a system that

they can use as a means of communicating.

OK. Another option would be an ACC

device which is similar to a PEX but it's all automated.

So a child would hit a picture and it would say a word.

OK, So we can't really necessarily provide as the

church an ACC device for our students, right?

They're very expensive. Most kids get them on insurance.

But we can implement Apex system in our classrooms.

A lot of the visuals that you see out here the the rules sort

of definitely the visual schedule is an example, a loose

example of Apex. So let me read this first and

this will make more sense when we get into the video, But the

Picture Exchange Communication System, or PECS, allows people

with little or no communication abilities to communicate using

pictures. People using PECS are taught to

approach another person and give them a picture of a desired item

in exchange for that item. By doing so, the person is able

to initiate communication. A child or adult with autism.

This is an autism website. Not just autistic people use PEX

though. I lost my spot.

Oh. A child or adult with autism can

use PEX to communicate a request, a thought, or anything

that can reasonably displayed be displayed or symbolized on a

picture card. PEX works well in the home or in

the classroom. So a perfect example of how you

could use PEX in your classroom would be an emotion board,

right? You can make, in fact, this is

not a plug for Disney, I promise, but the Disney movie

Inside Out, phenomenal for expressing emotions for kids

that are non verbal or struggle verbally.

That movie in particular helped my son because it made emotions

have a face, right? So there were times where he

would just show me the anger little guy.

They did a whole thing on it at school and I'd be like, oh,

you're feeling mad or he'd bring me the little blue girl.

Oh, you're feeling sad when he so he was verbal ish at this

point, but not we would say he wasn't functionally verbal.

So he couldn't come up to me. Even now he struggles with

saying he's mad right now. And I'm like, why are you mad?

Because I throw you know, that's what you did.

Why are you mad? And he can't tell me right.

So even though he's verbal, he still struggles with

communicating, especially some things that are on a little bit

of a deeper, deeper level than I love my cats, right?

You can do that one very well. So it's just a system that if

you're not in that world, you don't know exists.

OK, so that's why I wanted to share it today.

And I do use it or the idea of it when I make some of my

visuals, it says I'm not going to read all the history of it.

You can look it up if you want to, but it says here studies

have shown that pecs can decrease tantrums and odd

behaviors. For example, an individual may

cry because they are thirsty. However, a parent or teacher may

not understand why they are crying and as a result, their

needs will remain unmet. However, if an individual has

access to communication pictures, they can quickly

communicate their need. So we had a series of Pecs for

AJ like I want and then whatever.

So I want a drink or I want a break, or I want to go outside

or I want whatever. And then you think about how you

could incorporate that into your church classroom.

If you have a child that struggles to communicate, they

may be verbal, but in a moment of being dysregulated, when my

son gets dysregulated, his language processing shuts down.

He can't talk anymore or he'll just stem right.

He also has this, I won't get into all of this.

If you're if you're a nerd, you can look this up.

It's called gestalt processing. That's what my son has.

So he will quote lines from a book or lines from a movie,

lines from ATV show in order to express something that he's

thinking or feeling. And if I don't happen to know,

maybe it's a book they read at school.

I have no idea what he's talking about, even though he's talking,

right? He could be talking a completely

different language. But if he had a picture, then he

we could use that, right? And it helps, it helps you live

in the same world, OK, because there are times we could be

living in the same house, but we are not living in the same

world. And so it can be like that in

your classroom, too. So we're going to run the first

little bit of the video, guys. I'm just going to show you.

Can you all see that? Hang on, let me pull the screen

just for a second. These are some examples on

teacher pay, Teacher of PECS. Some are free, some are paid.

Now this would be used a lot in a traditional classroom, right?

But obviously we're not probably going to not use most of those

in our Sunday school class. But you, I just wanted you to

see the idea. Feelings are a good one.

Rules are good. This is a good one.

So, so this one, for example, you could use something like

this similar in your class. We do this with AJ.

If he made a mistake or if I feel mad, I can and then

pictures of the choices of what he could do, right.

So if you have a student that's dealing with a particular

behavior every week, could you maybe make a visual for them so

that you could you or your helper could work through it

with them? Oh, you feel mad when we're mad.

We could, we can take a breath, we can take a break.

We can count to 10. And you have that as a visual

because when they're in that state of dysregulation, you're,

they're not going to be able to communicate with you the same

way. And so having something like

that, did you guys pause it? Oh, you can keep going.

I can talk and talk and talk. So you can, yeah.

So these are just some ideas. OK, You can pause it here now.

So that's an idea of a of a PEC system.

It's not like one thing where you go to a store and you buy a

PEC system. It's a generalized idea.

OK, Now there are some, I think I'll show you at the end of the

video. There are some websites that

have some that are free. There are some that are paid,

but there's a lot that's free. If you go on Pinterest, if you

go on teacher pay teacher, you just do a basic search.

You'll find a lot that are free. I don't think I've paid for

visual ever. What was I going to say?

I lost my train of thought. OK, we'll come back to that.

But what I'm going to show you now is a video of me using Canva

to make our Bible memory verse. I'm actually going to make the

one we're using tomorrow. So I'm going to walk you through

how to do this on Canva. Now, if you don't know, Canva is

it's free to use for anybody. But if you are a church, you can

get a free premium account. So just talk to your pastor

about signing your church up. You can get a free premium

account to Canva, which gives you access to absolutely

everything that they have to offer.

Canva is a fantastic tool for churches.

So if we go ahead and play this next video.

So I'm just going to show you exactly what I did to make the

visual that we're going to use tomorrow for our Sunday school

class. So you want to start a new

document? And I just tend to do an 8 1/2

by 11. So the way I do it just because

I'm extra, I start with my paper, I put my square in the

middle and then I the outside, I turn a color.

OK. And that helps me because when

I'm filing them, I just know, like the colors tell me they're

different from each other right now.

Once you've done this once, now every time I just pull up the

last one and I just change the pictures and I change the color.

OK, So I don't have to do this every time.

I did this for you all so you all could see how I do it.

OK, so I put I just made a square.

That's what I'm doing. That's what these are.

Oops. I just have one hand.

These are the squares, right? So I'm just putting the squares.

I tend to only do 6. You'll see what I do in a minute

with the words, but I tend to not do more than six squares

because it just gets to be too much for the kids.

It's too much for me. I don't do any more than six.

And honestly, at the age of kids that we're teaching, we're not.

This is not meant to help your kids learn the Lord's Prayer or

Psalm 23 necessarily, right? We're talking about a Bible

verse that we're teaching in our junior church class.

So I just did another text box and then I put memory verse in

the top there. So this is like my template when

I go to make my next one, I won't do this every time, right?

This is already there. The memory verse, all of that's

already there. All I'm going to change is the

actual verse and the pictures. OK, Just so that you see, it's

not the first time you set it up.

It's going to be the longest it takes you.

After that, it's quicker. So then I do a little text box

at the top, and in that text box I put the actual King James

Version verse. OK.

Because I do think that's important.

So this I would change obviously for every new verse, what you

see on the screen right now, the colors, the boxes, the memory

verse, that's going to stay the same.

I'm just going to change out the verse every three weeks.

And then I'm going to in the little boxes, I'm going to put

my images, OK. And this is where the PEX system

comes into play, because what you want to do when you're

thinking about picturizing a memory verse is you want to

think about the essence of the word, OK?

That's what pex. That's what pex do.

So for example, I try to do anything that's Jesus, this

verse, obviously the Son of man. So I'm not going to put a son

and a man, right? That's technically what the

words are, son and man. But who are we talking about?

We're talking about Jesus. So I'm going to put for the

pictures, I'm going to make them the essence of what the verse is

talking about. Underneath I'm going to have the

actual words from the verse. Does that make sense?

OK, so the one thing that I do that helps me with this is I

have a lady in our church who is an interpreter for the deaf.

And if you think about the PEX system, it's very similar to

sign language. So when if I have a word that

I'm just like, I can't think of what picture to make for this

word, I'll ask my friend Marsha, I'll be like, how would you sign

this word? And she'll show me.

And sometimes that'll be like, oh, OK, that makes sense.

I can do a picture that explains the word, right?

So you're not necessarily putting in the picture that is

exactly the word. Like I said, you're not going to

put a son of a man because the kids aren't.

That's not giving them the meaning of the verse.

So I'm just putting for each square.

I'm putting what section of the verse that picture covers.

Do you all see that? So I have the Son of man is come

to seek and to save that which was lost.

OK, so same with sign language. If you were signing this, you

would not sign is come. You would sign come or however

it. Well, I'm not a sign language

expert, but however you would sign, We don't sign each

individual word in ASL. So picture systems are kind of

the same idea. Now I always use the same image

for Jesus because over time the kids are like, oh, it's Jesus,

right? So they start to recognize that

we'll get into a little bit more what we can do with those in a

little bit. So for come, I just did like,

you know, the shaky finger, come here.

Sometimes it takes a little bit of trial and error.

Sometimes they're awful. You'll see in a minute, you'll

see. I was like, oh, this is not

good. I can't believe I'm recording

this. What in the world?

So sometimes I'll look just to see if I can have a better idea.

But I really do think that that was the the best one because you

have to remember we're talking about kids who have a language

delay too, right? Non verbal or language delay.

So you think about how you would speak to a toddler versus how

you would speak to an adult, right?

Helping like kind of put yourself inside there their mind

a little bit is helpful. So seek was pretty easy.

I think I just did a man with the binoculars because he's

looking for him, right? Jesus came to look for us.

See what I mean how you you really have to get inside the

meaning of the verse. I will pull out my other ones

and I'll have them out here so you can see kind of what I did

actually. Adam, are you there?

Can you go in that file box that's under the table?

There's a file that says classroom visuals and I like the

cartoons. It keeps it, you know, that clip

art, it keeps it fun. Let me see.

Oh, this was a this was a hard one, the one we just did.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all

thy soul. I'm like, how do I do a picture

for soul? I was like, Oh boy, I should

have thought about the picture before I picked the memory

verse, right? But so I was talking to my

husband and I was he was like, well, your soul is like who you

are on the inside, right? So I don't know if you all can

see this, but it's just like a little like the person with like

the light inside of themselves, you know?

So but sometimes you have to get a little creative, like how

would I put that in a picture? This was really interesting.

It's good. It's just there's nothing new

here, right? I'm just looking for pictures,

but this one was interesting. He is not here for he is risen

as he said. So again, I'm not going to put

he who's it talking about, talking about Jesus.

So I did there's my same Jesus. He is not here where the tomb so

I didn't put Peck for here would be like a person pointing like

this here. But for me, I'm trying to relay

the the meaning of the verse. So he is not here, meaning he's

not in the tomb. So I put a tomb for he is risen.

I did this with my son and I asked him.

I was like, well, who is risen because it doesn't say Jesus is

risen. I said who is risen?

He goes, Jesus is risen. And I was like, that's right.

So it's just kind of neat to see how it just it visualizes the

Bible for them a little bit. And you have to be careful.

Don't you know, we want to be careful.

We're not taking liberties that we're not saying something that

God didn't say, right? But I think there's a way to do

to do both. OK, now we're going to enter the

world of AI, which is a little scary sometimes, but I was

struggling with I think the two I had left were to save actually

this one. I was really looking for that

witch. I'm like, how do I do a visual

for that witch? So I asked Grok.

You can ask ChatGPT. Grok is terrible at making

visuals. I'm just going to warn you,

you're going to laugh. They're horrible, but he Guac

kind of gives me the essence of what the word is trying to say,

right? So he suggests guac suggests

that I do this image. Hang on.

It's quite funny. I told my husband I was like, I

don't know, should we take this out?

But I do want you to see the process, right?

So don't don't worry. It's nothing bad.

OK, you're probably not going to use that visual, right?

But it did help me realize, oh, instead of saying that, which I

could say this one, right, that one.

So it helped my thought process more than it helped actually

give me a visual. It gave me several that were

terrible. Creepy.

Who said creepy? Yeah, it was.

It's creepy. It was creepy.

Oh, there was more too. I I cut it out 'cause they got

creepier and creepier. It was like, this looks like a

horror movie. OK, so now I start looking for

this one and of course it just gives me the number one.

And I'm like, no, that's not what I want either.

So this is a little bit better, this one, but it's not really

fitting the verse. So this is where PEX comes in.

OK, Because a PEX system would have an image for this one

because that would be a very common word or phrase that a

child that uses a PEX system would use.

They would say I want this one, right?

So they would maybe bring the book and the this one.

I want this one to their teacher.

So here's a perfect example of a pex image.

This these that those. OK, so that fits well with the

meaning of the verse, right? So all I did was save it to my

computer and then I uploaded it onto Canva and then I can just

size it and put it in the box. And then for save, of course, we

understand it's talking about salvation, but I'm like, how can

I picture that, right? Understanding that when we teach

this memory verse, we're also teaching the meaning of it,

right? I'm not just handing the kids

this thing and say, hey, go memorize this.

I'm explaining to them. So there was a couple I pulled

up the firefighters saving the little boy.

And then the one I ended up using is the man drowning.

And they, because I mean, pastors, how many times do we

use that illustration in a sermon, right?

That we were drowning and Jesus saved us.

So I thought, OK, that's that's probably a good one.

And then as I go through it in the class, I will explain to

them now, Jesus didn't really save us from drowning.

He saved us from our sin. He saved us from hell.

And I would explain that a little bit more to them, but it

just helps have that idea that picture.

So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to duplicate it.

So there's a little plus sign at the top there, the two boxes

with the plus sign, and I'm going to make 2 copies.

And then on the second one, I'm going to delete all the pictures

and I'm going to show you why in a minute.

And then I'm just going to save it to my computer and then I'm

going to print it out. So now next time all I have to

do is change the text boxes and the actual pictures, right?

But I have my what's the word template?

Thank you. I have my template and honestly,

that didn't take that long, right?

Sometimes finding the images are the are the hardest ones.

But again, that's why thinking about it early earlier in the

week is helpful because I'll be mulling it over like I already

know. You can pause it now guys.

Thanks. I already know what my next

several memory verses are. So if I already see that there

are some trouble words, I'll think about it.

I'll pray on it. Lord, help me.

What do I do here? You know I want to handle the

word of God carefully, right? So the reason why I print 2 is

because this is the blank one. This is the one with the words.

So I'll go in and I'll cut these out OK, and then I'll laminate

all of them so that they go on and off.

This is these are just Velcro dots.

But if you don't do, if you, if you, if you just do 2 like this,

then the kids always know what they're supposed to put on,

right? You have to do a blank 1.

Otherwise you're giving them the answer.

And these are the Velcro dots. I just get these on Amazon.

Honestly, you will, you will. Your biggest budget will be

Velcro dots and lamination and binder clips.

I use those every single week. So that's how I would make a, a

memory verse visual. So these are the ones ready for

tomorrow. I always make 2 because like I

said, I keep one in the classroom and then our other

little girl takes one home so mom can practice with her.

But you also can make the visual schedule exactly the same way,

right? Except I just did it up and down

and I did smaller boxes. But that that visual schedule,

it's exactly the same process, just different visuals, right?

So do you just would make it exactly the same way the prayer

choice board, same process, right?

So the other things I bought made the way they were, but

those things are the ones that I've made and that's that

similar process is what I used for all of those.

You just tweak it for the need, right?

OK, you guys can go ahead and press play, please.

Thank you. So now we're on ChatGPT, so I'm

asking ChatGPT to build me a database essentially of common

Bible words that we might use in Bible verses.

This can save you so much time than having to search

individually for each one. Right now it might take you a

few days if you're cheap like me and don't want to pay the $25.00

a month for the premium ChatGPT. So I know I get 5 chats and then

I have to put it away till tomorrow.

So it might take you a little bit of time, but it's kind of

nice because it will kind of guide you on the questions to

ask. And the more you do it, the more

you are more intuitive, right? And to into how to ask it to do

things. So it's going to make me a set

of 20 I think. And he ChatGPT gave me the

words. So here you go.

God, Jesus, Bible, pray, church, cross, Angel, love, faith.

Oh, it's telling me I've got too many questions today.

Forgive heaven, friend, family, help, light, water, bread, sheep

heart world. OK, and then it's literally

going to make me a principal PDF and that's it.

OK, so now I can save that on my computer and anytime I use

Angel, I can use the same picture.

Anytime I use love, I can use the same picture, cross the same

picture, Jesus the same picture. And so you're essentially

building your own Christian version of a PECS system.

And again, this is not something that you do in one go.

It takes time and you add to it over time.

Here are some so teacher paid teacher did not have any good

Christian ones, but we could also use behavioral PECS in our

I was trying to think of what we could specifically use in our

church classrooms. Right.

So first then is very good for a Peck board. 1st we have music,

then we have craft or whatever. You can find lots of behavioral

ones on teacher pay teacher and these would be really good,

especially if you have a new little one that has special

needs and they have maybe they have a worker or an aide or mom

or dad or with them, they could have their own personal PEC

board, right? That the you know, if you're the

only teacher, it's hard to really keep up on that.

But if you have a helper with you, this is a great one.

And again, I think I said this earlier, but maybe I didn't.

This is this is great to reduce the verbal hum in your

classroom. OK, so can you pause it there

guys? Thank you.

So for example, I have my daughter Kaylee works with me in

my classroom. If if I'm teaching our rooms not

very big if I'm teaching and she constantly has to say to Ajaj

quiet body, AJ calm mouth AJ this, AJ this that causes a hum

in the classroom, right? You know what I'm saying?

And it also makes the other little kids go what?

They all want to see what's going on.

And so it's distracting. If I have somewhat of a PEC

system set up, she just shows them the card.

So it's not just a way for them to communicate with me, but it's

a way for me to communicate also.

And it does just reduce that general humming that can happen

in the classroom if you're constantly having to talk to a

little one about their behavior, right?

So it's a great way to just reduce that.

I don't know, for me, too much of that and I lose my train of

thought. I'm like, where am I?

What am I doing? What am I supposed to be saying

right now? And so using that with my son

has helped because Kaylee can just point to it, you know, and,

or point to the rule or like I said, if it's a rule specific,

she'll just do a finger number and he knows exactly what she's

talking about. So that's a great idea for PECS

for the teacher to use with the child, not just for the child to

use with the teacher. All right, go ahead.

Thank you. OK, can you pause it right

there? OK.

If you want to take your phone out and take a picture of that

because these are great resources for you can get free

texts. I found this after we had

printed the book. So it's not in your book.

In a minute. I'm going to take you to the top

one and show you how that interface works.

OK, I think we're good. Oh, maybe not yet.

No, you're good. It'll stay up for a few minutes

more so you guys can press play. It's OK.

Now, I haven't looked at all of these, so I can't vouch for all

of them, but this is that first one.

So this is now this is PEX like you would use a special Ed

teacher would use this in a school.

OK, But you might find like obviously that first one is in

OK. And if you have a child that's

used to a PEX board, they will they will recognize that this is

which which one, right? I think this was them or they.

OK, this is where it gets funny. I'm like, oh boy, OK, so look at

this. Wait till you see how much

Catholicism. OK, pause it guys.

One second. I was like, really?

That's all they could put in the in the priest's mouth was blah,

blah, blah. Really.

Like not God is love or Jesus loves you, but blah, blah, blah.

Go ahead. Sorry.

I just thought that was funny. I literally left this in because

I mean, the hell stuff's pretty scary.

Like, are you kidding me? The all seeing eye?

Apparently so, yeah, it's a little bit of a hit or hit or

miss. I told my husband I said I need

to find a good artist that wants to work with me and we will make

an entire Baptist version of PECS.

It would be awesome. I would love it.

OK, I think there's one more. Is there one more?

OK, good. OK, so here's some generic PECS

through, under, over the side on top.

Just generic stuff who pretty much any word you could think

of. If you go to one of these

websites, you can find a Peck for it.

And then here are some free pecks on teacher pay.

Teacher. I think we already showed this.

Oh, OK. I was like, wait, I think I

already did this. Yeah, you can pause it then.

Thank you. OK, so like I said, this is

literally a drop in the bucket, right?

This is, I mean, we could do an entire, an entire day of

workshops just on this. And and it's, it's not a system

my son has ever fully used. There's so much more to it.

The one thing I did want to just mention really quick is that

just because you're using a visual doesn't mean you're using

PEX. OK, what do I mean by that?

This is not a PEX, OK? This is a visual.

This is a pex, OK? So that's why I think if you're

wanting specific pictures for generic use for over time,

search specifically for PEX, right?

If you're just wanting a generic picture of something, then just

search for an image for that thing.

But PEX is the only reason I say that is because I want to be

very careful that I handle the PEC system respectfully because

there are literally people that can't communicate without it.

So I don't want to make light of it, if that makes sense.

It's a very thought out, it's very scientific.

If we got into the science of it, it's a very scientific

system. Kids start at a certain level

and work all the way up to level 6.

OK, We don't need to worry about that.

For our purposes. We're we're not teachers.

Or it would really be if your, if your child needed to use it.

But I think we can glean from it, right?

Like most of the things in the special Ed world, we can glean

from it and see how we could use it best in our particular

situation.