Visual Social Thinking Techniques:
How to Leverage the Visual
Thinker’s Strengths
Presented by: Stephanie Brown
Admissions Coordinator, College Internship
Programs
Mmcmanmon@cipworldwide.org
sbrown@cipbrevard.org
The Many Applications of Visual Social
Thinking
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Mark Twain’s Visual Note Taking system (1899)
Visual notes using 16 grid paper (Start NOW)
Carol Gray’s comic book conversations
Oliver West introduction to Footnotes
How to leverage Visual Thinkers strengths
– Visual Thinking/ Executive Functioning
Mark Twain’s Visual Note Taking
• Dates are hard to remember because they consist of
figures:
• Figures are monotonously unstriking in appearance,
and they don’t take hold; pictures can make dates stick.
• They can make anything stick- particularly if you make
the pictures yourself.
• Mark Twain 1899
The Visualization Process
• The idea of using pictures for my lecture occurred to
me.
• In two minutes I made six pictures with a pen, and
they did the work of the many catch-sentences.
• I threw the pictures away as soon as they were made,
for I was sure I could shut my eyes and see them any
time.
• That was a 25 years ago; the lecture vanished out of
my head but years later I could rewrite it from the
pictures in my memory.
Paraphrased from
Mark Twain
Mark Twain’s Explanations of Visual
Drawings
• The first one is a haystack--below it a rattlesnake--and it told me
where to begin to talk about ranch-life in Carson Valley.
• The second one told me where to begin the talk about a strange
and violent wind that used to burst upon Carson City from the
Sierra Nevadas every afternoon at two o'clock.
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The third picture, as you easily perceive, is lightning; its duty was to
remind me when it was time to begin to talk about San Francisco
weather, where there is no lightning--nor thunder, either.
Carol Gray’s Comic Strip Conversation
• Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have
trouble interpreting social situations and understanding
speech as quickly as most social interactions require.
• A comic strip conversation is a conversation between two
or more people using simple illustrations in a comic strip
format.
• Using a child’s favorite cartoon character you can show
children how to behave in a socially acceptable manner and
conform to social standards.
• Jimmy reacts inappropriately when people in his environment
use a loud voice.
• He created this comic strip conversation using characters from
his favorite TV show to provide him with the appropriate
response of "Ouch, that hurts my ears. Don't talk so loud,
okay?" instead of Jimmy hitting the loud person in his
environment.
Carol Gray comic strip conversations
Executive Functioning and
Visual Thinking
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Visual Labeled Drawers & Closets
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Michael P. McManmon, Ed.D.
Foreword by Stephen M. Shore, Ed.D
Made for
Good Purpose
What Every Parent Needs to Know to Help Their
Adolescent with Asperger’s, High Functioning
Autism or a Learning Difference Become a
Independent Adult
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