In this recent article from Verywell Health (click here for link), autism advocate Lisa Jo Rudy, suggests several ways that visual tools may be used to help children with autism learn and thrive.
Scientist and activist, Temple Grandin, popularized the idea that people with autism are “visual thinkers” with her book, Thinking in Pictures. Grandin, who has autism, described how she "thinks in pictures" not words. This makes interpersonal skills more challenging, but proves to be an advantage in other areas, such as designing livestock facilities in Grandin’s case. Howard Gardner has said that although children with autism can experience impaired interpersonal intelligence, they may have remarkable other abilities, for example, musical, mechanical, or spatial.
Spatial intelligence is used for navigation, map-reading, visualizing objects from different angles, visual arts, recognizing faces or scenes, and noticing fine details. Brain research has indicated the posterior regions of the right cerebral cortex are most important for spatial processing.
Gardner encourages teaching methods that allow students to use multiple intelligences. The article gives ideas on how to use visual tools which enable children with autism to use their spatial intelligence, especially if they experience challenges in linguistic intelligence.