Säger en bild mer än tusen ord? : En studie om lärares och elevers upplevelser av visuellt stöd i undervisningen.

Sammanfattning: Is a picture worth a thousand words? A study about teachers’ and students’ experiences of visual support in the classroom.     The aim of this study is to examine teachers’ and students’ experiences of visual support in the classroom. First, nine teachers’ experiences and knowledge of Developmental Language Disorder and other language difficulties are investigated. Second, it is studied how teachers experience students’ understanding of the verbal information presented in the classroom, and whether difficulties in written and oral language can be supported by visual aids. The study also describes how students, with and without DLD, experience the verbal information given in school and the visual aids used by their teachers. Interviews with 9 teachers and 14 students were conducted and classroom observations were carried out in 5 schools. The results show that teachers believe that there are students with language difficulties in all classes and that visual aids are of great support, both for teaching and for learning. The students’ thoughts about both their understanding of written and oral language, and of visual support, varied. While many students thought that pictures and graphic symbols improve their understanding, others believed they did not make a difference.