It might surprise you to know that using an AI tool can not only help you to create visual support resources for children with diverse needs.. but also make the whole creation process less time consuming for you, and the end result more effective for individual children’s needs.

Take a second with me to reflect on this scenario - a child in your care is struggling to understand what's coming next in their day. This tends to lead to anxiety building as they try to make sense of the concept of time, resulting in meltdowns during transitions. You think that visual supports of some kind would help, but creating personalised, meaningful resources feels overwhelming - especially when you're already trying to stay on top of your planning cycle.

But now you can access help to create professional, special needs quality communication boards, visual schedules, and social stories in half the time it would usually take you to come up with the words, images and concepts you need.

With a little guidance you could have a dedicated inclusion assistant on call and always ready to help you write those perfect words, suggest the ideal format, and design resources perfectly matched to each child's unique needs.

Before you roll your eyes at me though…this isn't some sort of magical over-hyped solution, it's simply understanding how to use AI as your collaborative partner in creating inclusive environments and experiences for all children.

In this ‘keep it simple’ guide, I'm going to show you exactly how you can use AI tools to create three essential types of visual supports - communication boards that give children a voice, visual schedules that make time visible, and social stories that help find a path through challenging social situations. I'll walk you through some simple step-by-step processes, share specific prompts you can use with an AI tool like ChatGPT and Claude right away, and show you how to maintain your professional voice and expertise while also saving hours of precious time.

The visual supports I’m highlighting won't just be "nice to have" resources - they'll become essential tools for you that create predictability, support communication, and help children navigate their world more confidently. 

I promise that by the end of this post, you'll feel confident giving it a try for yourself - even if you're brand new to using AI.

Ready? Let's do this!

Keep Reading To Find Out....

What Are Visual Supports For Children With Diverse Needs?

Visual supports are pretty much what they sound like! Resources that use pictures, symbols, photos, or written words to communicate information visually rather than just verbally. They make the invisible visible and the abstract clearer for everyone - exactly what young children need to make sense of their world.

You know that famous saying about a picture being worth a thousand words? Well, in early childhood settings, that couldn't be more true! Visual supports aren't just decorative elements to make the walls in your room look pretty (though they can certainly do that too!).

They're important teaching tools that support children's understanding, communication, and independence. They reduce frustration, build confidence, and create more inclusive spaces where all children can thrive.

How Can Visual Supports Benefit All Children?

So why exactly are visual supports so effective with young children?

It's simple really - young children are naturally visual learners. Long before they can read or fully understand spoken language, they can interpret and respond to visual information.

Think about how quickly even our youngest babies learn to recognise the logo of their favourite fast food restaurant or characters from shows they love! Their little brains are wired to process visual information first.

And for children who might be learning English as an additional language, have developmental delays, struggle with communication challenges, or simply process information differently, these visual supports become even more important.

They essentially provide a bridge - a way to understand and be understood when words alone might not be enough for them.

How Visual Support Resources Connect to the EYLF Framework

When we use visual supports in our learning environments, we're directly contributing to several EYLF outcomes and quality areas:

International Framework Connections

For educators working with other frameworks internationally, you'll find similar connections:

US Head Start Performance Standards emphasise supporting dual language learners and children with disabilities through appropriate teaching practices - visual supports address both needs simultaneously.

UK Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) includes communication and language as a prime area of learning - visual supports directly enhance this area.

New Zealand Te Whāriki curriculum's principle of "Relationships" (Ngā Hononga) is supported when visual tools help children build connections with others through improved communication.

Bridging the Early Intervention Support Gap...

An important thing I want to stress here is the reality that most early childhood educators and family daycare providers aren't trained special needs professionals (although we are often called upon to provide those sorts of skills in our day to day work with different children as if we are!).

I've experienced first-hand over the years, how challenging it can be when you identify a child who would benefit from visual supports and other early intervention strategies, but you're uncertain about creating, introducing or using them correctly.

In most regions here in Australia, waiting lists for speech therapists, occupational therapists, and early intervention specialists can stretch for months - sometimes even a year or more, especially in regional and rural areas. During this waiting period, children are missing critical developmental windows where appropriate supports could make a huge difference.

Educators in my Empowered Ed Community often tell me that they hesitate to create these sort of resources because they worry about "doing it wrong" or not following best practices...or even stepping on others toes and areas of expertise. Some feel they lack the specialised knowledge to design effective communication boards or appropriate social stories. Others simply don't know where to start or what words and images to include.

This is where AI can become  your helpful "inclusion assistant" while you and the family wait for that professional support and collaboration. You just need to make sure you’re using the most effective tools for the needs of early education and asking the right questions to get the best responses back from the AI.

I’m going to give you some prompts and strategies you can try with the free versions of  AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude AI throughout this post, but if you’d like the whole process to be even easier and not have to worry so much about what prompts you need to use, my Empowered Ed AI Assistant Maisie Mindful Inclusion is your best option as I’ve trained her on best practices from speech pathology, occupational therapy, and special education resources as well as early education and child development theory, so she understands what will be helpful to you.

Click on the image below for more information about how to chat with Maisie 24/7!.

So all of that is obviously awesome, but here's the reality check from someone who's worked in ECE for over 30 years…creating these types of visual resources still takes a lot of extra prep, planning and creation time. Time that I understand many of you simply don't have in your already busy days trying to meet current paperwork demands. You know they're helpful and want to implement them, but the practicalities of designing, creating, and updating them can feel overwhelming.

And that's exactly where AI now comes in to make this process more manageable for you without compromising on effectiveness of the tools or personalisation for individual children’s needs.

The beauty of using AI as an inclusion assistant is that rather than leaving a child without support during those long waiting periods (or having to fit in something you’re not sure how to create or even use effectively in the first place), AI empowers you to take action now while still following best practices.

I’m definitely not advocating that you use it to replace professional intervention, but rather as a means to provide an interim bridge of support until that level of specialised help becomes available. And when those professionals do become involved, you'll have valuable resources and observations to share with them about what has been working (or what hasn't).

Now, I know that as I write this, the concept of using AI in education is relatively new and still leaves many educators feeling nervous or  uncomfortable - and I completely understand that. We're in a profession that values human connection, authenticity, and personalised care. The idea of bringing AI into that space can feel contradictory to our values.

But I'd like to invite you to think about AI not as a replacement for your skills and knowledge, but as a collaborative partner - a consultant who's always available.

You're still the educator, the decision-maker, the one who knows your children best. AI is simply there to help with the heavy lifting.

Let’s think of it this way: if you were creating a visual schedule, would you draw every single picture from scratch? 

OR,  might you use clip art, photographs, or symbols that someone else created? Most of us would use existing resources as a starting point and adapt them to suit our specific needs. Using AI for the text and format of your visual support resources is no different - it's just another tool in your educator toolkit.

I think one of the biggest benefits of using AI in this way is overcoming what I call the "blank page procrastination”...that feeling when you sit down to create something and your mind goes completely blank, or when you know what you want to say but can't quite find the right words or structure (that's not just me right??) 

AI can give you a starting point that you can edit, adapt, or completely change based on your knowledge of the children in your care.

Recommended AI Tools for Early Childhood Educators

So which AI tools work best for this purpose? Well, there are several that I find particularly helpful at the moment:

Claude by Anthropic is fantastic for detailed descriptions and specific understanding of early childhood concepts. It's particularly good at generating developmentally appropriate language and can help you create content that's sensitive to different cultural backgrounds and abilities.

ChatGPT by OpenAI also works well, particularly for structured formats. It's useful for creating organised content like visual schedules or communication boards with distinct categories. ChatGPT is also helpful for generating lists, categories, and tables that can work well for visual supports.

And of course, if you're a member of The Academy for Empowered Educators or AI Empowered Educators, you already have access to my specialised ECE AI assistants like Ellie EYLF, Maisie Mindful Inclusion and Dottie Documentation, which have been specifically trained on early childhood frameworks and practices here in Australia. They’re a particularly helpful option for educators new to using AI tools as I’ve designed them to be friendly, helpful and ready to guide you through what to ask for the most helpful responses in return.

AI-powered design tools: Some platforms like Canva now incorporate AI features that can help with visual aspects of resource creation, making the process even easier when you add it to the text and use cases created from tools like ChatGPT and Claude.

If you’re brand new to these AI tools, don't worry - I'll be giving you specific prompts to try throughout this post that will work with any of these AI assistants.

Whatever tool you choose to use, keep in mind that AI is creating the responses based on your prompts, goals, and the amount of information you give it to start with. You're the one reviewing, editing, and finalising everything, so the finished resource will reflect your voice and professional judgment.

The end goal is to use this new AI technology to strengthen and support your work with special needs children, not replace your expertise and connections.

What Are The Ethical Considerations For Educators When Using AI?

Before I give you ideas that show you how to use AI to create 3 different styles of visual support resources, I want to touch briefly on some ethical considerations first. It’s really important that you’re aware of these whenever you use an AI tool.

Confidentiality

When prompting AI about specific children's needs, be mindful of privacy. You don't need to use real names or identifying details.

Instead of saying, "I need a social story for Sam who has autism and struggles with letting go of certain toys," you might say, "I need a social story for a four-year-old child who finds letting go of special toys to engage in other things challenging and benefits from clear, simple language."

Accuracy and Appropriateness

I can’t stress this one enough - AI doesn't have specific knowledge of your children and it isn’t a magical mind reader.

It provides general suggestions based on the information you give it so carefully review everything it generates to ensure it's developmentally appropriate, culturally sensitive, and suitable for the specific children and learning goals that you have in mind.

Intentionality

Using AI doesn't mean being less intentional about your planning and play experiences. In fact, you can be more intentional because you spend less time on initial drafting and more time getting on with personalising the final resource (usually the part we like!)

I would just say that you should still make sure you can explain why you've chosen specific elements and how they connect to learning outcomes or developmental goals…and if you don’t know, ask your AI Assistant to help with that too.

The goal with using AI support in this way isn't to ‘cheat’ or create generic, one-size-fits-all resources, but rather to make the process of creating resources personalised to individual needs more efficient. The time you save on initial second guessing ideas and procrastinating on the writing  can be put back into tweaking the resources to individual children's needs and interests and using them with the child to engage and connect instead.

Now that we understand which AI tools work best and how to use them meaningfully and ethically, let's focus on the three most helpful visual supports you can create for children with diverse needs - they form a beneficial yet practical trio that support different aspects of a child's experience:

These three resources can work together as a helpful system:

1. Communication Boards give children a voice - helping them express needs, wants, and feelings even when verbal communication is challenging.
2. Visual Schedules provide structure and predictability - helping children understand what's happening now and what comes next, reducing anxiety around transitions.
3. Social Stories build understanding - helping children find their way through social situations and develop appropriate responses to different scenarios.

What's particularly effective is how these supports complement each other. A child might use a communication board to express that they're feeling anxious, a visual schedule to understand when a challenging activity will end, and a social story to develop strategies for managing those anxious feelings.

Ready to give it a try? Don’t worry, I’ll give you some tips and steps to follow so you understand exactly how to get started creating each of these essential support resources using AI as your assistant. Let’s  start with communication boards…

How To Create Communication Boards for Diverse Needs with AI Tools

If you've ever created one of these before, you'll know they can be incredibly useful tools for children who are developing their communication skills, learning English as an additional language, or who might have speech delays or other communication challenges.

For those who might be newer to the concept, a communication board is essentially a visual display of images, symbols, or words that children can point to in order to express themselves. They can range from very simple boards with just a few core items to more complex ones with multiple categories and extensive vocabulary.

Prompting Process In Action

Let me show you what happened in an example interaction using AI Assistant Maisie:

After working out exactly what I needed for a specific use case I created my prompt...

As you can see, Maisie gave me a really great starting point with categories like:

• Types of Food & Drinks (bread, pasta, water, juice, apple, banana, etc.)
• Food Preferences (I want, I like, I don’t like, etc)
• Sensory Words (yummy, spicy, sweet,crunchy, etc.)
• Social Phrases (please pass the, thank you, my turn, can I help, etc.)

This is already a solid foundation, and it probably took less than a minute to generate!

Then it was time to review and tweak the AI suggestions.

When you get your response, this is where your professional judgment comes in. Look at the suggestions and ask yourself:

• Are the words and phrases relevant to my children?
• Is the language developmentally appropriate?
• Are there obvious omissions or unnecessary inclusions?
• Does this reflect cultural diversity?

For example, when I looked at the above list, I noticed it didn't include any words related to allergies or dietary requirements, which are so important in early education settings today. I also thought some additional, simpler sensory words and words for utensils would be helpful.

So, if you're not satisfied with the first response, keep tweaking your prompt:

"Thank you for those suggestions. Could you please add a category for dietary considerations, actions and utensils? Also, the language needs to be simpler for some of our children who are just beginning to use English."

I always do this when working with AI tools - never settle for the first answer. Giving it more information and background about what you’re looking for results in more personalised, useful content.

By the time I finished the conversation I had additional categories for Dietary Considerations, Actions and Utensils...always personalise to your specific needs

More Prompt Ideas To Speed Up Your Communication Board Creation

A communication board created with AI assistance but reviewed through your professional lens will be far more effective than either a generic template or something created entirely from scratch without support.

While communication boards help children express themselves, visual schedules serve a different but equally important purpose: helping children understand time, sequence, and transitions. For many children, particularly those who experience anxiety or have difficulty with transitions, visual schedules are essential tools for navigating their day with confidence.

Let’s see how AI can also help you to create effective visual schedules - especially for children who find transitions challenging. Using similar steps to what we've just discussed, you'll discover how to put together prompts that give you developmentally appropriate, well organised schedules that turn ‘invisible’ time concepts into more visual, tangible solutions that children can understand.

The essential thing here is providing enough information for the AI to give relevant suggestions while still leaving room for your own professional judgment.

How To Design Visual Schedules for Less Stressful Transitions

For our youngest children, time is an abstract concept. They can't look at a clock and understand that in ten minutes we'll be going outside, or that after lunch comes rest time. Visual schedules make time concrete.

They create predictability, reduce anxiety, and help children develop independence as they learn to follow the sequence of their day.

Visual schedules can be:

• Whole group schedules displayed in the room
• Individual schedules for children who need additional support
• Portable schedules that move with the child throughout the day
• Take-home schedules to create consistency between the education setting and home

The beauty of visual schedules is their versatility, but creating them - especially when you want to personalise them for different children or different days, can be time-consuming. And you guessed it...I'm going to show you how AI can help again with just a few simple prompts...

Now, let's move on to our third visual support resource - social stories,  which can be incredibly useful resources for helping children interact in social situations, but they are unfortunately can also be some of the most time-consuming resources to create... until now that is!

Creating Social Stories for Children with AI Assistants

Social stories are simply personalised narratives that explain social situations in a way that helps children understand what to expect and how to respond appropriately. Originally developed by Carol Gray in the early 1990s to support children with autism, they've proven beneficial for many children who need additional support with social understanding.

What makes social stories particularly effective is how specific they can be. They're not generic books about sharing or taking turns - they're carefully written to address particular situations that a specific child is finding challenging.

They use clear language, often written in the first person, and combine:

• Descriptive sentences (what's happening)
• Directive sentences (what the child can do)
• Perspective sentences (how others might feel or think)

Social stories can help children:

• Prepare for new experiences (starting school, moving house, new baby)
• Understand routines and expectations
• Learn appropriate responses to social situations
• Manage emotions and behaviors
• Understand others' perspectives
• Deal with challenging situations

The challenge, of course, is that writing effective social stories takes time and skill. You need to carefully consider the language, ensure it's developmentally appropriate, and tailor it specifically to the situation and the child. This is where AI can again become your assistant and timesaver...while still allowing you to keep the quality and personalisation that makes social stories effective.

Let's breakdown the process of how you can use AI to help you create your own engaging social stories:

Essential Elements for Personalised Social Story Creation

Keep language positive: Focus on what to do rather than what not to do.

Be literal and realistic: Avoid metaphors or figures of speech that might be confusing.

Include flexibility: Avoid absolute terms like "always" or "never."

Balance different types of sentences:

• Descriptive (what happens)
• Directive (what to do)
• Perspective (how others feel)
• Affirmative (reassuring statements)

Ready To Copy AI Prompt Templates For Social Stories

Illustrating Your Social Stories

Of course, social stories are particularly effective when combined with visuals that help the child identify with the story:

• Photos of the actual environment and people involved (my preference, as children connect with them more easily)
• Pictures of the specific child (if you have appropriate permission)
• Simple drawings or clip art that clearly represent the concepts
• Symbols or icons for emotions or actions

If you want to just add the text and your own images into the social story, use the editable Canva templates I’ve already designed for members of my Canva Templates for Educators Hub - you can find out more about how to access them here.

These done for you templates make it super easy to create professional-looking social stories - just add your AI-generated text and the images you want, and you're ready to save as a PDF or print!

Social stories tend to be most effective when they're introduced thoughtfully and used consistently. Before sharing a social story with a child, make sure all educators are familiar with it and can reinforce the strategies it suggests. Read it with the child during a calm, quiet time (not during the challenging situation itself), and revisit it regularly, especially before the situation is likely to occur.

The beauty of using AI to help draft the text is that it frees up your time to focus on these personalisation elements that make the social story truly helpful and relatable for the specific child you're supporting.

Creating Visual Resources for Children with AI Assistants

Before I wrap up this post I want to reflect a little on something that I know many of you might be concerned about - how do we maintain our educational integrity and professional voice when using AI to help create resources?

After all, we're educators with specific training, experience, and knowledge of the children in our care. We don't want to simply outsource our professional judgment to a computer algorithm. And you're absolutely right to have this concern! Your expertise, your knowledge of individual children, and your understanding of early childhood development are irreplaceable.

AI is not meant to take over your role as an educator - it's meant to be a tool that helps you work more efficiently while still applying your professional judgment.

Think of it like using a recipe book when cooking. The recipe gives you a starting point, a foundation to work from, but you're the one who tastes the dish as you go, adjusts the seasonings based on your preferences, and perhaps adds your own special ingredients to make it unique. The recipe doesn't replace your cooking skills - it supports them.

So how do we ensure that we're maintaining our educational integrity when using AI to help create visual support resources? 

Here's some strategies to keep in mind...

What Next?

I know we've covered a lot as I've taken you on this journey through how AI can help you create the outlines and text for visual support resources (especially when you might not have even used AI as yet!) so let's recap some of the main points that you might want to come back and explore in more detail later:

First, we looked at the importance of visual support resources in early education - how communication boards, visual schedules, and social stories can support children's understanding, communication, and independence. These aren't just "nice-to-have" resources; they're essential tools that can significantly impact children's experience and development in our settings.

Then we reframed AI as a collaborative partner rather than a replacement for your professional expertise. Just like we might use templates or clipart to save time, AI can provide a starting point that we then adapt and improve based on our knowledge of specific children and environments.

I took you through simple step-by-step processes for using AI to help create three specific types of visual supports:

• Communication boards that give children a voice to express their needs, wants, and ideas
• Visual schedules that make the abstract concept of time concrete and help children navigate their day with confidence
• Social stories that support children's understanding of social situations and expectations.

And finally, we discussed the importance of maintaining your educational integrity and professional voice throughout this process - using AI as a tool while still applying your unique expertise and knowledge of the children in your care.

So, where do you go from here? I encourage you to start small. Choose one type of visual support that would be particularly beneficial in your setting right now. Perhaps you have a child who's struggling with transitions and could benefit from a visual schedule.

Or maybe you've noticed increased communication challenges during a particular routine, like outdoor play, and a communication board could help.

Try drafting a simple prompt based on what I've shared in this post, give it to an AI assistant, and see what you get back. Always keep in mind that the first response you get back will most likely not be what you want as your final solution - that's where your professional expertise comes in to review and personalise it then keep the conversation going to ensure you get the support you're looking for.

The most effective visual supports are those that are consistently used and regularly updated based on children's changing needs and interests. By saving time on the initial creation process, you can put more energy into how you use them and what to adapt or change.

I'm excited to see the innovative ways you'll use these tools to support the children in your care. Let me know in the comments which of the 3 supports you'd like to create first...and if you'll now use AI to help you do it!