Symbol-supported text

Also called Symbolised text, Symbol writing, Symbol-supported writing, Symbolised documents

Writing with a symbol above each word, what it does for a reader, and the mistake of symbolising every word on the page.

What it is

Symbol-supported text is ordinary written English with a small picture symbol above each word, or above the words that carry the meaning. The reader who cannot yet decode the word can read the symbol; the reader who can decode gets both, and the pairing teaches the word. It is the form most UK special school worksheets, many care home menus and a good many easy read leaflets take.

It is made with software that attaches symbols as you type: Widgit SymWriter and InPrint are the common tools in the UK, Boardmaker does it with PCS, and the ARASAAC site has a free version. The software chooses a symbol for each word, and the writer corrects it where the word has more than one meaning.

It is not the same thing as easy read, which is a standard for the whole document, and it is not the same as a communication board, which is for saying things rather than reading them. It is a reading support.

Who it can help

Children learning to read who need a bridge between the picture and the word, children and adults with a learning disability who read some words and not others, and people whose reading has been affected by aphasia or dementia. It helps a class where reading ability ranges widely, because the same sheet works for everyone.

It helps less than people expect for a fluent reader, who finds the symbols a distraction, and it helps not at all for a person who has not yet learned that a symbol stands for a word; that learning comes first, through use on a board. The research on whether symbols above every word speed up reading is mixed, and the safest reading of it is that symbols on the key words help and symbols on every the, of and is can get in the way.

How it works

The writer types; the software places a symbol above each word from its set, and offers alternatives where a word is ambiguous, so that bank gets the river or the money. The writer can turn symbols off for function words, change the symbol size, and choose colour or black-and-white. The result is printed or shown on screen.

Good practice, which the symbol companies themselves teach, is to symbolise the content words and leave the grammar words plain, to keep one idea per line, to use a large clear font beneath, and to keep the symbol set consistent through the document and with the person's other materials. A symbol-supported document in a set the person has never seen is just a decorated page.

Licensing follows the set. Widgit and PCS output needs the licence the software came with; ARASAAC output is free to share for non-commercial use with credit.

Getting started

Take one thing the person reads every day, a timetable or a menu, and make a symbol-supported version this week. Use the set they already know from school or their device. Symbolise the nouns and verbs, leave the small words plain, one line per item.

Read it with them, pointing at the symbol and the word together, and let them read the symbol first if that is where they are. Over weeks, shrink the symbols and let the word do more work; the goal is reading, and the symbol is scaffolding.

For a service making documents for many people, get the licence, agree one set, and test the document with two or three of the readers before printing five hundred.

Where to get help

Widgit for the software and for guidance on symbolising well. ARASAAC for a free online tool. CHANGE for the wider craft of accessible documents, and Mencap for accessible information for people with a learning disability. CALL Scotland publishes free guidance on symbol-supported literacy in schools.