Communication breakdown: How visual supports ease executive overload

"Okay, grab your maths book, finish what we did yesterday, hand it in, and then we'll start the new task."

For many neurodivergent children, those four seemingly simple instructions can feel like being asked to juggle while riding a unicycle in a thunderstorm. The words fly past, pile up, and disappear before they can be caught.

In episode 15 of the Neurodivergent Pulse podcast, host Laetitia Andrac sat down with Jess Shahbazi and Jenn Winstone, the co-creators of MyComms, a communication accessibility app supporting neurodivergent individuals and their families. Together, this speech pathologist and positive behaviour support practitioner unpacked why visual supports aren't just helpful; they're essential.

Their core insight? When we understand executive functioning overload as a capacity issue rather than a behaviour problem, everything changes.

What is executive functioning overload?

Jenn Winstone describes executive functioning as "the brain's admin centre." It helps us organise information, remember what to do next, shift between ideas, and manage emotions. These skills take years to develop and are sensitive to stress, fatigue, and unpredictability.

Executive functioning overload is what happens when the admin centre has more to manage than it can hold. And why that's interesting is that it's not a behaviour problem. It's a capacity issue.

When that admin centre reaches capacity, we start to see patterns that might look like defiance but are actually overwhelm: forgetting steps of a familiar task, getting stuck or freezing, big emotions in moments that feel small, trouble shifting between activities, or behaviour that appears oppositional.

Jenn painted a vivid picture of what this looks like in practice.

Picture an eight-year-old who's just come in from lunch at school. They're asked to get their maths book, finish yesterday's work, hand it in, and start a new task. For a child whose executive functioning is already stretched from the sensory load of the playground, the social demands of lunchtime, and the processing required to transition back to learning mode, those instructions can pile up impossibly fast.

The result? Sitting still and not starting. Getting up repeatedly to change pencils. Refusing. Melting down. Leaving the room.

"None of this means that that child doesn't care or that they're not capable," Jenn noted. "It means that their admin centre in the brain has just reached capacity."

Why visual supports work when words don't

So how do we support someone whose admin centre is overloaded?

"Visuals are really helpful because if you think about words, they're invisible," Jess explained. "They move really quickly. We all say them a little bit differently. As soon as they come out they're gone. Whereas visuals, they're here to stay. They're concrete. They often don't change."

She offered a simple but powerful analogy: think about a road sign. "I can reliably look at that stop sign every time I'm at that intersection. And that's a really reliable cue for me to know, yep, this is where I stop. It's really clear. I know what to do. It's always here."

Visuals work because they create predictability. They don't vanish the moment they're delivered.

Returning to the example of the overwhelmed eight-year-old, Jess described how she would support that child using a task breakdown: a numbered sequence with visual cues. Step one might show a picture of the maths book tub. Step two, a photo of yesterday's worksheet. Step three, a picture of where completed work gets handed in. Step four, a photo of the new task.

This gives children the independence to move through the tasks without feeling like they have to do four things at once.

Creating consistency across environments

One of the trickiest challenges families face is maintaining support across different settings. A child might thrive in a classroom filled with visual cues, then struggle at a grandparent's house or during a holiday away from routine.

The solution? Consistent, tangible supports that can travel between environments.

This is where technology becomes a genuine ally. Apps like MyComms allow families to create task breakdowns, daily schedules, and weekly calendars using their own photos. These supports can then be printed, shared, and used across home, school, therapy sessions, and beyond.

Jenn emphasised why personal photos matter so much more than generic images: "The difference between a cartoon and photo is very different because a drawing of a classroom versus the classroom your child is going to can be the difference between understanding and transitioning versus I'm confused."

The goal isn't to replace therapists or educators. It's to equip families with tools they can use in the moments that matter.

The impact of clear communication

When communication becomes clearer, the benefits extend far beyond the immediate moment.

"When communication is clearer, we see children that are more calm. We see calmer adults," Jenn shared. "We see fewer meltdowns. We see more independence, or a term that we like to use more so is interdependence. We see stronger relationships. We see more participation, more engagement."

Jess shared a powerful example that illustrates this ripple effect. A mother using MyComms has a young autistic son with significant health concerns, requiring frequent hospital visits and surgeries. Previously, these medical experiences were deeply traumatic, not because of the procedures themselves, but because the boy didn't understand what was happening or when it would end. After returning home, he often couldn't leave the house for days or weeks.

Then his mother tried something different. She used MyComms to prepare him with photos of the actual anaesthesiologist and the actual operating room.

The boy wasn't traumatised. He felt empowered. The next day, he wanted to look at the photos again to reflect on the experience. Now, the whole family feels equipped to manage future medical appointments.

Photos are an anchor for emotional security. They don't just provide information; they provide safety.

Visual strategies anyone can use today

You don't need an app or a formal system to start using visual supports.

Laetitia relies on simple Post-it notes with numbered steps. "I need those taps because I get into the conversation and I forget to record or I forget to pull up the questions that I've prepared," she admitted. The Post-its keep her on track without overloading her working memory.

Jenn uses a weekly calendar for meal planning. "It just takes that executive functioning load off my brain so I know how to plan out my week," she explained. The visual calendar also helps her children know what to expect and forewarns them about non-negotiable activities.

Jess's answer might surprise you: Instagram. Before visiting a new restaurant, park, or even going cherry-picking, she looks up photos to assess whether it's the kind of sensory environment she wants to be in. "Those photos, when you talk about safety, Jen and I often talk about photos as being an anchor for emotional security. They just bring so much connection, but also a real safety sense."

Many of us already use visual supports without realising it. The question is whether we're offering that same support to the neurodivergent children and adults in our lives.

Where to start

Visual supports aren't about creating more work for families who are already stretched thin. They're about reducing the cognitive load for everyone: the child, the parent, the educator, the therapist.

Start small. A Post-it note with today's three steps. A photo of what's for dinner. A picture of the person you're visiting on the weekend.

As Jenn and Jess remind us, the goal is understanding. When someone knows what's happening, they feel safer. When they feel safer, they can engage, connect, and thrive.

For families wanting to explore visual support further, MyComms offers a user-friendly platform for creating personalised supports using your own photos. You can find it on both Android and Apple, with an iPad version now available.

And if you're navigating the journey of supporting a neurodivergent child, Understanding Zoe can help you make sense of the observations, reports, and recommendations you're gathering, turning them into clear next steps that work for your family.

The ripple effects of clear communication are real. Calmer children. Calmer adults. Fewer meltdowns. Stronger relationships. It all starts with making the invisible visible.

Listen to the full conversation with Jess and Jenn on the Neurodivergent Pulse podcast, Episode 15: "Communication breakdown: How visual supports ease executive overload."