How does the picture system work?

Based on our conviction that there was a need for a visual system whose main aim was the immediate recognition of the pictures, in 1990 we started developing this BeTa system.

In spite of the fact that the easy recognition of pictures is one of our main objectives, this ‘picture dictionary’ is very structured, which has led us to refer to it as a ‘symbols system’.

Each system has pretty much its own rules. In the BETA system these rules are mainly determined by colour, form and position.
A number of basic figures appear in the system, figures that consistently return throughout the whole system.

(click on the picture to enlarge it)

We’ve approached the colouring in of the drawings in as logical a way as possible. Sometimes only certain parts are coloured in to make the contrast stand out more clearly.

e.g. paint pot and paint

Some illustrations come back in a wider picture as part of another topic.

E.g. the camera in photo and photographer.

The logical use of arrows.
A fully coloured in black arrow indicates something.

e.g. shadow, nose, saucer

An empty white arrow represents a change in space or time.

e.g. give, tomorrow, hear

verbs: as regards verbs, we use small dashes like those also used in comic strips and cartoons.

e.g. looking for something - skating

This way of working (so it appeared afterwards) is not free of criticism (cf Blockberger article: "... are only recognized as being what they are from 8 upwards"). On the other hand, being regularly confronted with certain drawings, the learning process, (best done in a very logical manner) is an important aid to arrive at recognition, something that we can clearly conclude in practice.

Even so, we do make a sort of exception here. Whenever the topic implies no movement at all, the action lines are left out.

e.g. in sitting.

An additional arbitrary agreement in our system is that the figures that appear to illustrate verbs are depersonalised: they have a simple circle as a head. The reason for this was that when we used the head of the boy or the girl to illustrate verbs during exercises, the children linked the verb to that particular person.

A phrase such as 'I walk home' then became 'I, the boy, walk home'.

For neutral objects such as in prepositions or in the case of some verbs, we used a purple circle as a neutral representation. This was similarly used to introduce more abstract topics.

e.g. have - far – the same

Placement as distinguishing characteristic: to be able to recognise an opposite in a drawing, it is often necessary to also see the antipole. Which is why we have included both opposites in one picture where the object we weren’t referring to is crossed out and the one we were referring to always remains on the left.

e.g. heavy – a lot - wet

Sometimes we use smaller drawings on the top to make the drawings below more recognisable. These small figures are naturally drawings that come from the system.

e.g. sheet (bed) - speech therapist (speaking)

Each system needs its own structure when being drawn. For the BETA pictures, the basic principle is that systematics should not be a hindrance for those people who do not have the mental aptitude to understand this structure. And yet, we are well aware of the fact that we have to break one of our rules here. Because specific examples are strongly susceptible to subjectivity. For this reason, we have intentionally left the system 'open', so that users can easily make alterations to their individual needs and limitations. The drawings have been made completely on the computer: each drawing has been drawn with the mouse. We could have used scanning, but we found that the pictures became much ‘heavier’. That’s why we opted for ‘vectorial’ drawing: this makes the illustrations a lot more user-friendly and quicker to use. Another major advantage is that the illustrations can be reduced and enlarged without any loss of quality. However, on the website we have had to put them in bitmap where they have lost something of their quality.