Use a visual schedule to help your child deal with change

Visual schedules and other supports like timers or transition strips can help children with autism spectrum disorder or ADHD complete tasks and handle change and transition.

Some children do not manage well when they must stop one task and move on to another or when their daily personal or school routine changes. Others may benefit from having large tasks broken into smaller steps.

Visual schedules create daily structure and clarify expectations. They help your child navigate change, decrease reliance on verbal prompts, and build flexibility and independence.

Visual supports are effective for children with delayed receptive language (e.g., understanding language) or those who struggle to attend to and process auditory information (i.e., oral language). Some children become anxious or act out when they don’t understand demands. Visuals can help.

Many families work with a behaviour consultant at home or a special education teacher at school to develop visual supports. When developing a visual schedule:

• Identify what, specifically, you would like your child to achieve.
• Assess your child’s capabilities relative to to the specific goal. This will help ensure your expectations are realistic for the child’s cognitive abilities, adaptive functioning, academic skills, and developmental level. It will also inform the amount of support needed.
• Determine what level of visual abstraction suits the child’s developmental level. Can they recognize pictures, or do they require physical objects? If your child can interpret and respond to pictures, how abstract can these be? Does your child need photos of the object or will an illustration suffice?
• Determine how much information your child’s visual schedule should include. Will your child do best with two or three activities, or should activities be broken down in manageable pieces? Finding the optimal level of support reduces frustration and leads to success and independence over time.
• Finally, find a location for the visual schedule and determine who will teach and implement it. Monitor whether the approach is working and modify the schedule or approach as needed. Consistency across caregivers and environments is important and will establish a routine and predictability for your child.

When Using the Schedule

• Take the schedule to your child (providing a visual cue).
• As your child looks at the schedule, prompt them to use it.
• Use simple words and as few words as possible.
• Assist with the task as needed. Gradually reduce prompts as your child completes tasks and uses the schedule independently.
• Less-preferred tasks may need to be completed in between preferred activities. This is known as a First-Then schedule, or “sandwiching.”
• It is important not to remove the visual support when your child first experiences success. It can be modified and simplified over time.

For more information on implementing visual schedules, please visit:
http://autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/sites/autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/files/VisualSchedules_Steps.pdf

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