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Teach your child to follow the schedule: It’s not enough to make it and hang it up on your fridge – you need to actually teach your child the routine.In the beginning, you will probably need to remind your kids of the schedule all the time. Ensure it’s in a location that makes it easy for yourself and kids to check the schedule. Display your schedule: Place the visual schedule in a central location in your home, such as the fridge, or in the family room.Whatever you choose, make sure the visuals are clear for your child to understand and that everything is concise and consistent. You can also make this yourself – draw it by hand or create it by finding your own images online and printing them. Create the schedule visually: There are many different ways to do this.Plus, this transition cue should be consistent between every activity. This helps children know when it’s time to move on. Decide how to initiate transitions: Decide how you will transition in between activities on the schedule – will you use a timer? A verbal cue? A sound warning? A song? Each activity needs a clear start and finish.Build a calm down space and anything else you want to create. For example, set up your craft table, get a bin and fill it with homework supplies and set up a homework station. Structure the environment: Set up specific areas in your home where each of these activities will happen and get any supplies you need.But, for example, if you designate 3 pm-4 pm for craft time, then you plan different tasks each day or a week at a time. It doesn’t have to be a specific activity that they do every day because that can get very boring. Instead of telling them to “go play” you can add activities like – outdoor play, fine motor play (crafts, drawing, cutting, beading, etc), quiet time, etc. Fill in the gaps: Fill in the gaps by deciding on more structured activities for your child for specific times.These should be things such as waking up, eating breakfast, leaving for school, eating dinner, bathtime, bedtime, etc. Write down what already happens every day: The best way is to begin by writing down your schedule starting with what already happens every day and at approximately that time.Then you can start planning those habits into your day.Ĭreating Your Daily Routine & Visual Schedule Step-By-Step It’s a good idea to list a few habits that you’d like the family to adopt as part of their day, for example, everyone clearing their dishes from the dinner table each day. But if you have a lot of gaps in your day that are chaotic or have no apparent plan then it can be hard to decide what you want to do with that time. Most likely some parts of your daily routine are already established, like dinner time and bedtime. For example, you could have a morning routine, an after-school routine, and a bed-time routine.īefore making the actual visual schedule itself you need to first plan what your daily routine and the kids’ daily routine will look like. Can be created for the whole day, or broken up into chunks.Show transitions within the day (like changing activities or environments).Depict the activities that will occur, and in what sequence.Helps with the development of some executive functioning skills, such as time management and organization.Encourages independence so kids don’t need continuous prompting.This usually stems from not having a full understanding of how the world works. Provides stability – uncertainty may cause major stress for kids with Autism.Helps stablish healthy, constructive habits – such as personal hygiene, and completing chores and homework daily.With a visual schedule, they can easily look to see what to expect next. Even if their routine is consistent they may still worry about this. Not knowing “what’s next” is often a source of anxiety for kids. Easily understood, even by children who can’t yet read or who are nonverbal.