Do you have a student who melts down whenever it’s time to stop playing on the iPad? Is getting through homework, bath, and chores a major battle each night? Does your child need constant reminders to do even the simplest tasks? Do you have students who become frustrated during work time? Visual schedules can help!!

Visual schedules are a super helpful tool for children of all ages and all developmental levels. They can be modified an infinite number of ways to best meet the needs of the child or children you know. Regardless of how you modify them, the basic ideas are the same. When you use visual schedules, you use a picture or drawing to represent each major activity or transition throughout the day. As the day progresses, the adult helps the child manipulate the visual schedule to show that certain tasks have been completed and to identify which tasks are coming next. The process of manipulating the visual schedule helps the child predict his or her day, which generally helps the child transition from one task to the next more easily. As the child gains skill and comfort with the visual schedule, the adult fades the prompting, allowing the child to transition as independently as possible.

This blog post will share step by step information on how to make a picture schedule and how to teach its use to the child or children in your world. Some parents feel like their lives are too chaotic to even begin building a schedule. Schedules will actually HELP you manage the chaos and get things under control. If you feel like you want to get your own days under control, check out this amazing post by So, You are Now a Mom? on the 12 Best Ways To Become An Organized Stay At Home Mom so you can model the organization and lack of chaos you want to create for your children! It was written by Mercy Christian, who is a wife, caring Mom, foodie, child care expert & volunteer. She’s a devoted mom of two wonderful and lovely kids, Dominion and Olive and lover of God and Humanity! Lifestyle blogging became a big part of her life since she had her second child. You can learn more about her here.

Why visual schedules work

Visual schedules work because they provide consistent and predictable information. Often, children struggle with behavioral problems because they don’t understand expectations. Children get engaged in playing Lego without realizing that they have to do homework. They turn on the TV without realizing it’s time for a bath. If you have a picture schedule, though, your child knows what they are supposed to be doing. They can follow along throughout their day and see that they have Lego time after homework or they have TV time after dinner. By being able to predict when they can do the things they want, they are less likely to try to engage in those activities at the wrong time.

Additionally, visual schedules work because they reduce anxiety. Often, children engage in behavior problems because they have anxiety. For children with anxiety, they often try to do things their way at all times. They may feel like if they don’t control the day, they won’t be able to predict what will happen. Imagine a family where the child always has TV time, then has dinner, then takes a bath, then hears a bedtime story and goes to bed. Maybe tonight the grandparents are coming to visit so the child’s parents decide to have the child bathe before dinner. The child melts down because his parents are trying to send him directly from watching TV to taking a bath. He may be worried that his parents forgot about dinner. He doesn’t understand and he may be trying to use his behavior to show his parents that the schedule is off. By using a picture schedule, though, his parents can show him the revised order for the night. They can show him that tonight the schedule will go TV, bath, dinner, story, bed. He can see that although it’s different, he’ll still get to do all the things he wants.

Parents often worry that using a picture schedule requires them to be more consistent in their daily routines, but in reality it’s the opposite. In the above example, the parents had to stick to their same routine or the child would melt down. Once the family introduces a picture schedule, however, they are free to change the order of activities as long as they show the child the new plan using pictures. The child no longer needs a consistent routine. The child learns that the consistent, predictable thing is the schedule, not the routine. Using a schedule allows the child to still have predictability even if they follow a new routine some days.

Visual schedules also work because they are presented visually, rather than verbally, and people are generally more agreeable to anything that is written rather than said. Imagine going to a store late at night for some medicine for your headache. If the store is dark and the sign on the door says, “Closed” you are likely to get in the car and drive to a new store. If, however, you see someone inside the store who calls out, “I’m sorry, we’re already closed,” you’re more likely to start trying to convince them to let you in than to get back in your car. One thing I say in clinic all the time is, “People argue with other people, they don’t argue with visual cues”. This statement is just as true for children as adults. If you can present information visually, you’re much more likely to get agreement from a child than if you just tell them what to do.

How to Make a Visual Schedule: Choosing your activities

If you’re making a visual schedule for home, it can help to just start with part of your day. Pick one section of your day that is a struggle and write down a list of the tasks and activities that happen during that portion of the day. Teaching a visual schedule can be time intensive initially, and it will be helpful to only have to focus on a portion of the day while your child is learning how to use it. Once your child has the visual schedule mastered, it is often helpful to add the rest of the day.

If you’re making a visual schedule for a whole classroom in a school, it generally works best to create a visual schedule for the whole school day. If, in contrast, you’re focusing on a visual schedule for a single student, start with just one portion of the school day – just like you would do for a home schedule.

The reason for the difference is based on the number of children being taught and the way the material will be presented, not the setting! When you’re using a visual schedule for a single child, you’ll want the child to manipulate the visual schedule. The child will check the schedule and take off the pictures of completed events and identify what will come next. The process of teaching the child how to do these steps can be intensive, and it is easiest to only teach it for a short portion of the day initially. When the visual schedule is being used for a large group, however, the adult will need to manipulate the visual schedule. It’s simply not feasible for 20 children to all try to move the pictures around on the schedule. Because the adult will be moving the schedule pictures as tasks are completed, the amount of training is drastically reduced, which makes it much simpler to use a full day schedule from the start.

HOW TO MAKE A VISUAL SCHEDULE: CHOOSING YOUR PICTURES

Once you know which activities you want to include on your visual schedule, you’ll need to decide what type of representation works best for your child. Younger children need big pictures with small words (because they’re focusing on the image, not the words). Emerging readers may do best when the words and pictures are equally sized. Strong readers may have words with small pictures, or not need any pictures at all. 

The schedules pictured in this post are designed for young children, so they are primarily focused on the picture. They all have clear, easy to see pictures that identify the major transitions for the child. When creating your picture schedule, keep in mind that you can use any kind of picture – clip art, drawings you make, or even photographs of the activity area. The important thing is to use a consistent image for each activity; the picture for snack time should always be the same picture. Children will learn the meaning of the pictures pretty quickly, so whatever you pick is usually fine as long as it’s consistent.

HOW TO MAKE A VISUAL SCHEDULE: building your schedule

Once you’ve identified the pictures you want to use, print out enough copies to get through the entire time block. If the child will have 2 snacks during the time period, make sure you have at least 2 snack pictures. I find visual schedules work best with a little laminate and Velcro because you can re-use them forever without them ripping or wrinkling! So, once you have your pictures ready, laminate them and stick a small piece of Velcro on the back of each one.

A word about using Velcro. Velcro works by having 2 different materials (what I call soft and crunchy but officially are called hook and loop) that attach to each other. Whenever I make a visual schedule, I put the crunchy side on the back of the pictures and the soft side on the schedule board. There is no logic to doing it that way, but you do want to pick one way of doing it and always do it the same way. I absolutely ALWAYS put crunchy Velcro on the back of my schedule pictures so that any pictures I make will fit on any of my schedules. There is nothing more frustrating than putting the time into making schedule cards, printing them, laminating them, adding Velcro, and then finding out they won’t stick to your schedule because you made them wrong! So, I strongly encourage you to pick a standard system for which type of Velcro goes on your schedule cards and which type goes on your schedule board and use it EVERY time.

Once all the visual schedule cards are made, you’ll need to decide where you’re posting your schedule. If you’re teaching the visual schedule to a single child, try to pick a place that is easy for the child to access throughout the daily activities. If you’re using it for a whole class, hang it up in an easy to see spot – maybe near where the majority of the teaching occurs.

When you hang your visual schedule, you can attach it right to the wall, but I usually take a piece of card stock and add a Velcro strip to it. Attaching the pictures to a board allows me to make the visual schedule portable. By using a schedule board, I can always move the schedule to a new spot if I decide it isn’t placed properly. If I attach the schedule directly to a wall, I’m stuck with the location!

The pictures are then placed on the schedule strip in the order the activities will occur. The visual schedule can be oriented either top to bottom or left to right. Top to bottom visual schedules work well for all learners, but especially non-readers. There is a natural logic to working through a schedule by starting at the top. For children who are readers, they’ve learned to read left to right, so they will also understand following a schedule that moves along left to right.

It is also helpful to place an envelope or small container near the visual schedule so the child has a place to put the visual schedule cards as they are removed. This “finished” spot doesn’t have to be attached to the schedule, but it should be right next to it so it’s easy for the child to access it.

Teaching Children to use the visual schedule

If you’re teaching the visual schedule to a single child, pick a standard phrase to use as a prompt. I use “check schedule,” but you can use whatever works for you. I say “check schedule” and then have the child walk over to the schedule, check the schedule and complete the task. When the task is completed, I prompt “check schedule” again and the child goes back to check the schedule again, removes the picture of the completed task, checks what activity is next, and then goes to do that activity. You’ll need lots of prompting initially, but over time you can fade out the prompting. Learn how to fade out prompting by checking out this post!

Once your child is successfully navigating the visual schedule. Begin adding other parts of the day until you have a full day schedule. If there are too many pictures to place them all on the board (or if its visually overwhelming), just put up part of the day. When the child is nearing the end of the schedule, move the last few cards to the beginning and add the next set of cards. It can help to use a recipe card holder to store the upcoming schedule cards so they’re in the right order and ready to go when you need them!

If you’re teaching the visual schedule to a whole class, you’ll be doing much more of the work. You can still use a standard phrase but it’s more of a cue to watch what you’re doing than a prompt for the children to do something. Consider using a phrase like, “let’s check our schedule.” You can tell the class, “Let’s check our schedule” and then walk over to the schedule and announce the activity that is next. For example, if the activity is “math” you’ll then prompt everyone to take out their math book and start the lesson. When math is over, you’ll give your phrase again, “Good job with math. Let’s check our schedule.” Then you’ll walk back over, remove the math card and see what activity is next. “Math is done, time for lunch.” You’ll then prompt everyone to get ready for lunch and continue using the schedule in that manner throughout the day.

Beyond a daily visual schedule

Once your child knows how to use visual schedules, you will find you can use them for all kinds of things! You can even break down a visual schedule into smaller, mini-schedules if there are certain tasks that are particularly tricky. Mini-schedules can be used for multi-step routines (e.g., hand washing or dressing), play activities (e.g.,building Lego or pretending to cook), or chores (e.g., washing dishes or cooking a snack). Check out my post here which breaks down how to make mini-schedules.

There are an infinite number of ways to use visual schedules – and once your child knows how to use them you’ll be amazed how independent they can be!

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