What are Visual Schedules?
A visual schedule is like a visual organizer. For many of us, hardly a day goes by without our phone calendars prompting us about our various appointments. Likewise, a visual schedule can also help children to keep abreast of all the ongoings in their lives.
This is especially so as changes and transitions are often stressful for some of our children. Many children with autism struggles with this. Thus, a visual schedule can be a very handy tool for children with autism and research supports this.
Visual tools like photos, drawings, words, numbers are often used in visual schedules. These help individuals to understand when and what activities are going to take place visually. These schedules can be based on a timeframe of a month, a week, a day, an hour, or even down to the steps within an activity.
A visual schedule is thus a powerful tool which allows an individual to follow a routine, perform a complex task or to simply organise his day. This is the reason why it is commonly recommended by professionals (i.e. teachers, occupational therapists, speech therapists) for children with autism. Here are 11 reasons why visual schedules should be a part of your child’s life:
Benefits of Visual Schedules
#1: Work to a Child’s Visual Strengths
Even though some children with autism may understand short verbal instructions, they may have difficulties following a longer one. As such, they will benefit from additional cues to support retention and comprehension.
Numerous studies have indicated that visuospatial skills and sustained attention are core strengths in some children with autism. By providing a visual cue to what is being said, it helps children to better understand and remember what has been communicated to them.
This is important considering that some instructions may be too lengthy. Just imagine a teacher telling the class to “Clean up your toys, grab your books and come sit in the circle!” It’s likely that a child would have switched off before he gets to the end of the sentence!
Additionally, some instructions may contain too many steps. Before a child even has the chance to comprehend what has been said, the speaker has already moved on. Therefore, we can make our instructions easier to follow by making use of a visual schedule.
#2: Serve as a Reminder
Imagine yourself learning to parallel park. Your instructor is going: “Now, check your front mirror. Then, when the front of your car reaches the rear door of the car in front, you can start steering left. You must steer all the way to the left until your front left wheel is blah blah blah..” With so many steps, it is likely that you will lose track at some point. It’s not like you are not being a good student. It’s just that there are simply too many pieces of information to hold on to.
Unfortunately, verbal instructions are fleeting. Thankfully, written information is not. Since a visual schedule remains for a child to refer to, it serves as a reminder of what has been said. Going back to the driving example, if your instructor had provided a written instruction sheet, you would have been able to refer to the instruction sheet if you had forgotten. As you can see, a visual schedule serves a very similar function.
This is particularly important for children with autism. Since they may not yet possess the skills to seek help, it can manifest as poor participation or challenging behaviours. Thus, the visual schedule provides a very clear and chronological way to represent each event or activity that will take place.
#3: Make Expectation Clear
The visual schedule gives a very clear idea about what a child is expected to do. Words can be vague, but as the adage goes, a picture says a thousand words. When the task is represented by a picture, it leaves less room for confusion.
#4: Reduce Tantrums
Children with autism prefer structure and predictability. Thus, giving them advance notice about upcoming events in their day will help them feel more at ease and in control.
However, the unexpected can occur, and they do so frequently too. In such cases, the visual schedule can also be an effective way to pre-empt the child to such contingencies. This skill has to be taught eventually, but allowing the child to see that a change is imminent helps prepare them mentally for the transition.
#5: Promote Independence
Very often, children with autism rely on adults to usher them from one activity to the next. “Matty, it’s time for bath. Matty, it’s time to eat your breakfast”. “Matty, it’s time to go to bed.” That pretty much sums up a day in their lives.
Doing so may get your child through the day, but it does very little to build independence. Organising and following a plan is a crucial skill that children need to learn in order to function in the classroom and eventually in the real world.
Imagine the grown-up version of your child working at a fast food chain. She needs to learn to follow the plan of greeting the customer, taking their order, passing the order to the kitchen and then collecting the money. If she needs her supervisor to tell her what to do every time, she likely will not have a job the next day.
A visual schedule is thus a good way to promote independence. By teaching your child to check her visual schedule, she can then get through her activity or day without the need for external reminders. This then sets the stage for her to become an independent adult, capable of self-care and supporting herself.
#6: Teach New Skills
The other benefit of visual schedules is that it can be used to teach new skills. This is done by breaking the activity down into small steps, arranged in sequential order. The child can then see at a glance, which step to take and what comes next.
For example, you might break down the Toiletting skill into the following: 1) Go to toilet, 2) Close the door, 3) Pull down pants, 4) Sit on toilet bowl, 5) Complete business, 6) Wipe, 7) Pull up pants, 8) Flush, 9) Wash hands with soap, 10) Wipe hands. As you can see, there are multiple steps that the child has to complete. This can be overwhelming for a child who is new at this skill.
The good thing about having a visual schedule is that the child can now work on the skill step by step. The child can follow the schedule, and as each step is completed, he simply need to check what comes next. It not only serves as a reminder but also helps him measures his progress.
As the child gains mastery over the new skill, the number of steps can then be reduced. When the skill is finally mastered, the visual schedule can be faded altogether.
#7: Help a Child Follow Through
1000 EXP points to up your character’s next level! If you have played any computer games, you would have noticed that games often utilize this strategy to keep you hooked. This is because telling you how much more you have to go before the next level lets you see an end point. With the goal post in sight, you will feel motivated to keep going.
Likewise, the visual schedule provides a very tangible way for the child to track his progress. By removing each task and putting it in the complete bin, it helps the child to feel a sense of achievement as he moves through each step. In addition, knowing that one only has a little more left to go can also serve as a strong motivator to get the task done.
#8: Reduce Stress for Adults
As an adult with a million and one things to handle, it can be incredibly trying when you have to deal with a meltdown. As Murphy’s law goes: “If anything can go wrong, it will”. If each deviation from plan is met with a meltdown, it can become very stressful for an adult.
Therefore, by reducing your child’s frustration, it can lead to a corresponding reduction in frustration for you. In addition, as your child gains more independence with the use of the visual schedule, you also need to supervise your child less. This then frees up your attention to attend to other issues, thus reducing your level of stress.
#9: Support Literacy Development
Because visual schedule usually utilises a combination of words and pictures, it helps children to learn the words that go with the images.
Not only do children learn to associate the picture to the text, they also get to learn the meaning in context. This gives them a more thorough grasp of the word than with just a picture alone.
In addition, the child may also pick up some phonic skills as they learn to read the words. This then lays the foundation for future literacy skills.
#10: Support Conversational Skills
Children with autism often learn to make requests at some point. But many continue to struggle when it comes to using language socially. To build on this skill, they will need more practice in this area.
A visual schedule can be useful for this purpose. Not only can it be used to talk about the future, it can also be used to talk about the past. The adult can place the pieces back on to the schedules, and ask the child to talk about his or her day. The visual schedule can then serve as a reminder of what has transpired during the course of a day.
Some questions adults can ask are, “What did you do today?”, “Tell me your favourite activity” and so forth. Doing so gives them a chance to use language in conversation, rather than merely to get their needs met.
#11: Teach Children to Organise and Plan
Lastly, visual schedules also teach children the important skill of learning to organise and plan their day. During weekends or lull time, parents can ask children to place some activities on the board to occupy their time. With the help of a timer, children can then be taught to follow through their plans.
This can be important as children do not always have the luxury of having someone around to tell them what to do. In addition, it also helps to occupy the child if parents need time off to run errands or even to just cook or clean.
In addition, visual schedules can also be used to help a child to problem-solve at a later stage. Children can learn to strategize the steps that need to be taken, organise them sequentially, and then to carry out the plan. This allows children to tackle complex problems, which will inevitably crop up during their daily lives or work.
The Bottom-Line About Visual Schedules
The benefits of visual schedules for children with autism are many. By working on their strengths, it helps them manage change, follow routines and learn new skills. With so many benefits, it should be something that all children with autism are trained to use.
What other benefits of visual schedules can you think of? Share them below.
