Back To School
If your kiddos haven’t gone back to school yet, then it is quickly approaching! It is always an exciting time of year with meeting new teachers, reconnecting with friends and all of the school supplies! Those exciting feelings can bring on other big emotions as your children start a transition into the school year. We often recommend implementing visual schedules to help your kiddo through this transition as their day to day starts to change.
What exactly is a visual schedule? A visual schedule communicates a sequence of upcoming events or activities through the use of pictures, words, or photographs. They are a great way to provide predictability for your child and help set up a clear routine for specific parts of the day. Implementing a visual schedule for morning routine, after school routine, and bedtime routine can be extremely beneficial!
Moving from one task to another can be tough for some kids, especially if they are in a time crunch before hopping in the car to head to school. Moving around or listening to multi-step directions can cause meltdowns. A visual schedule can help reduce anxiety if they have a place to head back to and see what they have to do next. Parents can also easily add new tasks into a visual schedule, which helps develop a kiddo’s flexibility!
Visual schedules are also great for supporting literacy, comprehension and overall language development! Verbal instructions can sometimes go in one ear and out the other! With the use of a visual schedule, the pictures can help reinforce what you told your child to do. They also help with learning how to sequence, build vocabulary, and strengthen their recall of information.
You can also create your own visual schedule with pictures of your child completing each task. We suggest placing your visual schedule in a location somewhere in their bedroom or in the kitchen where everyone can check in with the progress of their routine. Visual schedules are easy to create with velcro strips and lamination. You can also often find them online on Amazon or Etsy!
