Visual schedule?

[Not_a_Number]

Hey all, 

Does anyone have good ideas for what I could use for a visual schedule that's easy to edit that the kids could refer to? Optimally, I'd like something I could include both kids on, but that's not necessary... I printed them out before, but I'd kind of like something more flexible. 

Something big and easy to see would be nice, too! 

[HomeAgain]

I made magnets when ds was young.  It was just printed pictures covered in packing tape with magnets I scavenged.  Every day he could see the necessary items on the fridge and add ones he wanted to do as well.  It'd probably work just as well on a smaller scale, using 1in pictures on square magnets. (ours were 2x3)

 

[PeterPan]

First decide if you want language or pictures. Visual schedule does not have to mean pictures, and for an 8 yo who reads it likely is language. 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Autism-Visual-Schedules-More-for-Prek-Elementary-Classrooms-in-Solid-Colors-1396222  Here's something premade. You'll see she includes both picture and language options. You can make something similar yourself. As HA said, you can print on cardstock, laminate, and put magnets on the back. 

You could also consider whiteboards. All workers who have come in to work with my ds wanted to use a whiteboard and language for the schedules. That was from ages 7+. As soon as they knew he could read, they went to language. Now it's really a crock in the sense that the whole *point* of pictures* is to decrease stress and improve communication, meaning pictures can still be better for students who read. However it's just something to think through.

None of these ways will decrease oppositional behavior, even when you increase choice. So if the dc tends to be oppositional, they're still going to (potentially) resist or sabotage. Which is to say you could spend a lot of time laminating and putting on magnets and they just destroy it or throw it away, lol. I do charge my ds ($$) for things he destroys btw, but he's figured out there are things he can destroy that didn't have monetary value and only represented my time, sigh.

When my dd was young, I did a simpler system with colored index cards and a pocket chart. You can snag a pocket chart relatively inexpensively, and index cards don't hurt so much if they're destroyed. They're also of course blessedly flexible. When you use any visual schedule, you want a way to show COMPLETION of work, so you think through how you show that for each method. It can be a checkmark beside the task on a whiteboard, flipping the card front to back, moving it from a to do column to a completed work column, or removing the magnet from the strip and placing it in a done pile. 

I think I may have pictures of my ds' early work areas when he was 5/6 and using a visual schedule. I was very inspired by Christine Reeve's stuff that I linked there. (Her website is amazing btw.) Instead of subject by subject schedules, we were using *color* schedules. So each magazine bin (think $Tree) had a colored tab with velcro. He had a strip on the desk with the colored pieces and would *match* them to the colored tabs on the bins. As he completed the work, he could RIP the colored tab off (good sensory input, affirming) and place it in the done pile. Completed work and tasks (puzzles, anything in those bins) went into a DONE basket below the workspace.

So lots of ways to do visual schedules. Just want to make them age and IQ appropriate.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/schoolonthehill/21754761979/in/album-72157659396181096/  See if this link works. That was the early years independent work table I was describing.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/schoolonthehill/43175139345/in/album-72157659396181096/  This is an OLD pic of the room we're in now. I've done it lots of ways and reconfigure each year to work for him. You'll notice I have different rugs and create little zones. Another thing you could consider is using systems that work by location. So when they go to their independent work station, they work the plan within that station. Then they might have a computer station, together work station, and so on, and each place has its own schedule. It's a little more *complex* but it's also flexible enough to grow with them. It's more ways to get visual routine and predictability while growing with our kids. So you see there's a table in that pic and I still have that table there. That's our together work table and when we're doing intervention level work together work, that's where we're going to be, always, always, always. So it's a very predictable routine driven by place. But he has a pile of work every day that is a bit more low key, things like worksheets and handwriting, and those I keep on a clipboard. So the visual prompt is the clipboard and it's the predictability that when I show up with a clipboard we're doing whatever work is on the clipboard.

So it's more ways to be flexible, scheduling with work routines within spaces, using colors, etc. My ds also does well with Google Calendar. You can search for @wendyroo's posts on the visual scheduling software she uses. I tried and I just couldn't get liftoff. I've tried some other apps and my ds usually deletes or sabotages them. But if the dc is not oppositional and will comply, there are some great visual scheduling apps out there.

Fwiw, I do find that a visual schedule can be both good and bad. It helps him get more done and know the list is finite, but it increases oppositionality and can bring out his rigidity. It's like ok math is after this on the list so it HAS to be after this on the list. So while I'm using these tools, I also try to shake things up, to make sure he's not getting stuck/rigid.

Edited November 26, 2021 by PeterPan

[Slache]

I print a basic schedule from a google doc table. I will attach for reference.

I have kept a chronodex in my bullet journal in the past and am a huge fan. I actually use a multi level one called the hyperdex. This link is in french but it's the best picture I could find.

[PeterPan]

9 minutes ago, Slache said:

I print a basic schedule from a google doc table. I will attach for reference.

I have kept a chronodex in my bullet journal in the past and am a huge fan. I actually use a multi level one called the hyperdex. This link is in french but it's the best picture I could find.

That looks like the types of tables I'd make for my dd from about 4th grade on. She used those all through high school, eventually learning how to fill out her own. They're a very flexible option for op to consider, because it's easy to create *choice* while having structure. So I would put a label on the slot (leisure activities, whatever) and then have a *list* of options at the bottom or even a blank for her to fill in what she chose to do then. So there's still choice and self direction, even with the structure. 

We did put *times* usually on her charts, but we morphed it in high school, putting times only for the *check in* with me. So she basically had standing appointments with me mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and then she had things listed around those to try to hit.

[Clarita]

I got this for my kids. Visual Schedule Cards + MY DAY Planner (DIGITAL) – The Gentle + Classical Press | Life, Abundantly (shopgentleclassical.com)

It's got a lot of pictures for things and somethings I just edited the words either by computer if I wanted to spend extra time on it or I just use whiteout. I laminated them and put them on magets. However this didn't work for my kids. Both my kids and I am to blame, we were all not consistent with it all around. (They were consistent at looking at it and then I wasn't consistent at making it.) 

Currently we've been using a binder system that works for us. Our Weekly Binder System: Homeschool Organization Series Part 1 – Blue and Hazel They get their weekly work in there and they can choose when they want to do what. Also whether they want a fun lesson with me or just do the worksheet to show me they know the topic. (As you know both my kids are not independently doing work so, I'm still sitting there they just pick for themselves what they want to complete during our work period).

[73349]

For elementary, I used a pocket chart (similar to this)  and printed cards. (The blog The First Grade Parade has a free starter set.)

[Not_a_Number]

Sorry, I see I was being VERY confusing with the "visual" part... I just mean a weekly schedule that's easy to see, not that it has to be pictures :D. Both my kids can read and would prefer something with words.  

My apologies! I have this stupid sinus infection I can't seem to shake for the last 3 days... no idea what it even is (not COVID, I tested), but it's making me incoherent, apparently. 

[Ausmumof3]

I just make one in word and laminate.  Likewise for daily tasks etc.  although we haven’t had one for six months and it hasn’t made a noticeable difference to overall productivity and I think I’m less stressed.

[Gil]

Since you don't want to print and reprint, you could just make a cardboard calendar.

Take some cardboard cereal or cracker boxes, a ruler, sharpies, index cards, packing tape, tacks and a list of the things you guys have to do most often.

1) Make a calendar (daily or weekly layout) on the inside of a cereal box using sharpie

2) Cut the index cards into strips

3) Put the tasks on the strips cut from index cards using sharpie

4) use packing tape to reinforce the strips and/or calendar

5) stick the strips up on the calendar using tacks

6) repeat each day/week as needed.

 

[Not_a_Number]

14 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

I just make one in word and laminate.  Likewise for daily tasks etc.  although we haven’t had one for six months and it hasn’t made a noticeable difference to overall productivity and I think I’m less stressed.

Yeah, I've been making them in Excel and printing them. But things keep getting rearranged, so I'm thinking about something that's easy to update... 

[Clarita]

If I know it would work for my family I would print out a generic blank schedule, laminate it and write out the schedules with dry erase markers. 

After a while of using it I may upgrade to putting together some appropriately sized schedule cards and using velcro strips or dots attach them to the generic blank schedule. I would be undecided whether to use velcro strips, sticky silicone stuff, or magnet and metal. 

[Not_a_Number]

21 hours ago, Clarita said:

If I know it would work for my family I would print out a generic blank schedule, laminate it and write out the schedules with dry erase markers. 

After a while of using it I may upgrade to putting together some appropriately sized schedule cards and using velcro strips or dots attach them to the generic blank schedule. I would be undecided whether to use velcro strips, sticky silicone stuff, or magnet and metal. 

Hmmm, cool idea. Where would you get it laminated? 

[Clarita]

I have a cheap laminater from Amazon. Amazon.com : Amazon Basics 9-Inch Thermal Laminator Machine : Laminating Machines : Office Products Not mine but I bought the cheapest one available that can do 8.5" x 11".

[bookbard]

I don't know if this will be relevant, but when I was teaching a gifted class and when I was homeschooling due to lockdown, I made a daily printable tick off sheet in word for each kid. They could see how many tasks they had and they loved ticking each one off. It was also helpful for me each morning as a task, going through what we were doing. 

[Cake and Pi]

Our main visual schedule is a color-coded clock. I have the colors marked with Roman numerals for "class periods," and then I can just list what our plans are for each period on a white erase board. This way we have flexibility in any given day (can do subjects in any order or plan on an appointment, playdate, or therapy during certain periods, etc.) but also predictability, especially around meal times. Each kid also has their own planner with daily lists of things to do that they check off as they go. The one I attached below is DS10's. It's for the coming week, so it's not color-coded yet. Each morning we go through his check list and color code the boxes with colors to designate during which period we plan to complete them.

That said, I *also* incorporate picture cards in our visual schedules much of the time. My youngest is the only one who can't yet read, but even though DS10 has been reading well for seven years, he still seems to do better with words *and* pictures than with words alone, especially for micro-schedules (visual schedules that break down step-by-step processes like hand washing, sweeping the dining room, or getting ready to leave the house). I get our picture cards with words and templates to put them on from Lesson Pix. https://lessonpix.com/

 

The schedule clock:

 

DS10's weekly planner/ check list of daily activities:

[Renai]

1 hour ago, Cake and Pi said:

 

DS10's weekly planner/ check list of daily activities:

What planner is this?

[Cake and Pi]

1 hour ago, Renai said:

What planner is this?

This one off Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08TPR8VYK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And my middle schoolers use this other one that doesn't have the subjects pre-labeled: 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08TPVVJ69/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

[Not_a_Number]

I wound up getting this thing off Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089QNLHJC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's more or less what I wanted, except it's this weird purplish off-white color that clashes with our yellowish off-white walls 😂. I mostly want something that DD9 can help fill out and edit easily herself... she's a very organized child, and she's currently pretty unschooled, so having a schedule she can control without much trouble is a very good idea. 

Edited December 6, 2021 by Not_a_Number

[Not_a_Number]

We filled DD9's schedule in! 😄 She was super excited, lol. Because she's totally the kind of child who gets excited by filling in a color-coded schedule... 

[Not_a_Number]

On 12/11/2021 at 10:59 PM, Lovinglife123 said:

@Not_a_Number how’s this working for you?  Up to this point we’ve done daily to do lists in a spiral notebook.  I wonder if DS would enjoy filling something like this in with his checklist.

Well, we filled it out, then we immediately left town and left the schedule behind for more than a month, lol, since I didn't think it'd survive in suitcases over our holiday travel. But she absolutely loved filling it out and I think would love adding things to it occasionally/changing it. I'll report when we're back.