Why should I do it:
- Provides students with organization and structure
- Increases on task behavior
- Improves productivity
- Increases students’ independence and responsibility
- Teaches students to use time more efficiently
- Helps visual learners
When should I do it:
- With students who have ADD/ADHD
- With students on the autism spectrum
- With students who are disorganized
- With students that have trouble managing time and assignment completion
- When students are wandering, off task, or lagging behind the rest of the class
- When students exhibit poor executive and decision making skills
- When students have trouble with unstructured time
- When students have difficulty with transitions
How do I do it:
- Visual schedules can vary a great deal and may be more or less complex
- Use pictures, images, and graphics to represent periods of the day, subjects, tasks, transitions, etc.
- Order these visual elements on a paper, board, etc,
- You may write descriptions below or beside each image
- The schedule may be placed in a central location for the entire class, or for individual schedules, on the student’s desk
- Some schedules may have movable images and graphic or visual elements that can be moved from a “to do” side to a “done” side
- Other schedules may be more static without moving visual elements, but instead be laminated so a dry erase marker can be used on them to check each task or period off, or a page that is copied with a new schedule to write on each day
- The examples below will provide additional explanation and examples
Resources & Support for technique: