Daily schedule or routine is the key to everyone’s daily life. And when it comes to kids on spectrum it’s quite beneficial to put them in a perfect daily routine using a visual schedule.
Visual schedule is a visual representation of upcoming tasks and activities.
- It may help the child to predict what’s coming next.
- It provides a structure to your child’s complete day.
- It helps child to understand the set of different activities to be performed the whole day.
- It also helps the child to understand that he would be required to finish those activities one after the other(as the children on the spectrum has a habit of repeatedly carrying out a particular set of activities for the whole day).
- It helps the child to keep focus on the activities lined up for the day.
- It may contain clear instructions as well as what is expected from the child in the activities, the duration of the activity and how many times it needs to be performed, this helps in reducing the task performance anxiety, control battles, demand avoidance etc.
- It may also include choices for a given activity giving the child a sense of control and confidence. Again reduces task performance anxiety, control battles and demand avoidance. Ex- for evening activities child may choose from going to a park or a friend’s house. Or, while doing studies, he can choose whether he wants to study a particular subject first?
- It takes the child to achieve independence in finishing the daily activities and tasks.
- It helps in maintaining consistency and shows desired results in no time.
Schedules can be made out of only pictures, or only text or both depending on what your child requires. Picture schedules are best fot the little ones. Text schedules are the best as the child grow up. Schedules should be used in the home, at school or for any other place as well. It could be prepared on a slate or a whiteboard, or on a notebook or on a diary. It should have a space where child is able to mark the task finished once done.
So, maintaining a daily schedule enable the child to understand that completing the daily tasks is mandatory. It helps demonstrate the importance of consistency in life and achieving goals.
