Visual schedule

What It Means

A visual schedule is a set of pictures, photos or drawings placed in order to show a child the activities or steps coming up, from first to last. Early childhood guidance from the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations describes using it to teach routines at home, with each picture removed or turned over once that step is done. Seeing the next step helps a child predict what will happen, which can make changes between activities easier.

How It Sounds at Home

• "Let's check your picture schedule."
• "Lunch is done, flip it over. What's next?"
• "See, park comes after snack."

The Breakdown

How to make and use one

1. List the steps of one routine or part of the day, in order. Keep it short at first.
2. Choose a picture for each step: photos, printed pictures or your own drawings. Nationwide Children's suggests starting once your child can match pictures.
3. Make it together where you can. The Pyramid Model handout suggests letting your child draw the pictures or using photos of them doing each activity.
4. Put it at your child's eye level in a room you use often, such as the kitchen.
5. Teach it by explaining and showing how it works, and point to it throughout the day.
6. When a step is done, have your child take the picture off or turn it over, or drop it in a "finished" pocket.

Try it today. Take phone photos of your child doing three things they do every afternoon, print them small, and tape them in order on the fridge.

Visual schedule or routine chart

Good to Know

The Pyramid Model handout recommends involving your child in making the schedule and referring to it often through the day. Vanderbilt's early learning center notes that visuals help children understand and anticipate what comes next. If your child finds changes between activities very hard, or has a developmental or language delaySpeech delayWhen a child's talking develops more slowly than most children the same age, in making speech sounds, in using words, or both. See more, ask your pediatrician or your child's therapist or teacher which kind of schedule suits them.

Related Terms and Categories

• Routine chart

  A chart, often with pictures, listing the steps of one routine in order, such as getting ready for school or bed, that a child checks off as they go.

• First-then board

  A two-part picture board showing a child the task to do now (first) and the activity that follows (then), often something they enjoy.

• Visual timer

  A timer that shows time running out as a shrinking colored area or a row of markers, so a child can see how long is left before a change.

• Kids morning routine

  The same short list of steps a child follows each school or child care morning, such as dressing, breakfast, brushing teeth and grabbing a backpack.

• Family routines

  The regular, predictable ways a household handles the repeating parts of the day, such as mornings, meals, homework, chores and bedtime.

Family organization and routines