How many times do you hear, "When's lunch?" or "When's recess?" I know it drives me crazy to hear those types of questions, but I also know when I am at a workshop those are my top 2 questions as well. So, it's hard to get mad at our sweet little kiddos for wanting to know the order of their day. One way we can help all of our kids is to give them a visual schedule. I like to put both words and pictures on the cards I use. I attach magnets to my pictures so that I can easily change the order. This is especially helpful when we have an unusual change such as a field trip, picture day, or special program. Here's what my schedule looks like. For the first few weeks of school the schedule is reviewed in detail. As the year progresses, a quick overview is given and we move on unless it is an unusual day. On days when there are changes in our usual routine, the day is reviewed in detail.
When kids ask me when something is going to happen, I point to the visual schedule. I show them what we are doing now and everything that will happen before we get to the event they are looking forward to. This really helps the kids to know what their day will look like. After a few weeks, students don't ask when questions all day. They look at the visual schedule and find out for themselves. You can grab a free copy of my visual schedule cards here. (Click on Fan Freebies.)
You can also enter an Autism giveaway hosted at my sweet friend Danielle's blog, Crayonbox Learning. The giveaway and freebies will end on April 12, so make sure you stop by all of the blogs in the linky.
You are welcome to join the Autism Linky party, but you MUST have an autism-friendly freebie on your Blog post, AND the Autism Linky Party graphic linked back to Crayonbox Learning (and the url here: http://
