Articles
Visual strips and schedules
Liz Day - Instructor Therapist, Hon. BA, Rehab Dip.
Visual strips and schedules are a great way to teach any child with or without ASD new skills, staying on task, and independence. The use of these simple tools can help decrease the number of times an anxious child questions: "What's next mommy?" or "What are we doing now?" and is optimal for those whose strength is learning visually.
Visual strips and schedules can easily be made from a laminated piece of cardboard with a Velcro strip on it. Pictures can then be cut into one or two inch squares and laminated with a Velcro piece on the back. Depending on your child's discriminative ability, the pictures can be as elaborate as real life camera shots, or can be magazine cut outs, or stick figures and line drawings. Your child can also make his or her own visual strip or schedule if he or she is able to draw or cut out his or her own pictures or words and can hang it where he or she can follow it.
A visual strip is a tool often used to teach the steps of a new skill, for example, hand washing. Break down the task and have a picture for each step: turn on the tap, wet hands, get soap, lather hands, rinse hands, turn off the tap. Place the visual strip with a picture of each of these components above your sink, and go through the steps with your child until he or she has learned it. Once learned, the visual strip remains there to remind him or her of each step as he or she does it on his or her own.
A visual schedule is to show "what's next" in the child's day. This can be a morning routine of: get up, go to the toilet, get dressed, eat, brush teeth, coat and boots, wait for the bus. The child can visualize what is next and when he or she has completed one task, can take it off and put it in an "all done" bin and move on to the next task. Or you can show your daily activities of story time, crafts, lunch, nap.
Be creative and use the visuals to your advantage and to your child's advantage - it is a great tool for the visual learner. Custom Visual Schedules are available at YOUR HEALTH Wellness Centre.