The Importance of Visuals
Well, here we are- on Week 37 of this Pandemic. (What actual week are we on? I’m not quite sure…)
I thought it was an opportune time to pop in and chat about The importance of VISUALS.
‘Like, drawings, you mean?’
Well, sort of.
Visuals are important for our kids as a TOOL to support their independence with daily tasks. You know how we plug appointments into our phones or a daily planner? Well, the same type of deal can be happening with our kids, too. And these visuals can be a segway between chasing after your child in the morning to get ready for school, and having them follow a written schedule to keep them on track.
Some easy and fun visuals for kids include VISUAL SCHEDULES and TASK SEQUENCES.
Visual schedules can serve a variety of purposes, but one of the most commonly used visual schedules is for laying out a day or a week. Some kids in school benefit from them to offer a sense of predictability and routine, and some students mayyyyy want to chuck them (because it’s TOO STRUCTURED, right?!). There are many ways to do a visual schedule, but here are some key recommendations:
Younger students will benefit from picture drawings to support them- eg, a picture of a toothbrush, a picture of letters for literacy, etc. Older students can benefit from text only- but the inbetween grades probably will benefit from a mix of text + picture
Creating the schedule WITH your kids can be powerful. This might look like sitting down with your kids and drawing out the family calendar for the week. Who has what, and when? What do they need? Then make a plan where each child is encouraged or supported with the following prompts: ‘What do you have this week?’ ‘What will you need for XX?’ ‘How will you remember to get it/bring it/do it?’ (This segways into an important belief that you should be setting up some type of family meeting/check in every week- kids might roll their eyes but make it happen, even if for 5 minutes!)
Be sure to maintain flexibility in these schedules. Like some type of clause…’subject to change’- something like that. Because our kids need reminders that even our best laid plans get changed…fast. (And, it’s a good reminder for us, too!)
Task Sequences are a tool (normally horizontal) that lay out a given task that has many steps. I commonly use them for routines (morning routines, after school routines) so I am not chasing my daughter around to GET HER SHOES ON AND GET OUT THE DOOR NOWWWWW (Although that DOES still happen). Some tips for Task Sequences:
Normally 3-5 steps is good for younger kids for the task sequences, and you can go upwards of 5-7 for middle elementary students.
Again-create these sequences WITH your children- that is powerful- have them draw or help you write them out!
As is with # 3 above- maintain flexibility as you create the sequence- with routines, sometimes it’s ok if one part is swapped before another (if it makes sense). Remind your kids that the task sequences are tools, now laws- that should support them to complete sequences independently.
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