When I go into classrooms to observe students, one of the first things I always look for is an individual schedule for the student.  If I don’t see an individual schedule, I see if a classroom schedule is visible.  Every one of us uses a schedule in our everyday lives.  Our schedules tell us our appointments, meetings, tasks, activities, etc., and the times they occur.  If I didn’t have some visual schedule for myself each day, I would feel very lost, have a lot of anxiety, and I wouldn’t be able to establish routines for myself and my family.   

Visual schedules are a visual/concrete method that is evidence-based and used to tell what activities will make up the student’s day and in which order they will occur.  

As educators, by implementing individual schedules, we can help support our students in the special education classroom, general education classroom, and beyond.

THE WHY

Individual schedules will:

• Teach flexibility and routines
• Capitalizes on the visual processing strengths of most individuals with ASD
• Aid in transitions
• Provide predictability
• Teach the concept of first/then and finished
• Decrease student anxiety 
• Promote independence 

COMPONENTS OF AN INDIVIDUAL SCHEDULE

• Objects
• Pictures or drawings
• Words, phrases, or sentences

• One or two items at a time
• Half day
• Full day

• Left-to-right
• Top-to-bottom

The student will:

• Carry and use visual cue to location/activity
• Carry to location/activity and match to a similar visual
• Turn visual cue over or put in a container
• Mark off the cue

• Staff present visual cue to the student
• In the student’s work area (stationary)
• Portable (student carries schedule)
• Combination of any of the above

• Staff member brings the schedule to the student
• Student is handed a visual cue to check schedule
• Combination of any of the above