If you’re using a visual schedule in your special education classroom you know what a helpful tool it can be, but did you know you can push your students to become more independent and age appropriate with their schedules? I think of a schedule as a lifelong tool for my students and I want to find a way to make it the most functional for them to use. In reality, a lot of us are using visuals schedules in our everyday lives. Say what?! Yes, that calendar on your phone? That’s a visual schedule. The lesson plan book you’re writing in? That’s a visual schedule, too! When our students are adults, I envision them using some kind of day planner, calendar, or portable schedule, so my goal is to shape their schedule so it’s more functional as they progress.
The trick to upping your visual schedule game is knowing what kind of schedule is appropriate for your student NOW and knowing how you’re going to progress them to the next type of schedule. Using a variety of schedules for students helps them adopt more functional schedules as they get older.
There are 5 different visual schedules I use REGULARLY in my special education classroom. I move students from one type of schedule to another to up my game. Check out these schedules and how I set them up for students to progress between them.
1. Object Schedule
Object schedules are where I’ll often start for students who don’t understand picture representation. Honestly, by the time most of my students have made it to Kindergarten, they’ve usually progressed beyond an object schedule, but there are times I have used them in my classroom. To make a basic picture schedule, you’ll want to find items that correspond to activities or spaces in your classroom (i.e.: a toy for play area, a spoon for snack time, etc.) and add some velcro to them. Then, you’ll place the items on your schedule in order. Now it’s time to teach your students how to transition to their schedule and take the item to its proper location.
Once my students have started using an object schedule I try to start pairing visual representations with the objects as soon as possible. So when a student transitions to the play area, I’ll match the toy from their schedule to an icon that shows play area and reinforce the student for correctly transitioning to the next activity.
2. Picture Schedule
Picture schedules seem to be one of the most commonly used forms of visuals schedules. To make a picture schedule, you find icons to represent activities. Then you add those pictures to a schedule board. I have used picture schedules with all of the students I have worked with. In the most basic set up, I lay out the activities for the day and my students transition to their schedules, take the next activity, and walk to the next activity in the classroom.
An added benefit to using picture schedules is that it helps students understand what is coming up during their school day. I often have students ask if we’re doing a certain activity during the day. I’ll refer them back to their schedule and we’ll look to see if they activity is on their schedule that day to answer their question.
Another benefit is you can mix up these picture schedules in a lot of ways. One way to use icons is to represent areas in your classroom and activities. You can also use real pictures of areas on campus for students who need a more concrete representations. You can also use picture schedules to start transitioning to portable schedules in your classroom. I shared all about my tips for transitioning to a portable schedule in this blog post.
Picture schedules are such a versatile schedule that the possibilities with them are pretty endless. The problem I encounter with them is that they get relied on quite heavily and we don’t think about how we can transition students to a more advanced schedule. The next few schedules are ones I use to do just that!
3. Word Schedule
When my students start to become readers, I’ll move over to a word schedule. This schedule is a great way to practice functional reading skills, too! When my students can read the items on their schedule, I fade the pictures out and move to words. You can lay the word cards out on a traditional wall schedule. I tend to use this opportunity to move to a fully portable schedule. You can easily use the word cards in a binder to add to make this a fully portable schedule!
Once we’ve moved to word schedules I’ll typically be using a binder schedule or some sort of portable schedule with students where they’re moving items on their schedule from “to do” to “finished”. To get started, I’ll prepare a page that is half green and half red. All of the “to do” items go on the green side. When a student has completed an item from their list they move it to the “finished” side.
4. Checklist Schedule
Checklist schedules are a super functional schedule that I like to transition to. This reminds me of the daily to do list that I make for myself. These schedules are really easy to set up! To get started, I type out all of the activities my students need to complete during their school day. Students reference their checklist and check off items that are complete throughout their day.
I typically use this as a word schedule in my classroom, but if your students are ready for a more complex schedule and not yet reading, you can definitely adapt it by using pictures instead of words. It’s all about making schedules more appropriate for our students.
5. Long Term Planning Schedule
The last kind of visual schedule I use with students is a long term planning schedule. If you’ve worked in special education for about 5 seconds, you know that extended planning is a pretty universal deficit we’ll see in our classrooms. I love using long term planning schedules to map out upcoming events and due dates. To get these set up, I’ll print out monthly calendar pages. Then my students will add the month and dates to the calendar. Once we have a calendar set up, we’ll review due dates and add them to our calendars.
Students who are able to write just write in the events. For students with more fine motor deficits are able to cut and paste icons onto their schedules. I love how these little visuals remind me of the planner stickers I use in my own planner! Talk about about an age appropriate support!
Want to know one of my very favorite secrets? One of my favorite things is to mix and match my schedules. When I have a student who is able to read some words, but not all, I’ll often mix a picture and word schedule so my students are independently reading the words they can and getting visual supports for the words that are more difficult.
Visual schedules are a necessary tool for our students in the special education classroom. It helps them understand what is going on throughout their school day and prepare for those activities. Ready to start building schedules for your students and pushing them to more functional schedules? You can grab my Visual Schedule Mega Kit and you’ll have everything ready to print and go in your classroom!
