Visual Schedules

Daily routines — like getting ready for school — can be hard for kids to stick to, especially if they’re easily distracted or have trouble with organization. Picture schedules and visual planners can help. This page provides a few examples of picture schedules. Users can print them out and use them as they are, or they can cut out the images and attach them in a preferred order. 

This free open-access online learning module focuses on the six elements of an effective schedule for preschool children, strategies to help children be successful in routines, parts of the day that may be most challenging for teachers and children, and how to develop a schedule that works for your classroom.

The first-then schedule board is a visual support that shows what the individual will do first and then what they will do next. This article provides examples of the first-then boards, a template for users to create their own boards, videos to show the boards in use, as well as book suggestions for further reading on the topic. 

This web page provides templates for schedules and calendars that parents and caregivers can use to support children on the autism spectrum.  

This article explains the purpose of visual supports for young students with autism as an important part of the classroom physical and visual environment. The article gives six strategies that an early childhood educator could use in a preschool classroom to try out visual supports.

This article offers tips for using pictures to help preschoolers understand what they are doing, what is expected of them, and what comes next. 

This page gives educators ideas, photos, and steps of how to create visual schedules for children in their class.

A visual schedule communicates the sequence of upcoming activities or events through the use of objects, photographs, icons, or words. Find out how to set up visual schedules in a classroom to support students. 

This resource provides families with instructions and resources to develop and use visual schedules, routine cards, and first/then boards.