Visual timetables can be used in a variety of ways, depending on the provision, the purpose, and the age and ability of the children. They can be used to support an individual child or a whole group or class.
They need to be displayed so that the children using them can see them easily at all times. It may be appropriate to make smaller, individual visual timetables for children to keep with them. The pictures or symbols need to be easily recognisable to the children and explained so that they become familiar with them.
The pictures can run from left to right the same as reading a book or from top to bottom. The children can remove the picture from the timetable once the activity has been completed so they are then able to see what activities remain. They are ideal to help children remember the sequence of events in routine tasks, for example going to the toilet.
Each part of the visual timetable is a different part of the routine. Once shown, the child will hopefully be able to follow the pictorial cues to get through each stage of the process in the correct order. This will help with remembering to flush the toilet after use and washing his or her hands.
Other routines may be hand-washing and drying — a visual timetable can be placed above the wash basin, but will need to be laminated to make it splash-proof. The timetable can be agreed with the children at the start of the day or session. They can help decide when they are going to do some activities and then help to find the right images and order them correctly on the timetable. This will help them with decision-making and negotiating skills.
You must ensure that there are lots of opportunities within the timetable for free-choosing of activities by the children and to allow free-flow between the indoor and outdoor environment. You will need to develop a sign or a symbol to show the children that a task has finished and that you want them to move on to the next one on the timetable.
There are lots of different ways of making a visual timetable and this will depend on the space you have available within your provision, how flexible you need the timetable to be for example, will it need to be altered daily or weekly? Is the timetable for a session, a day or the whole week?
You can download images free of charge from a number of early years or special needs resources websites or you can design your own, using images or photographs. You can also download free software that allows you to design and personalise a visual timetable and then print it.
The advantage of photographs is that the children will more readily recognise the images as they are from their own environment. This is usually achieved by using a motivating activity to follow a more demanding activity. It therefore acts as a reward to help children get through tougher challenges. Some children will not cope with the whole day visually presented at one time, there it is recommended that you use no more than a morning orafternoon at any one time.
Some children will need further breakdown, such as a now and next board, or some prefer to call it a first — then board.
This ismost successfully used alongside a choice board. Therefore the now or first becomes the activity and the next or then becomes the choice board symbol.
You will need to ask your speechand language therapist if involved whether the child responds bestto symbols little line drawings or photos. Ifthe child can respond to symbols this is therefore easier to resource. Children who suffer from anxiety and related problems like selective mutism and school phobia can find them useful and reassuring, too. Timetables need to strike a balance between showing enough detail and being simple enough for children to understand. How are visual timetables used in schools?
Visual timetables are commonly found in classrooms across all key stages, from early years to post, albeit in different forms. In the early years of mainstream schools, a visual class timetable is usually displayed somewhere prominent, such as at the front of the room, and is updated daily with the activities that are planned for that day. Sometimes, for more able pupils, the time is written prior to the activity, e. Children who have SEN may have their own personal visual timetable to use at school.
This will be tailored to their individual needs and updated by their teacher, teaching assistant or special educational needs coordinator SENCO when necessary. Using visual timetables at home Many parents find that visual timetables are a useful tool for home life, whether they have a child with SEN or just need to encourage them to be more organised and independent.
You could, for example, make a timetable that shows the tasks your child has to do before school: have breakfast, get dressed, brush their teeth, and so on. There are many different templates and ideas for making visual timetables on Pinterest.
There are also apps that can help you make schedules for your child, such as picturepath. How do visual timetables change as children get older? More like this.
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