Schedules and routines are a pretty normal part of life for all people. As an adult reading this blog, I assume you have routines and schedules in your daily life. Some examples of these might include a morning routine where your alarm goes off, you hit snooze at least three times, then get out of bed and drowsily make your way to the kitchen and start breakfast, and so on.
You don't have visuals for all of your routines but you have a clock that tells you what time it is, alarms, maybe a Google or Outlook calendar to let you know what you have going on for the day. As adults, we don't rely less on visual schedules and routines, we just use different types to support us throughout our day.
Young children are just learning routines and schedules so it is important to set up your daily routine and talk about what you are doing throughout the daily in order to support young children in understanding what is going on in the classroom and why. To best explain this, I am going to share a model half day preschool schedule, some sample tools and resources, and also share some additional considerations for students on the autism spectrum.
Setting Up Your Schedule
Click on the link of the child pictured above for a sample half day schedule. You can set up yours like this, or in any way that works for your classroom and your group of students. The key things that are important with building and teaching a schedule and routines are:
Consistency: And consistency doesn't mean doing exactly the same things at exactly the same times every single day. That's boring. Consistency means that kids come to school and they can usually expect to see the same faces, and do circle/outside/choice/centers, and then someone they care about will pick them up
Make it visual: Young children can't tell time. Concepts like minutes, hours, days, months, and years won't mean much to them until the early grade school years so to begin teaching these concepts it is important to make the information visual and talk about the sequencing of events. For example, "See here on the schedule? First is circle and then we will go outside to play." It is important for children to build this knowledge about the sequencing of events as this builds the concept and foundations for learning about the passage of time.
Teach visuals: Visuals are tools that must be taught to young children in order to be effective. When you introduce them into your classroom, you have to tell young children what they are and how you are going to use them. (Eg: these are pictures and we are going to use them to help use figure out what is next in the day). You also have to expect this will take a LOT of repetition and this might look something like a child approaching you and asking, "teacher, what are we doing next and you responding. Hmm, let's check the schedule and supporting them with figuring it out until they can do it on their own."
Transition warnings: What are they? This is when you tell young children that they have 5 more minutes until clean up. These work best when they are accompanied by a visual sand timer or a song that (when it ends) indicates that their time playing is done.
Why do this? Well, I will take it up to the adult perspective for a moment. Have you ever
been intensely focused on doing something and had someone walk up to you and say "You
are all done with that now. Let's go." No warning. Just, you’re done. If you have, what was
your response? If you haven't, it's probably because you are an adult and people tend to
provide adults with a little advanced warning because, if you are anything like me, your
response to that would have been, "No. You can wait. I am busy."
You might say, "but children should listen." And that's fair. However, children usually don't
have the emotional regulation skills or language skills at three or four to say, "Teacher, I am frustrated that I was really focused on this task and you interrupted me. I also now don't know when I will get to finish it." So instead they lay on the floor, cry, or kick you. You can
prevent a lot of that with a warning and letting them know they can save their work and come back to it later.
Resources
There are many places to buy visual schedules and get inspiration to make your own visual schedules. If you are interested in purchasing a visual schedule for your childcare, many of the commercial childcare retailers sell ready made visual schedules.
You can also purchase them from places like Teachers Pay Teachers, (search "preschool visual schedule") laminate the visuals, and put them up in a common area for everyone to see.
Or if you are feeling adventurous, you can browse PInterest for inspiration for a schedule that works for you and then use a tool like Google Slides or Docs to create your very own visual schedules. Whatever you choose, know that is okay to change your schedule if it doesn't work for you or the kids you serve. (And if you are a bit of a perfectionist like me - know that it is also okay and totally normal to mess up the first time and try again)
Special Considerations for Students on the Autism Spectrum
I hear a lot about the importance of visual and routines for autistic learners. I am an autistic myself and also the parent of two children (who are now adults) on the spectrum so I can vouch for their importance. However, as educators, we want to steer clear of rigid adherence to schedules, visuals, and routines, and embed flexibility into our routines right from the start.
Why? Many, if not most individuals on the spectrum are Gestalt Language Processors. Gestalt Language Processing (GLP) is a form of language development that starts with whole memorized phrases to single words. The basic unit of language is generally a word. We construct language word by word to reach our meaning.
How does this relate to schedules? A schedule, when not varied, can become the entire concept for an autistic individual. What this means is that if an autistic child learns that preschool is: arrival, (journaling) centers, circle time, snack time, outside time, choice time, lunch time, and departure then this becomes their "concept" of preschool. So, if one day you go on a field trip instead, the child isn't being rigid, it is just that someone told them they are going to preschool and they know that is not preschool. Preschool is the concept they memorized.
This is where flexibility from the start comes in. It is important to reference arrival and, build flexibility around the concepts. As an example, maybe you don't always do journaling at arrival. Maybe sometimes you offer puzzles or quiet games. Put options up or rotate choices and have the parents share with the child before they leave for the day, "today we did journaling when you got to school. Tomorrow is puzzles." Preparing for change and talking about how school can look different each day is important for all kids in exercising their ability to adapt to change.
** A word about language.
As terminology around disability shifts, this has the impact of leaving MANY people wondering “how we should refer to individuals with an Autism diagnosis? What is most respectful?
Do we use Person First Language (person with Autism) or Identity First Language (Autistic person)? And the reality is that the answer depends entirely on the individual's preference. In college and graduate school, most educators and clinicians were taught to use person first language to signify that the child is a person first and more than a diagnosis.
However, many adults on the Autism Spectrum have been vocal about their (general) preference for identity first language. Most Autistic adults and many Autistic adolescents and children feel Autism is part of their identity (not something that can be separated from them) and not necessarily something that they want to be fixed
In conversations with families, we should follow their lead and honor their preferences for their child. I think it is important for anyone reading or viewing my content to know that I use autistic and on the spectrum and with Autism because, in my home, we have people who identify as both. So out of respect for the people in my life that I love, I use both.
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