Visual Schedules for Children with Special Needs
Children with moderate-to-severe disabilities can have difficulty with time and transitions at church. They often can’t tell time or don’t want to leave an activity they are interested in. Visual schedules can help children understand their environment, know what’s going on, and decrease challenging behavior.
What is a visual schedule?
At worship services, we often have bulletins or order of service to tell us what to expect. Visual schedules are the same thing in picture form. In Sunday School, for example, a visual schedule have the following:
- Welcome
- Play
- Lesson
- Sing
- Pray
How does a visual schedule work?
Print out the activities you want. Laminate and cut apart. Display in sequence in a spot that is visible to everyone.
As an activity is completed, remove the picture. Now, the visual schedule is telling children what to do, not you. This can reduce frustration in leaving play because now it’s time for the lesson – the visual schedule says so.
Here the Downloadable Files for Sunday School Visual Schedule
- Sunday School Visual Schedule (PDF)
- All Visual Schedules (Member PDFs)
Why can’t I just tell the children what to do?
Even as adults, we want to know what’s going on. Ever attend a meeting without an agenda? It’s not fun. And even if you know the order of the worship service by heart, you still probably want to know of any changes. People rely on schedules to help us understand our environments.
Many children with moderate-to-severe disorders have difficulty with transitions. Why would they want to put up the train they are playing with to go to the lesson? If a person tells them it’s time to move to group time, the child can protest or argue. If the visual schedule tells them it’s time, there is nothing to argue with.
Do visual schedules really work?
As with all other tools, visual schedules need be consistently used over time. They aren’t instant magic wands.
Here are two ways I have seen visual schedules help children with special needs:
- A child who would not transition to group time from playing in the kitchen center started to accept the group time visual schedule card a few minutes before it was time and then come to group time
- A child who constantly asked when “it” (Sunday School) was over and when her mom was coming stopped asking when given a visual schedule. She knew her mom would come when the last picture was done
And don’t forget volunteers! It’s super easy for volunteers to look at and follow visual schedules!
Conclusion
Children with special needs may show challenging behaviors. Visual schedules can help them understand their environment, the expectations, and what is going on. The goal is to decrease challenging behavior by using visual schedules for children with special needs.
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