Using Classroom Schedules to Improve Focus
Students with autism and related diagnoses benefit from structured environments! Incorporating schedules into your daily classroom (and home) routines can help your students or child remain focused on tasks at hand and help set expectations for their day.
There are a myriad ways you can create schedules and a number of routines for which you can utilize schedules. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- End of school day take home checklist
- Vocational task mini-schedule
- Arts and crafts schedule
- Daily classroom schedule
- Task-specific schedule
When you’re creating a schedule, be sure to consider your student’s learning style and what their needs are for communication and structure. Does your student respond better to visuals? Try using a visual schedule that incorporates images and photos of each step in the list of tasks. As a bonus – try to incorporate visuals that you know are appealing to them and their interests.
Are they a more-hands on learner? Try using an object schedule with representations of each item in the schedule that they can touch and interact with.
Using your creativity and incorporating your students’ learning styles and needs will help with the success of using a schedule!
Watson’s educational experts have pulled together an extensive presentation with examples of a variety of schedule types, use cases, and styles you can consider incorporating into your classroom!
Schedules work great in the home as well if you’re looking to add structure for your child outside of school!
Build Your Own Schedule: Special education teachers can allow their students to help in building their own schedules to encourage participation and independence. Use reinforcing activities to support students’ focus on the tasks he/she needs to complete.
Schedules PowerPoint Presentation
The special education resources on this page were authored by Watson Institute’s special education consultants and faculty.
If you have questions or concerns about the Watson Institute’s use of this information, please contact us.