The first component of structured TEACCHing is an individualized schedule. The components of your students’ schedules will match their specific learning styles and will help support their transitions through the classroom and school. It’s their GPS. The way they get from point A to point B. The schedule is to give your kids information. It is NOT a tool to teach academic skills.
TEACCH Schedules
There are five things to think about when creating schedules for your kiddos.
1. Form
There are a variety of ways you can create a schedule, but when it comes to the form, you’re going to use a “written” schedule, a “picture” or “photo” schedule, or an “object” schedule. This can depend on your kiddos’ reading levels, levels of distractibility, independence levels. You know your kids best, so just think about what makes sense for them on their worst day.
One of the facilitators uses that phrase with us a lot. What can you expect them to do independently “on their worst day?” If they’re an emerging reader, they may be able to read the words on their schedule. But if they’re frustrated that day for whatever reason or if they’re just having an off day, what is the most developmentally appropriate form for them? Something that won’t frustrate them further. The schedule is supposed to be a GPS. It’s supposed to make their lives easier, not more complex.
A written schedule is just what it sounds like. The above picture is a written/picture combo, but for some of your more independent readers, you may be able to eliminate the icon.
An “object” schedule uses an actual object to help the kid transition from one place in the classroom to the next.
Chris over at Autism Classroom Resources has a great post on making object schedules for your more concrete learners. The objects will typically represent the activity they will be doing next (e.g. a paintbrush for art or a toilet paper roll for bathroom time).
2. Length
The length of the schedule depends on what your kiddo may be able to handle. Not every student can handle the same amount of information at one time.
If a full day is too much and overwhelming, you can consider making a part day schedule. The picture of the red schedule above is for a student who needed his day broken up into segments. So there was a “before lunch” schedule and an “after lunch” schedule.
Sometimes, even half a day can be too overwhelming so you can consider a “First, Then” schedule where they see what’s happening now and what’s happening next. Again, it depends on your kiddo and you know them best. And you may not get it right the first time. It may take some trial and error.
3. Location
Where the schedule is located, like everything else, depends on your students’ learning styles. It can be mobile, in a personal space, in a neutral transition area (e.g. on a wall, door, etc.), or it can be a transition cue that is brought directly to the student.
This little binder was something we threw together last year when we got a new kiddo in the middle of the year. It was mobile and went with him throughout the classroom and even out of the classroom. Eventually, as we got to know him a little better, we adapted his schedule in a way that made sense for him and his learning style. But just thought I’d throw the picture in here as an example of a mobile schedule.
One thing to note though. If you are considering a mobile schedule, think about having a designated space that the student can put the schedule in wherever they get where they need to go. Sometimes our students can have deficits in executive functioning and they don’t really know what the heck to do with their things. So, instead of letting it escalate to a problem, try to problem-solve that ahead of time for them.
4. Cue to Initiate
It’s hard for our kids to disengage from what they’re doing – especially if they’re not quite finished with an activity. So having an engaging visual cue may help them go check their schedule to see what comes next.
Here’s an example that our facilitator gave us.
One of her students really likes Spongebob. So his cue to go check his schedule was a little card that said, “Check schedule” with Spongebob’s picture on it.
When he got to his schedule, there was a picture of the pineapple house that Spongebob lived in. It was very motivating for the kiddo to get Spongebob back in his home. 🙂 So they used his interest to help him transition over to his schedule to check what was coming up next.
5. Method to Manage
This is basically thinking about the way the student interacts with their schedule. Are they capable of taking a pencil or a whiteboard marker and marking it off as done? Do they take an icon and move it to the “Finished” column? Do they take the icon and carry it over to the designated area of the room and then match it to an icon once they’re in the designated area?
Again, it depends on your kid.
This schedule we threw together in our training for our fake student shows that the student would take the icon off her schedule and put it in the “finished” envelope when each activity was done.
Summary
The schedule helps our students bypass us and get the information they need on their own. It builds independence. It basically helps fill in the executive functioning gaps by providing a tool that our kids need in order to better organize and transition.
Most importantly, we have to remember that it serves as a GPS. We are not teaching when using the schedule. It is a tool.
Our facilitator helped us internalize that by making a parallel to us, as adults, using planners. If someone were to try and come and change up our planner in order to expand our cognitive flexibility, we’d be pretty pissed.
If we have a system that helps us get through our day, there’s no need to make frequent changes to it or try to use it for instruction.
Anyway, this is just covering the basic, surface level of all things schedule-related! Hope this information is helpful and, as always, if you have any questions or want input or feedback, I’m just a message away!
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