Visual timetables

Also called Visual schedule, Picture timetable, Visual timetable, Daily schedule

The whole day in pictures, in order, on the wall, so that nothing is a surprise and nobody has to keep asking.

What it is

A visual timetable is the day's sequence shown as a row or column of pictures: register, phonics, break, maths, lunch, PE, story, home. Each picture is removed, ticked or turned over as its activity ends. It's the now and next board extended across a whole session, morning or day.

Speaking adults carry their day in their heads, or in a calendar app. A person who can't hold a spoken sequence, or who becomes anxious when they don't know what's coming, needs the sequence somewhere they can look at it as often as they like.

Who it can help

Autistic people of all ages, people with a learning disability, children with language difficulties, people with ADHD who lose track of sequences, people with dementia in care settings, and, honestly, most reception classes. The whole-class timetable on the wall is one of the most inclusive things a school does.

An individual timetable is for the person who needs more than the class one: their own, at their level, on their desk or in their hand. A person who is overwhelmed by a full day's worth of pictures should start with now and next and build up.

How it works

Pictures go in order, top to bottom or left to right, matched to how the person reads. The level of picture matters: photographs for some, symbols for others, words for readers, objects for people not yet using pictures. Each finished activity is taken down and put in a "finished" pocket, so the person sees the day shrinking towards home.

Changes are the point. A timetable that never changes teaches nothing about coping with change; one that changes with warning teaches a lot. A "change" or "surprise" symbol, put up when something is different, tells the person that the plan has moved and that it's known about. That's usually enough to prevent the distress that an unannounced change causes.

Portable versions, on a keyring or a strip in a pocket, go with the person around the building. Some devices and dynamic display systems carry a timetable page, but a paper one on the wall still works when the battery's flat.

Getting started

Photograph the real places and things of the person's day: their classroom, the actual lunch hall, their own coat peg. Real photos beat generic symbols for a first timetable.

Put it at the person's eye level, where they'll pass it, and go through it together at the start of every session. Point, name, move on.

Introduce the "change" card in the first week, on a small change you engineer: swap two activities and put the card up. You want the card to be familiar before a real change arrives.

Where to get help

The National Autistic Society has practical guidance on visual timetables. Widgit software is the standard in many schools; ARASAAC and Global Symbols offer free symbols for making your own. The school's SENCO or a speech and language therapist can advise on the right picture level. Speech and Language UK explains visual supports for families.