Welcome to the Autism Classroom Resources Podcast, the podcast for special educators who are looking for personal and professional development.

Christine Reeve: I’m your host, Dr. Christine Reeve. For more than 20 years, I’ve worn lots of hats in special education but my real love is helping special educators like you. This podcast will give you tips and ways to implement research-based practices in a practical way in your classroom to make your job easier and more effective.

Welcome back to the podcast. I’m Christine Reeve. I’m your host. In many, many years, I’ve been working in classrooms, the things that people tell me about visual schedules, and autism never cease to amaze me. Just when I think I’ve heard and seen it all, something new comes along to surprise me. Some I might hear once or twice but some myths I’ve heard repeatedly over the years, and that causes me to feel the need to set the record straight. Let me start by saying that I’m a little biased. I’ve seen what visual schedules and other visual supports can do for individuals with autism when they’re used correctly. I also firmly believe that we all use visual supports. Some people just don’t recognize that it’s what we’re doing. I’ll talk a little bit more about that later.

Who needs to hear about this? If you’re a teacher who uses visual schedules in your classroom, awesome. You might be wondering whether this podcast is relevant to you. But you might find that there are some implicit biases about the way that we use schedules so that maybe they aren’t always as effective as they could be. Or if you don’t use visual schedules for your students with autism, then this episode might give you some reasons why it’s worth trying. Many times, I meet people who think that a student doesn’t need it for some of these reasons that I’ll be tackling as well.

If you’re a consultant, coach, support staff, mentor, or any of those people who try to help others who are working with individuals on the spectrum, then these mythbusters might be helpful for you. It might help you to understand what they believe that’s stopping them or they could help you figure out how you can help them see how visual schedules could help their students with autism. With all of that said, I’ve got a free set of visual cards for a leisure schedule for you in the Resource Library and there are tons of visual supports in my store to make it easy to implement visual schedules in the classroom. You’ll find all of that in the post at autismclassroomresources.com/episode74. I’ll make sure that’s in the show notes as well. Let’s get started.

Myth number one: “High functioning” students with autism don’t need visual schedules. This is just one that is patently untrue. As I noted in Episode 64, many times our students who are verbal and on grade level trick us—not literally—but their skills trick us into thinking that they’re able to do things that they can’t do. We need to give them opportunities to be independent most definitely. But the difference between being independent and doing something with a visual schedule versus doing something with an adult standing next to them, using the schedule is more independent. If I take a grocery list to the store, am I less independent than someone who goes into the grocery store without one? No. Then why would a student with a visual schedule be any less independent than a student without one? Because keep in mind, not all visual schedules are picture schedules. These students may have a list or a written schedule rather than a picture schedule. They can keep it in their pocket or their notebook. They may not even have a “schedule”, but they could use their daily planner as their schedule. Many times, a visual schedule can help a student to navigate the day without adult support. Visual schedules for autism in this case would increase independence, which is what we’re going for our students.

Myth number two: Visual schedules for autism make students rigid. So many people I’ve met think that the students with autism got their rigid behavior from their schedules, or they think that their visual schedules made it worse. In reality, rigid behavior is a characteristic of autism. Plus, if the schedule is used correctly, it can be used to teach students with autism to be more flexible. In fact, I have a whole blog post about how to do that and I’ll link to that on the transcript and the post for this episode. Students become rigid with a schedule more frequently when they aren’t exposed to schedules that change. We all do. People become more averse to change when they don’t experience it. The more routine our everyday life, the harder it is when something is different. If we use them right, visual schedules and autism can actually help teach flexibility rather than increasing rigidity. They’re actually a tool we use to help overcome that symptom or that characteristic of autism.

Myth number three: Students become dependent on visual schedules. My oh my. I hear this one so much. To counter that one, I’m dependent on my to-do list. I always tell training audiences this: If I took away all your planners right now, what would happen? Would you miss some soccer games and dental appointments? Probably. Some meetings would definitely be missed. Lots of stuff would get forgotten. But no one ever says that we’re dependent on our calendars or our planners. No. I would love for a student to not need a picture schedule for his whole life. But if that’s what he needs to be successful, I’ll stick with it. But when a student is successful for one type of schedule, we certainly can explore other types of schedule that might be less obtusive. We might move to text schedules or lists when a student can read, or move to portable schedules when a student is moving around more rather than having him always go check a schedule on the wall. There are lots of ways that we can mix it up over time and increase their skills. But if we’re teaching them independence with their schedule, then they shouldn’t become any more dependent on it than I am on my grocery list.

Myth number four: Once a student knows the classroom schedule, he doesn’t need the visual schedule anymore. This one makes me nuts. This is the one that I probably see most often. Many people seem to think that once the student has memorized the daily routine, then the visual schedule isn’t needed anymore. Since students with autism are often good at memorizing the daily routine, that happens pretty quickly. But I don’t know about you, but my daily routine isn’t so routine. Students with autism need visual schedules because life is not routine. They need the schedule for the times that the routine doesn’t happen. As I noted in number two, we need the schedule to teach them to be more flexible to handle the times that the routine doesn’t happen. Just because a student doesn’t need his schedule to know the next activity doesn’t mean the schedule is no longer needed. If I can remember some of the things on my grocery list, it doesn’t mean that I don’t need it for that last thing I got distracted from and forgot. I don’t know why I’m perseverating on my grocery list but the analogy works anyway. Instead of deciding he doesn’t need his schedule, this would be a really good time to start teaching him to be more flexible. I’ll make sure that blog post about how to do that is in the resources in this post.

Myth number five: Visual schedules and autism are always just daily picture schedules. Nope. Just nope. There are so many amazing creative ways to use visual schedules. Yes, for many students we might start with picture schedules, but we might start some students with object or tactile schedules, others might start right away with written lists or planners. If you aren’t sure what kind of schedule you need, I have a whole blog post that breaks it down for you that will be in the resources in this blog post. But in addition to different types of visuals, there are also different types of schedules. Some students need a full day individual schedule. Other students just need a schedule presented part of the day at a time. Another student might need just the class schedule or a whole group schedule that’s at the front of the room and a portable schedule for when they rotate through centers and every student isn’t doing the same thing. Some students might need mini schedules or task-analysis schedules that break down specific activities into smaller components. In addition to schedules for each activity, he might need a schedule for the activity’s arrival. That would be a schedule that tells them get your lunch box out of your book bag, take out your home folder, put it in your inbox, put your lunch box away, put your book bag away, hang up your coat, and so on. It’s more detailed and it has more pictures. Likely, those students that are using that, who need more detail, need pictures. But it allows him to be more independent with nobody telling him those steps.

I feel like I can never get enough visuals. Those are your five myths and the things that we want to think about to address them. I’ve got tons of visuals in my store that I’ll link in the post for redirecting from full schedules to group schedules, check-in visuals to mini schedules. You’ll find links to all of them and more. You can also get your free set of leisure schedules in the Free Resource Library. All of those are linked in the post at autismclassroomresources.com/episode74. I’ve also included some resources for all different types of schedules in the resources section. Of course, I’d love to hear about what kind of myths you’ve run into when working with visual schedules and autism. If you’re an educator, hop over to our free Facebook group at specialeducatorsconnection.com and share. I’m going to take next week off but I’ll have a blog post at autismclassroomresources.com to share some ideas there. I’ll be back in a week or two with new blog posts ready for you. I hope to see you then. Until then, thank you once again for everything that you do for your students.