Visual Schedules

Visual schedules are an environmental support that accommodates the need for predictability and decreases anxiety about the unknown. Visual schedules take an abstract concept (i.e., time) and present it in a more concrete and manageable form using words and/or pictures. They serve two major purposes: (a) to provide motivation by making clear when preferred activities, tasks, or classes will occur and allow anticipation of upcoming events and activities; and (b) to facilitate an understanding of time and the ability to predict change (Myles, 2005).