For neurodivergent students
Visual support ideas
The visual supports teachers and therapists make most, with a sample card on every page. Pick a routine and the maker opens with the request filled in; the whole set is drawn in about a minute.
Make your own set
30 free credits — no card needed
By routine
- Morning routine scheduleThe first ten minutes of school are a run of small tasks in a fixed order, performed in a noisy room while saying goodbye. Many autistic and neurodivergent students can do every step but lose the order, and being told the steps again each morning turns the start of the day into a correction.Read and make it
- First-then boardA whole timetable can be too much to hold, and "after this we will" is just words that disappear. For many autistic and neurodivergent students the hard part of a task is not knowing when it ends or what comes after, and the result looks like refusal when it is really a missing horizon.Read and make it
- Toileting stepsUsing the toilet is a sequence of six or seven steps with no adult beside you to prompt the next one. The school toilets are loud and shared, and the steps that are automatic at home fall apart in a strange cubicle. Many autistic and neurodivergent students know what to do and lose the order under pressure.Read and make it
- Emotions check-inSaying how you feel needs you to notice the feeling, find the word, and say it to an adult, usually in front of others. For many autistic and neurodivergent students one or more of those steps is not available, especially when the feeling is big, so the first anyone knows is the reaction.Read and make it
- Classroom rulesClassroom rules are usually words on a poster, read out once in February. For many autistic and neurodivergent students a spoken reminder lands as a telling-off, and the rule itself is abstract: what does "respect" look like, exactly? The rules that work are the ones you can see.Read and make it
- Lunch box and lunch timeLunch time is loud, smelly and short, with packaging that will not open and a hundred children doing different things. Many autistic and neurodivergent students come back from lunch having eaten nothing, not because of the food but because the room and the sequence were too much.Read and make it
- Hand washing stepsWashing hands is a chain of small steps with a lot of sensation: cold water, slimy soap, a splashing tap, a roaring dryer. For many autistic and neurodivergent students the chain breaks in the middle and the sink becomes a place to avoid, especially when the dryer is involved.Read and make it
- Getting dressed for schoolGetting dressed is a sequence with a lot of sensation and a deadline. The order matters, the clothes feel different from pyjamas, and an adult is usually calling from another room. For many autistic and neurodivergent children the morning battle over clothes is really a battle with a sequence that will not stay in order.Read and make it
- Packing my school bagA school bag is packed twice a day under time pressure, and every missing item becomes a problem later: no hat means no play, no drink bottle means a thirsty afternoon. Many autistic and neurodivergent students can pack a bag perfectly from a list and cannot do it from memory in a noisy room.Read and make it
- Choice board"What would you like to do?" is a wide-open question, and wide-open questions are hard. For many autistic and neurodivergent students the choice itself is the problem: too many options, no way to see them, and a word needed to answer. The result is often "nothing", which is not the real answer.Read and make it
- Calm-down strategiesWhen a feeling gets big, words go first. Being asked "what do you need?" in that moment is one more demand. For many autistic and neurodivergent students the strategies they know perfectly well on a calm day are unreachable when they are needed, because recall under stress is exactly what is not working.Read and make it
- Days of the weekA week is a long time to hold in your head, and the things that change by day, sport uniform, library bag, who does pick-up, are exactly the things that cause the morning worry. For many autistic and neurodivergent students "it is Tuesday" means nothing until it is paired with what Tuesday brings.Read and make it