⏺️🎙️Easing School Transitions With Visual Supports

Visual supports are incredibly versatile and helpful in various situations. When verbal instructions feel overwhelming or hard to process, visuals offer a concrete and clear alternative to convey meaning effectively. These tools can be seamlessly integrated into routines at home, school, and even in the community.

In this Dr. Jennifer Welker, will dive into practical ways to use visual supports as children transition back to school. The shift from a break to the structured routines of school can be stressful and anxiety-inducing. Visual aids can alleviate this anxiety by providing clear expectations and predictable sequences, helping children feel more secure and prepared.

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Transcript

Welcome to Visual Supports Back to School and Beyond. While we'll be targeting those school specific visuals I also will point out that a lot of these are universal. They can help with any kind of transition and in any kind of situation if you really know how to apply them.

Okay, background and experience. If you've been on one of my master class sessions before and you want to just give me like a fun emoji in the chat this is a common slide that I will always go over about my background but I also try to show why I'm qualified to give this masterclass. So 17 years plus an education now all of those years working with students with autism or behavioral needs that are neurodiverse.

So I have a lot of time in using these strategies and really making them individualized for different students.  I have been a coach with A360 since December of 2020. So a little over four years now. I have an educational doctorate in organizational leadership and special education. I am a BCBA, which is a board certified behavior analyst, which just means that I've studied a lot about behavior change and the science of behavior and how we can use these strategies to help promote seeing skills grow and change.

So it's not always changing bad behaviors to better behaviors. Sometimes it's simply just, how do I learn a new skill? How do I learn how to go back to school with an easier transition versus having meltdowns or having anxiety? So that's part of that behavior change. As I said earlier, I am a mother, I'm a wife.

I've got a dog who I can see from here. He may try to pop in as well. And most importantly, and practically I am someone who has gone back to school many times myself. And I've used visual. So as a student, I went back to school in college. I went back to school and now I go back to school as an adult who works there.

So I, I still do work in a public school setting during the day. This previously I'd been teaching. This is my first year actually, as the director of special services for my district which just means I really have more influence in being able to provide services for our students and making sure our staff are well trained. 

Okay, but to the important stuff, enough about me our agenda for. This evening or morning is to first just discover how to use visuals to prepare for school as we say how to build routines using these visuals to help with any transition. And then I'll give a lot of real life examples of how these supports have helped other families.

Most of my slides are gonna show you visual examples, because how can we discuss visuals without actually seeing them, right? And learn how to make, use, and implement them with fidelity.

Okay. First of all, why do visuals help? Why is this even a topic worth talking about?

To break it down, Visuals are concrete,  so they are always present if you have them, they aren't something that just disappear like words do. For a lot of our neurodiverse individuals, I can tell you something and I can tell you five times, and it may not stick with you because it's not concrete.

Also, a lot of our language, as we know, is abstract, or it is figurative. So it's really hard for our kids who are very literal thinkers and concrete thinkers to be able to understand some of our language. And I think that's something we take for granted. We are just, we learn naturally as we develop language over time.

And so for our kids that, that don't learn the same way as us, I think it's hard for us to understand sometimes just how little.  Language may make sense to them at times. Visuals are a great prompt that make what we say and what we ask more concrete for them so that they can really understand it better. 

And along the same lines, they are lasting. So I can make a visual and I can use it time and time again because it is long lasting and, it doesn't go away until it wears out.  They can move with the individual. Individuals can be made so that they travel from one location to another one room to another with this with the child with the student.

It's really helpful in that regard to that. You can use it in many places.  They can be made easily and inexpensively, so there are, programs and places out there that will make visuals for you, or, they'll sell you the packs, and those things are all great, and that is totally fine, I've used those but if you have to,  Visuals can be something really inexpensive, and we'll go into how you can do that easily and inexpensively.

They aid in understanding like I said before, just helps make things that are new or un unknown. a little bit more known and a little more clear.  They help to develop symbolism. One thing I hear a lot and I see a lot with young kids is we'll start to try to use pictures or visuals for communication and the child doesn't know.

How to use that visual because they don't really know what it means, right? So I see a picture of a chair, but I don't actually know that means that thing over there that I sit in, right? So by using visuals, you can start to build those, build that knowledge and start to associate, hey, these things that we see on paper.

represent and symbolize something real. And so while that not may not be developed immediately, it certainly is something that you can reinforce and develop over time. And finally, visuals are another form of communicating. They are as I said, you can use visuals to show what you want. Students can point, make choices and show what they're trying to say.

They can hold a card out, they can, use it to, even if they have verbal language, they can still use it to help clarify things and just understand directions. I have some little examples here of a student making a choice a clock and a calendar, those are visuals and just how seeing, I'm sorry, hearing a word and then being able to see a picture just makes so much more sense.

If you know me or you work with me ever, I am the first one to say visuals. If people or if a, an individual is having trouble understanding something, or I'll hear adults say I told them, three times, and they're just not doing anything that I say, or they're not listening. 

What have you tried? What other prompts have you tried? Have you tried a visual? A lot of times all it takes is for me to point to something or to hold up a sign or to just even give a gesture and a child understands that prompt so much better than a word. Yes I will always ask what visual did you try for that situation?

So common visuals that we see every day that we may not even think about. Stop signs. So  obviously when we see a stop sign universally,  we know that we should stop and we should look both ways, right? We've learned what that means and that association Even if it didn't have the word stop, if I took that word off of the sign, I think most of us would still know what that meant because that visual is so ingrained in our society and in our world.

Same with the stoplight. The red, yellow, green, right? We know what that means. We have an association. Nobody's standing there in the intersection saying, stop, slow down, go, right? It's a visual. It's a representation that tells us what to do. We've got the weather signs up here in the corner. All the time on the news, if you check your weather apps, it's going to show you a little visual symbol that indicates what the weather's it doesn't always say, it's going to be windy today, unless show more, click further. But if I just see the symbol rain, and I see the number 40%, I'm like, oh, it's a 40 percent chance of rain today. Okay, so so it's a quick way to communicate that. We've got the bathroom symbol.

So knowing, male, female, or just this is a bathroom in general is very helpful and it's universal too. So a visual is great because if I were in Australia, or if I'm in the United States, or I'm in Canada we're all going to know what this means, even if it's a little bit different in each location.

And then the handicap sign, which, also means, Hey this place, this designated spot is specifically for people who have that additional need and need to be closer to a building or access something in order to, get where they need to go. So visuals we use every day. There's tons.

These are just a few common examples. Okay, and then along with that, here's some  portable ideas. A lot of times, maybe you are at the store or you're in the car, and you're thinking, man, this is when I need to prompt my child, right? I have all my stuff at home, but I don't have it with me when I really need it during those transitions, right?

So these are just a few quick portable ideas and we'll dive into it deeper, but sometimes people use binders with pictures in it. Sometimes people have a little ring with cards and then a lot of teachers I've seen use like a lanyard that has pictures and they can just go to it when they need to prompt a student.

Okay, so let's specifically look at back to school visuals.

So there's different types of visuals, or I should say there's different reasons you should, you can use visuals. So that is what we're going to go through like one by one. One of the common ones that I really like is a social story. Social stories can be written, used.  time and time again, repetitively, and they can be about any topic.

So that's why I really like them. In and of by themselves, they may not be, like, enough.  to fully prompt or teach a child, but there are very good supplemental support and a good way to reinforce something that you are trying to teach. So I do have an example of that coming up.  Visual schedules are always really helpful, especially when you have to transition back to school.

Communication prompts is another way you can use visuals. You can use them to present and teach expectations. Social emotional regulation. Visuals are awesome, and I have a whole nother webinar master class on social emotional regulation that goes even deeper into how to do that and what visuals to use.

And then making choices and being able to share those choices.  Excuse me. So let's go through these one at a time. Okay, social story. A social story, for example, at its core, is a book or a short story that goes through the steps of a routine or explains what to expect for an event. I've worked with kids all the way from 3 years old through 18 years old and, graduating from high school.

And when they're older, they don't always want what would consider, be considered a little kid book, right? That's why I say it can just be a short story. I've written a little paragraph, and, with one or two pictures. You can make a comic strip social story. You can do like a checklist type social story.

So you can really make these  appropriate for whatever age you need it for.  So I have an example here of a social story that I actually wrote really quick. And yes, I just took pictures off of the internet, different clip art. I will say these are not my, this is not my artwork. Okay. But but this is one.

That I specifically made for a client who was not understanding or not wanting to wear her uniform for school. This is how we kind of address that. I get ready for school a social story. And I'll often put, if it's for a specific kid, I'll say, a social story for Rachel or a social story for Amar, you can personalize that and even put their picture on it, which is great.

Okay, when I go to school, I wear my uniform.  So social story very basically presents  what we want them to learn. I can put my uniform on at home to get ready for school.  So again, just telling. Telling the child exactly what to do. When it's time to get dressed at home, mom will give me choices of which uniform to wear that day.

So that the child is involved and more willing to put on her uniform. She's able to have those choices addressed, slacks and a shirt jumper, what does she want to pick that day? I can choose which shirt and bottoms to wear. This is cool. So it's just a quick reinforcing statement of  What you do and that it's a good thing Mom will be so proud that I can put on my uniform at home. 

My teachers will be happy too They like when I come to school ready for the day. And if I remember correctly, this client, this child actually may have wanted to wait to put on her uniform till she got to school, like she liked her teachers to help her. Which is fine, but also, as we know, to build independence, you'd want that child to be able to get ready at home and not have to take that time at school away from learning to get dressed.

So this is what we were working on. My friends at school put their uniforms on at home too. This is good. So this is a statement that just shows, Hey, this is an expectation for everybody, not just for you. We're all going to do it.  Once I get dressed at home, I can put on my uniform and ride to school.

Okay. And then  you can see how simple that was, right? Like it just laid out what you're supposed to do, repeated it in different ways. And, but I try to keep my language. Simple, and my sentences, not too complicated, but I always like to review at the end. To review, to the point.  One, I can choose my uniform and get dressed at home.

Two, I can ride to school in my uniform. Three, walk into school ready to go in my uniform. And four, my teachers, mom, and me feel good because I am ready.  So it's just those quick points you can reinforce. And this in and of itself could be like a visual reminder. So you might read the social story at night you might read it right before it's time to put the uniform on, right?

You might just read it for fun so there's no pressure. It's just hey, let's learn about, what we do when we go to school. But then this page, if you needed something to just take with you or as a reminder or whatever, this is pretty succinct and sums it up.  And finally, I will be all ready, and being ready makes the day start off in a good way.

Good job. Just a little praise at the end. If I, again, have a specific child, I'll put their picture on, at the last page, and I'll do a smiley face for them, or I'll say, good job, carl or whatever, whoever it is and specifically praise them. I have also put pictures of something like if they really loved a character like Toy Story or, Dog Man or something.

I will often incorporate that into the book too just to make it more visually appealing to them and, make them want to pay attention. So  there's another story I did.  for a client where we were going over  like appropriate behaviors and then some behaviors that aren't appropriate for whatever event it was.

And so on each page that it was like a good appropriate behavior, I had a picture of her with a thumbs up instead of like the emoji. So she liked seeing herself in the book and it was reinforcing too. Really, if you're writing a social story, it can be as simple as this. Just make sure you have.

That teaching component where you're really showing in simple statements what the child is expected to do.  And then you want to tie in that emotion. Why should I do that? Because it makes me feel happy and proud of myself. It makes others around me feel happy and good. It makes the day go smoother.

It makes the car ride more fun. It's whatever is applicable to your individual child. And then, at the end, just a reinforcer. So teaching.  tying some positive emotions  and then reinforcing. Sometimes you do include the, oh, we do this and not this. So if you do that, you might say, oh, when I, when I don't put my uniform on or when I.

throw myself on the floor instead of, go to school that might make my teacher miss me or I might be sad because I won't hear the story at school. You can also put in those alternative behaviors and results that a child might not want.  And all of that can be taught through a social story.

I have written many, there's some free ones you can find online. I believe I put that one that I wrote in our free resources. In case you can use it or you can take it and use it as an example and make your own. So yeah, I hope you find that useful.  Okay next way to use visuals that is super, super common for me.

Is a visual schedule, so when it comes to school, you can use these for getting ready in the morning  or maybe a schedule at school an at home schedule could also be used and then you have that  component of school as one of the things on the visual schedule. So I'll show you some examples.

Okay, so here we have Getting Ready in the Morning. And this is just a visual schedule that I actually created specifically for a student I had.  And I believe this resource is also in the free resource folder that you get for joining.  And this particular child just was very It's not that she was avoiding going to school, but she was very off task in the morning, right?

She wanted to stay on her iPad. She wanted to stay in her room. She wanted to, hide under her bed, all of those things.  So this was a way to like visually guide her and remind her of the steps to her morning routine. So first,  Get up and go potty, right?  2. Brush teeth. 3. Put on clothes. 4. Put on socks and shoes.

5. Time to fix hair. 6. Put on coat and backpack. And then sometimes she would eat breakfast and sometimes she wouldn't. So at the end we just said, do you want to eat? And she could choose yes or no. Which both options were totally fine. But that gave her some choice in the matter. And so yeah, she would just follow through and mom would just point as she went along.

I've also used like clothespins or some kind of special clip. If you're your individual is reinforced by that, you could have a picture of them taped to a little clip. I do that at school a lot. And it just moves on down to each step. Oh, Maria is on step one. Here, let's put your picture there.

Oh, good job, you're done going potty. Great, let's move it down to brush teeth, and you leave it there while they do the process.  So visual schedules,  it's, see, I don't know, sometimes I think people doubt the power of these.  But because it's like they know this routine right? They know what they're supposed to do.

I shouldn't have to tell them. I shouldn't have to show them. I hear that a lot. And what I want to say to that is for our kiddos that have their attention is everywhere. And their brain is constantly moving, or maybe they are hyper focused on something else. It's not that they don't know, and it's not that we're treating them like they're dumb and don't understand a routine, right?

A visual is a guide. We all use them. It is simply a way to remind. Just like I write a grocery list for the store, it is a way to remind me what I'm supposed to be getting, what I'm supposed to be doing. So there is no shame in using a visual. Even if your child's 50 percent of the time does well, if the other 50 percent of the time is a struggle, just add this in and see if it helps.

It really is powerful when they can see it and they are a part of it.

Here's an example of a schedule at school. This, basically just has the different parts of the day. A. m. we have group time, then we go to language, work, reading, the teacher time, break, specials, playground, lunch, another break, and then we go home, right? Every schedule is going to be different.

Some kids need their whole day all at once. Some kids can only handle looking at maybe  A little bit at a time, and that's fine,  but having that at school is also really helpful. And again, you can they can move their picture. You can take like when group time is over, you could take it off and put it in an envelope.

And so that disappearing schedule can be really reinforcing for kids to are like, I just want to go home. And it's like you are going to go home, but we got to do these things first. And there's a lot of students that I found  that's really helped with because All they want to do is maybe leave school or go home. 

And if they can see on there visually, you do get to go home. I'm not saying no. I'm not refusing you. I'm just showing you that it's at the end. We've got some other things to do. That can ease that anxiety so much, because they know eventually I am going to get what I want.  I just have to go through these other pictures, right? 

So it really is also,  A great tool for easing that anxiety, which can prevent learning. Here's an example of a preschool daily visual schedule. that could be for school or for home. I said, you can also use them at home and have school on there. So you might have wake up, make bed, brush teeth like that morning routine.

And then then it's time to go for learning at school. Then when you come home, we have TV time, dinner. bedtime, right? So you can also have a bigger schedule that spans across the whole day and more shows where we go when.  And the thing I like about these two, and I would like print and then cut it into pieces and use it more like this one that we looked at but the great thing about it is when plans change, right?

Or, oh, we have tennis practice today or, oh, we're going swimming or Something's gonna be different in that routine, and that might really throw some of our kiddos off, right?  If you have the visual and you can front load, you can easily just add that into the routine. Normally after school we go home, right?

But today we need to go make a stop at the store. So we have that store picture, we put it on there and show them, Oh, look! First school, then store, then home. It'll be okay. That can really help as well.

Okay, visuals can also be used just as simple communication props, so which really is just to remind and prompt what to do or say in the moment. So this is more as needed when your child might need to express something. So  an example is, I want blank, right? So you're teaching them to communicate Using the structure, I want blank.

And then they can choose a picture to show what they want. A younger learner might just use the picture. It might not even say, I want, right? But a lot of kids have incidentally learned  a longer phrase or sentence because we've used a visual like this.  And I really like those because they're consistent, and as soon as they see that I want card, they know that it means it's okay for me to ask for something now.

And I know that you're listening and you're attending to me and you're gonna help me get something. So that is also really nice because it builds that relationship between you and the child, and that's really what they need, ultimately, to have that confidence to communicate. There's also like an I feel, I need this is good for maybe when something's not so great.

Oh, you look sad. How do you feel? I feel sick. I feel cold. I need the toilet. Those are all very important communication prompts that sometimes our kids don't know what to say or how to ask. So being able to have a visual that allows them to figure that out  is so powerful.

I've told the story and other webinars I've done, but there was a student I had who's now graduated and she's yeah. Working with assistance from a job coach and her parents, but she started with me as her teacher when she was three years old  and she  could only scream. That was the only communication she knew and think about how frustrating that is when you don't have words and some of you as parents might have kids like this or who were like this and you can relate. 

And she would just come in and scream. And so we really had to work on building language and that symbolism of pictures. And eventually she was able to say a lot of words,  but even when she knew the words, having the pictures out for her, it's like it gave her confidence to go ahead and communicate, even when she was stressed out, even when she was anxious, and then she couldn't remember the words.

So I know me personally. If I'm flustered or my mind is distracted, I forget clearly what I want to say. Or you walk into the room and you're like, what was I going to do? I don't remember, right? But if I have a visual,  I don't have to have that worry and stress because I've got a backup plan. Visuals can even just be a backup plan that help you to know to remember and to be prompted what to do even when you normally know.

Because we all have bad days and we just need a little extra help, right? Why not? Visuals are also great to explain expectations, so it could be rules at school. It could be just overall expected versus unexpected behaviors in different environments. So we act different in it. In a grocery store, then we would act at the park, right?

There's different rules, different social rules. And those are things we often have to teach our kiddos, especially if they are on the spectrum. Because those social cues don't always,  are not always learned naturally. So it's something that we have to teach. And having a visual to help them remember and learn is really great.

And then overall behavioral reminders. So here's some examples of those.

Okay, rules at school. So here's a few there's no wrong way to do this. It's just whatever is effective. You have to know your kid and your learner. So if they cannot attend to a lot of stimuli or a lot of  wording, and too many pictures on a paper, right? You might want to just have a picture. 

And you can say, oh, quiet body, or, shh, something like that. If they might understand a little bit more, you can have what we see here. Picture,  and then also words. Listen to the teacher and follow directions, right? Sit in your chair, complete your tasks. Raise your hand when you have something to say. 

Be kind and helpful to your friends and always work hard and do your best. So these are great to review, carry around with you, have posted. Like I said, I train staff and teachers all the time. I'll go in and observe a student that they might be really concerned about. There was one the other day  and it was like carpet time.

So the teacher was trying to do songs and learning all together on the carpet. And this little guy was crawling around. He was You know, trying to go to the back of the room. He really was not attending  and they tried a lot of things He did have a behavior chart, which I have an example of coming up and they were using that but I could see that  There was a lot of like verbal prompting going on and there wasn't anything like concrete in front of him to remind him.

So that was something I recommended to them. Having going over something like this with him one on one to teach him and let him contribute. Oh, what do you think it means when we see a hand and an arrow? Oh, that means raise hand. Great. What's that going to help you do? And then being able to have the visual that goes with it.

You teach it and then later I could just hold it up. For a kid and be like And just remind them and they would be like, Oh, and so then I don't even have to say anything, which is awesome. Especially if you're teaching several kids at once, cause you don't have to continuously be interrupted. You can just keep talking, point to your picture, give your kid a thumbs up or a wink when they respond and move on.

So that's what I love about things like this.  Here's another example of being respectful, be responsible, be safe  in cafeteria. It doesn't have to just be general classroom rules. It can be in specific rooms, specific different courses, whatever it is in the building. Just cool little reminders. 

And again, you can use real pictures of kids, too, which is extra fun,  and they get a kick out of that. This one is showing some of those expected versus unexpected behaviors. So while our cafeteria picture and our class rules, they were all things that we do expect, right? It's the what to do, which I like. 

Some kids need a little more explicit training, though. Oops, sorry. So they may need to know what to do, but also what not to do. For some kids, I think it's too much to focus on both, but some definitely need it, and they need to know why. So this one I made for someone who had trouble  appropriately greeting people.

Okay, so people would come to their house, and they would maybe be all over them, or touch them be in their space. And that was something I didn't understand. So we made this little visual to show is it okay to greet someone by waving? Yes. Can you sit by them and keep your hands to yourself? Yes. Can you give one high five?

Yes. Emphasis on one because this child would just continue to ask, right? And then is it okay to smile at someone? Yes. Here's what not to do. Do we hug or squeeze them? Now, sometimes hugging is fine, right? But in this particular situation, it wasn't the preferred act. Hugging or squeezing? No. We wouldn't do that with visitors.

Sitting on their lap? No. That's for moms and dads, right?  Touching everyone? No. Getting too close?  No, so this is really good too, because if a child does start doing some of these things, you can reference it and be like, oh, remember, that's a no, let's do a yes, and it gives them something to shift their focus to, too and be successful. 

What I don't like to see is I don't like to see when people only have the don't do this, don't run. Don't talk. Don't be too loud, because then the child, okay, so you're telling me not to do these things, but I still need to express myself and I don't know what to do instead. So having this that shows the yeses, the positives, that allows you to refocus them on, but you can still do these things and be really successful and still get praise and we're all good.

Here's an example of a behavior chart, like I mentioned earlier. These can look a million different ways. This again, this is what I had for a student in elementary school.

She, we targeted three specific behaviors that we wanted to see her improving on and we wanted to track how she was doing each day. And it helped her to know too, to learn that self monitoring. She was, year four or five when we did this. So we really did want her to start applying some of those skills herself and becoming self aware.

So her goals were listening to teachers with no talking back. So that doesn't mean that she couldn't respond or we couldn't have a conversation, but she liked to be like, she didn't like what she heard. So it was that specific behavior asking nicely and then waiting patiently  and then getting her work done.

She could have one morning, for instance,  and then still earn the star for that block. So during breakfast and transition time, if she did all of these things well, we'd put a smiley, or a star, or a sticker, whatever she was into. And then we broke it down into cubby, which was some one on one work time specials, which was like library, music, art, or P.

E.  Another work time and then lunch. And so then this was just a morning one. So if she got 12 stars or smileys in this whole sheet, she could choose the special carrot chair at calendar time, which she was really reinforced by. And if she didn't. Get that many, we would just say, Oh, that's let's try again.

And then we did it in the afternoon. But what I like about these is again, it lists the positive things, the things we're working towards. And then if a child did struggle with this line, I'm still giving them plenty of buffer and plenty of room to be able to improve going forward. And because she got one warning, I could still say, Oh, cool.

You just talked back to me, let's fix that so we can still earn our smiley. So there was always hope for them to make that better choice.  So these are really helpful at school as well, but you can use something like this at home too, and even correlate it with what's happening at school. So maybe Oh, you, let me see your behavior chart from school.

Wow, you did so great. Now we can do something cool at home too.

Okay. Visuals can also be used for social emotional regulation. So some examples of visuals I'm going to show you next are zones of regulation, mindfulness visuals, sensory break choices, and emotional monitoring.

So here's zones of regulation. This is a program. You can Google it if you haven't heard of it. There's again, so many different ways you can use zones of regulations, visuals. This is just one example. The four zones or colors are blue, green, yellow, and red. Blue means when I'm in blue, I'm in that zone, I probably need to rest.

It means I have a down feeling. Tired, sick, sad. It's like literally having the blues, right? So that's that area. Green is go. That means I'm good. All things are great. I'm ready to work. I'm, regulated. I'm fine.  Yellow means I need to slow down or regulate. I'm on the, I'm on the edge a little bit.

And that's  either an anxious way of being dysregulated. Or it could also be super excited, super hyper. So you, it could go both ways. Like I'm nervous, I'm starting to feel a little frustrated and agitated. Or woo, I'm, I have the zoomies and I'm running around and I can't regulate my body.

So both of those could be in the yellow zone. And that means we need to slow down and we need to change something so we can get back to green.  And then red.  As you would think is ultimately like that mad explosive I'm really not in a good place zone  where we sometimes make, the poor choices. 

What I like about Zones of Regulation is not only can you teach kids to identify emotions,  And then figure out which zone they are in. You're also normalizing those feelings. So there's nothing wrong with being silly and wiggly or even mad. These are all okay zones to be in. But what we need to do is be aware of what we need  when we're in that zone so that we feel okay, we feel better.

So that's what the tools part down here is for. So I usually start families with Hey. Use the zones just work on what the emotions are and what zone the child is in.  Then once they get that down, then I say, okay, now introduce the tools that help us get back to green. Because that's that good, ready, happy place, right?

So every kid's different. You're going to choose whatever visual Symbols they need, but some examples, getting a drink of water, deep breaths, wall pushups. So for kids who are extra active and even hyper,  I sometimes am like, Oh, when you're hyper, we actually need to go get some sensory input, right?

Let's go do some heavy work, some wall pushups. Let's go play with a heavy ball. Maybe they need fidgets to help calm anxiety. Maybe they need to talk with an adult, maybe they need to listen to music to feel calmer or more upbeat. There's some breath, some stretching, taking a walk, being able to, do some self talk, all of these things, simply taking a break.

These teach kids, not only do you know now how you're feeling, but you also know  What to do when you're feeling that way and that gives you again something to refocus on that takes us out of our just our reactive brain that you know that part of the brain stem that part of us that's like fight or flight or freeze right when we have something to look at it pulls our visual attention to it.

It automatically makes our brain start to have to move to more rational place. And that's what that's why that's enough like scientific reason why visuals are very helpful because they're almost a distraction that can help us get out of that stuck place. Another way to regulate is through mindfulness.

So this is like breathing cards. And it just prompts, you would take your finger and you would just follow the directions as you go around start here, breathe in,  breathe out,  fold.  Breathe in, and so it's again, focuses the child on an activity,  but as they breathe, they're actually regulating themselves and maybe not even realizing it. 

I take deep breaths all the time when I'm feeling stressed Just something about it just really does automatically soothe you and that, again, that's science. That's not even just an opinion. That is literally what happens because it's giving your brain oxygen and releasing those things that help us to be better.

But having a visual to know how to breathe, how to think about these things is, again, very helpful. And then sensory choices. Sometimes, we saw this before, but sometimes our kids just need to know what are my options when I'm feeling A certain way and how can I keep myself from getting in a yellow or red zone?

Maybe I need to do one of these things every so often during the day, either at school or at home. And so having those choices so that they can point and communicate is also a really great use of visuals.  And then just in general, emotional monitoring. I think this emotion strip here with the red and green is included in your free resources because I did create it.

And then the emotional thermometer is something that we have, through our A360 resources,  but an emotional thermometer. It's like the zone of regulation, but it's not as deep. So it's really just how are you feeling right now? You walked into school.  How are you doing? Oh, I'm green.

I'm ready to learn. Awesome. Let's do this. Maybe a child walks in and it's like, How are you feeling today? I'm blue. Oh, man. Are you tired? What's going on? Yeah, I'm really tired. Okay, that would help me as a teacher to know you're tired. You may not have slept well last night or whatever. I need to be extra cautious with you today.

Or you may need a small nap or rest to be able to be okay. And so that just, that communication would help me to be able to treat you better as a teacher.  Same with if they said, I'm in the orange or I'm in the red. It's Oh let's just take a break and let's calm down and let's get regulated before we even try to start anything.

Cause I'm not gonna I'm not going to try to make a kid do a bunch of work and be productive when they're in the red zone. Just doesn't make sense and it only makes things worse and probably escalates things right so that them learning to communicate that is so powerful and also having a whole class do it, or, if you're at home the whole family so I might say, today I'm I'm in this in between.

I'm a little bit of this yellowish orange, which means I'm okay, but I'm also eh, I'm a little off today.  How are you feeling? Normalizing when we're not in the green zone.  Let them talk about it. It's okay. It's good. And it helps you to know really how they are feeling.  So this strip I made because it's designed to have a clip with it that has the child's picture or their name written on it  and showing them you can be  sad, upset, or unsure and still be  have green behavior.

Okay, so this is a little bit different from our zones. You can be of course happy and excited having fun,  but as soon as your  mood turns into screaming or whining,  then we need to do something different. So it's a different kind of monitoring that sort of shows a kid when you're so dysregulated that you're red, it's hard for me to help you. 

So we, I might need to just give you a minute. And that's what that's showing. Oh, you're over here. You need a minute. Okay. You need space.  But once you're back in the green, you can acknowledge how you're feeling, but then we can actually talk about it and be productive because you're calm enough to do so this just helps kids to learn that again, I can be mad or sad,  but still have acceptable behavior and that's what we want them to learn. So the visuals really, again, help us understand that. And then just making choices in general. We've seen a lot of variations of that in our other visuals, but just having a choice board for any activity.

Or, and it can look a lot of ways. Just point to what you want. You might only have to give two choices for a young learner. You might be able to have a bigger field like this for a an older student. Or you might have something like this that has that phrase. I choose blank. And then there's all these choices below.

And that gives them a lot of power  to be able to express what they need and want as well.

Okay, so building routines with visuals. We have already talked about some routines. But here's a few more examples. So what routines do you need specifically thinking about school? The morning routine, we saw that visual. You might need a getting dressed. You might need one for after school expectations.

A lot of times our kids come home and they are very dysregulated from the day. Maybe they masked some of their feelings all day. Maybe they are wound up. Maybe they are tired and don't know what to do. So just having that plan an evening routine or a task analysis for any multi step process.

So I'm going to give you a fun example of a client I'm working with right now. And her son, he just He has a lot of energy, and so it's hard for him to stop and focus on what he needs to do.  So we worked out both a morning routine and an evening routine visual. And so instead of being, like, a visual schedule, she separated the pictures and she went and put them either by the place in the house where it needed to be done,  Or on his, on the dresser.

I can't remember which one we went with, but she also bought, because he's such a kinesthetic person, she also bought the little buttons that light up, and she put one with each  picture. So for his routine, because he was a mover and he needed that to let, let off some steam,  he would do a part of that routine and then hit his button.

And then he'd go across the house to the other area  and do that routine and hit the button. So there was a reinforcing factor there because he was able to light up all the buttons, right? But he also was moving back and forth. And so he was both getting what he needed to get done,  and getting that energy out.

So that was one thing that we did and she said that really helped him to start doing the routines and becoming more independent in them because he was interested and they were paired with something fun. Another example here of a leaving home routine. So we, I had a kiddo who really needed some sensory right when they woke up or at least before they started the routine of getting ready.

So we had sensory activity first, then get dressed.  Then use the toilet, then get your bag, now it's time to leave. And that was his routine every morning to help him get ready to get out the door.

Here's after school expectations, I mentioned that. Some suggestions would be, you could take pictures of where items go. A lot of times our kids they want to do well, but they are not. They're getting home and they just want to drop their stuff and go play, right? So you might show them oh, shoes, backpack, whatever, go here.

And you have a picture of what it's supposed to look like in that area. Or you hold it up and you're like, first do this. So they know shoes go here, backpack goes here. Or maybe you put picture of shoes where the shoes go and they match.  Here's the backpack go match and they put it there. That's a simpler way.

You can make a visual schedule or checklist for chores. So we're going to do 123  things before you do anything else. You might do a first then first homework then you get to play on your computer or your iPad. And Use a timer to your advantage, and I specifically like a visual timer.

Something like this. They have them digitally on apps as well for free or very low cost that even have like cool pictures behind them. So as the time disappears, you, a picture is revealed. So that's really fun. But these time timers are  again, putting a visual representation to what we're expecting.

So you have 10 minutes  To get this done or you're going to do homework for 15 minutes before you go play and you can set the red to the number and as the red disappears, the child is understanding. Oh, I'm running lower on time or I'm almost done. The concept of passing time is really hard. It's that's abstract.

This makes it more concrete and it's, and it beeps at the end. But if your child doesn't like beeping, you can also silence it. Big advocate of timers, unless it's a trigger for your kiddo.  Excuse me. Other helpful visuals in general. I mentioned checklists. Use these for a lot of things, especially your older kids.

Sometimes it's super satisfying to check something off or cross it out. I know it is for me when I have a to do list. I just want to like, see all the lines through everything until they're all done. So that can be helpful.  You might use something like a turn taking card. So if a child  You have multiple children or you're playing a game or you're doing an activity where they obviously have to share their space, share the activity.

You might have a, turn taking card that's prompting when they get to do the thing and then when the other person gets to do the thing and you can move that visual back and forth. A wait card is always helpful, especially for a younger kid.  And you do have to teach this, you have to teach the concept of wait, but I had it to where my students at school would understand the wait card means not right now, but later, right?

So we would put the wait card on top. They'd say, I want  sucker, right? And we were eating lunch. Okay, I'm going to put the sucker there so you can see it and I'm going to put the wait card with it. So they know, okay, I have to wait for it, but it's coming.  It's a lot easier than saying just no, and sometimes you have to say no, I'm not saying that, but if it is something that they can wait for a little bit or wait till the end of the day when it's the right time, just having that visual there shows them again. 

I know what this means. I can't have it right now, but you hear me and you validate what I want and it's coming. That's really important. It can also be used to show when things are available or not available. Sometimes, a certain TV movie or show. is a choice because it's on TV. So right now it's available.

Other times of the day, it might not be available. Certain treats they're available at, during this time of day, they're not available at night. So sometimes you can have that and sort out like right now, these things are okay to do, these things are not, and that's okay. And other times it might switch or move around, but that visual helps us to understand. 

Okay, and just a final tip on implementation, and then we can do some questions if anyone has any. You might see all this and say, this is great, I love these things, but where do I start? Just prioritize a routine or process that's the hardest for your child or whoever you have in mind. Pick the one thing that it's man, if this one thing were better, then that would help us so much.

So think about that. And then print pictures or simply just take photos of the different steps to that routine or that process. For some parents that like, you don't have access to a printer, or you just don't feel like you have the time or energy to put all this together, use your phone, take a picture of  somebody doing the steps or the items,  and then have them print it in one hour photo. 

And then just use those you don't, it doesn't have to be complicated. There are situations where you may need to use Velcro, you may need to laminate your picture so that they stay durable. I always make multiple copies because you have some of those kids that will tear it up, throw it, scrunch it. 

And I always want to have a backup because it's still helpful and it's still, a consistent thing. And then that's less frustrating for you. Instead of remaking things over and over, you've just made four copies from the beginning and you just grab the next one. And inevitably something will get lost, I promise.

Have them handy in multiple locations. So that's another good reason to get multiple copies. You might want a prompt in the kitchen, you might want one in the car, you might want one for school. So think about where those visuals would be helpful. And then teach the meaning and model the use of the visual.

There is absolutely nothing wrong. And in fact, I would encourage having a like you physically  modeling and using it. So if it's a routine for how to make a, your lunch for school the next day, I would use the pictures and I would do it. Oh, first I get bread.  Here's what that looks like. Next, get peanut butter and  a butter knife.

Okay, here's what I do. Spread it. So then you're teaching and normalizing it again. So it's not something that's like just for your kid. And a lot of times I know for me, I have a two year old. So as a mom, if I want her to do something, but I do it, that's when she wants to do it. She wants to take the opportunity away from me.

So when we do things, our kids often want to follow  just because they want to be a part of it. And, you want to do it with fidelity because a lot of times you do all these things and it's great. Maybe things get busy and you forget and then it stops working or you feel like, man, this isn't doing any good.

You really have to be consistent with your use. It's okay to start small and build on. So like I said, one routine. Get that really down before you do more. Don't overwhelm yourself. Make it a norm for the whole family. If you have, an agreeable people in your family, try to have them participate too. 

And then it's not singling out. One or two children in the home and then praise and reinforce for them using those visuals and then completing tasks, of course. You're always pairing your proud, your proud feelings, your praise with them successfully doing things. So parents, you've got this.

You can do it. You're empowered and it'll empower them. So real quick, if you're joining, you may know about our Autism  360 program. You may be a part of it already or maybe not. So just real quick, in our program we do, and look, it's in It's a yes and a no chart visual. I love it. So yes, we do work one on one with parents based on goals that you and your child need to be working on.

I've said that I work with clients. I, am a  kind of a parent coach of sorts that is helping guide specifically for one child and their goals. We set SMART goals, we review them periodically, and we always are talking about, just like this webinar, it's literally like a conversation where I'm like, hey, here's this visual, let's think about how we can use it for your kid,  etc.

And we recalibrate as needed. What it's not for everyone, because you really have to have time to do this and the willingness to put in the effort. If you don't, It's probably not worth your time. So it really is something you have to commit to. And it's not an online course you work directly with someone specifically.

And if you do build that relationship where you can check in with them and really really watch your kids make progress benefits, you become an advocate for your child in all environments you find opportunities. To learn and design strategies for yourself. So I've had parents that I've started with and like year, they've worked with me for a couple of years or more, and now they are coming up with those things on their own because they've learned and then the coach or the team of practitioners really supports you.

You get access to the app. Many of you may already have that. That may be how you joined. And you're likely to see some real tangible progress. You just, you get what you put in. So that's a quick spiel about Autism360 if you didn't know. There is a QR code here if you're interested in finding out more.