What are daily routine cards? Daily routine cards are images placed in a frame or border drawing. They depict actions or subjects, with or without text. Daily routine cards are often used for individuals with autism spectrum disorders.
Why use these daily routine cards?
Daily routine cards provide visual support, clarification, and structure, and are used as pedagogical and didactic learning and teaching material.
The daily routine cards have a stimulating effect, serve as a means of communication, and promote development and self-reliance.
They provide insight and clarification regarding, for example, daily and weekly schedules for children and adults with behavioral, developmental, and learning disorders, such as ADHD, PDD-NOS, and related forms of autism.
Daily routine cards are a tool for addressing parenting challenges and a supplement to social aspects. They promote social skills, norms, and values.
Who uses daily routine cards?
Of course, anyone can use daily routine cards, but research has shown that these cards are most frequently used by:
– Toddler, preschool, and daycare centers
– Primary education
– Special education
– Care for the physically and mentally disabled
– Youth care/Youth work –
Guidance and care institutions
– Speech therapy practices (JGZ doctors/nurses
or VVE leaders)
– Orthopedagogical centers
– Elderly care homes/nursing homes
– Care farms
– At home
What should I look out for when using daily routine cards?Structure is important. Use the cards to clearly indicate what happens during the day. You will need to categorize the cards depending on the child.
For example:
* the card ‘getting dressed’ may be sufficient for one child, but another child may need more cards such as: ‘getting dressed’, ‘putting on underwear’, ‘putting on a shirt’, ‘putting on socks’, ‘putting on a sweater… etc.
For activities, it may be enough to show ‘the activity’ with a card, but another child needs to know when it starts and ends.
For example:
Activities with a clock on a daily routine card.
One clock indicates the time the activity starts, and the other clock indicates when it ends.
Routine is very important for children with autistic disorders, so prepare them for changes. Daily routine cards are an excellent tool for this.
Everyone will grow and function better from compliments, but this is especially important for these children. Compliment them often! And certainly do not forget to reward them for an achievement!
Important for “daily routine users”
: Daily routine cards must convey a clear message through an image and text.
Clean lines and no capital letters can be essential for children who need these cards.
Unclear drawings/images can be confusing in some cases.
It is not recommended to use the same daily routine cards for different subjects.
Even if the text has changed because the image has already been assigned to a specific subject, it is not wise to use the same image for multiple subjects.
Too much on a card might make it look nicer, but this can only be distracting and blur the card’s purpose. As a result, the message is lost.
Humor is allowed and fun, and beautiful color images make the whole thing cheerful. While this might be too distracting, that is precisely why our REQUESTS
idea was brought to life! The cards can also be requested in black and white, or entirely new ones can be created.
Take your time when introducing new daily routine cards.
Create a planning board (also known as a task board or pictogram board) and discuss with the “little wonders” what will happen when you hang up the cards for the next day, so that it becomes clearer what is going to happen.
Taking time for the cards is important and makes using them very enjoyable. This results in calm and clarity regarding the daily schedule.
Letting them experience it as a “fun” event, and perhaps adding a small reward such as a diploma from us, will help everyone grow! Then both parent and child can regard the given daily routine card as a great pleasure.
For some users, it is important to use a different card for each subject or action. For example, with an image like: “putting on shoes…”, do not use this card again by simply changing the text to: “taking off shoes”.
These cards can sometimes be taken so literally that if “Wonder” is watching television but is lying on the floor, this is exactly what happens! So be mindful of how you use these cards and assess for yourself how this will proceed.
Every child will react differently to this, but then email us, because “Wonder” can also watch television sitting down!
“Every child is special, and so much greater than the greatest miracle…..”