TIP of the WEEK: Visual Schedules

Students with PWS thrive on a structured environment as well as a structured schedule.  Some students benefit from visual schedules that offer both dense reinforcement and a high level of intensity.  Boardmaker is an essential tool that provides visuals in order to support students in obtaining individualized schedules, which meet their personalized needs.  The Boardmaker program offers teachers, therapists and parents, a tool to support language and literacy goals with assistance from adaptive learning materials.   Boardmaker helps to compile a rather complex structured daily schedule into a step by step clear plan.  This allows the students an opportunity to remain in the moment with a clear focus on the task at hand.

Here is an example of a student’s visual schedule:

The front cover identifies the amount of work to be completed, in the specified activity and what the 5 minute incentive will be.

The student/teacher decides together the amount of work the student is to complete before obtaining the incentive.  It could be anywhere from 1-5 problems or 5-15 minutes of work.  If the task is in minutes, the timer is set and started.

The students are able to quickly change the activity/incentive with the help of Velcro adhesives.

Submitted by:
Brittni Taylor
Assistant Principal