Henry's schedule

We learned early in our "autism discovery period" (I totally just came up with that) that Henry responds extremely well to a visual schedule. When we realized Henry would be attending two different schools in addition to his private speech therapy, I knew I had to get creative to help him understand where he would go each day. Even a neurotypical three-year-old would have a tough time understanding all that.

Thanks to our first speech therapist, I already had a laminated chart with velcro and a pocket at the bottom. I also had contact paper and velcro on hand for visuals I'd made myself. So, all I needed to do was make cards for the days of the week and cards with pictures of each of location. I took pictures, uploaded them to Wallgreens, and printed sets of wallets for each. The schedule is hanging on the end of a lower kitchen cabinet, so he can easily see it. Here's what we have.

It works beautifully. He loves coming home each day and placing the appropriate picture in the pocket.

In fact, it might work too well at times. When Henry doesn't like where he's going (talking to you, Southwest), he just throws off the picture as if that will make it go away. Is it wrong that I think this is cute?

We recently changed his schedule so that he sees Janet, his private therapist, on Monday instead of Friday. He's in a bit of a tizzy over this, but we're working it out. (He loves her so much!) All in all, the Dangel house is in a good groove.