Welcome!
Firstly, a massive thank you for buying our Morning Routine. Every purchase really does help our small business. So, from our family to yours – thank you.Â
We started ASD after finding it incredibly hard to find high quality, ready-made visuals for our own autistic son, and becoming increasingly frustrated when our hand-made visuals fell apart after just a few short weeks or months.
Our aim, over everything else, it to help families just like ours to overcome some of the challenges faced while navigating life on the autistic spectrum.
With that in mind, we created this guide to help you get the most out of your ASD Morning Routine.
Membership
Become a member and get instant access to a wide range of resources.
– Illustrated social stories
– A range of introductory guides
– In-depth toolkits
– Free postage on all orders
With our silver membership COMPLETELY FREE, and our gold membership less than the price of a fancy coffee per month, you really don’t have anything to lose.
What’s in the Box?
- 1 x Schedule Board
- 12 x Morning Activity Symbols
- Hook & Loop for all Symbols
We’ve made all our products as easy to use as possible – we know you don’t have time to spend hours on making these resources, and once they’re done they need to last.Â
We know from (bitter!) personal experience how gutting it is to spend hours making a set of resources only to have them fall apart a few weeks later.
That’s why all our resources are ready made, printed directly onto durable, BPA-free, non-toxic plastic.
Symbols ship in backing plastic to keep them safe in transit, so all that’s left for you to do is press the symbols out, pop the included self-adhesive hook and loop on the back, and you’re good to go!
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Need More Symbols?
Morning Routine Expansion Pack
£6.79
Blank Symbols Expansion Pack
£5.99
Expansion packs are a perfect way to get the absolute most from your ASD Morning Routine.
Choose from a set of pre-printed morning themed symbols, or a pack of blank symbols for complete flexibility.
All our expansion packs come with a set of 24 blank plastic symbols, identical to the symbols that came with your Morning Routine.
They also come with a sheet of self-adhesive plastic film, pre-cut to the right size for your symbols. Simply peel the film from the backing paper, and place on the symbol. The adhesive is considered permanent, and will reach full strength after 24 hours.
For the blank symbols, either draw your images using permanent marker pen, or print images directly onto the self adhesive plastic film (using a laser printer, bypass tray, on ‘labels’ setting).
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All our visuals have been designed to seamlessly work together to provide an all round, fully comprehensive support solution. Most parents find their child adapts to using visual routines best when they use multiple routines throughout the day. The visuals below have been specially selected as ones that work particularly well together for an integrated support system throughout the day.
Evening Routine
£9.99
Getting Dressed
£9.99
Now, Next Later
£12.99
Day PlannerÂ
£10.99
Tips and Tricks
Start off with a few essential activities – maybe just pick 3 to start with, and build up to the full 5.
Consider including an ‘easy win’ – for example, include ‘wake up’ – by the time they’ve checked their schedule in the morning, they will already have achieved something!
This helps build motivation, confidence, and understanding.
Have the board in the same place each day, and encourage the person to go to it at the same time.
For example, you might encourage them to look at it immediately after waking, or after coming downstairs. You might have it blue-tacked on the wall, but they can remove it and carry it round with them for portable support.
Whatever you choose, be consistent. Knowing where they can find it will help improve confidence and reduce anxiety.
Tailor the board to the individual’s preferences and needs.
Since there’s space for five symbols at a time, you can adjust which tasks are shown based on what’s happening that day, or the person’s mood and capabilities.
Encouraging the person to participate in putting their activities on the schedule can also increase their interest and engagement with the routine.
Encourage interaction with each symbol.
As you guide the user through attaching and detaching symbols from the board, discuss each task briefly.
This not only helps with understanding and memory, but also practices fine motor skills through the physical interaction with the symbols.
End the routine with a review of what your child managed to achieve and provide positive reinforcement.
Lots of praise is important, and it’s a great idea to have a reward that is only used when the routine is completed.
This helps associate the morning routine with positive feelings, and encourages them to stick with the plan.
FAQs and Troubleshooting
Why do you use symbols, not photos?
Put simply, symbols work better than photos.
For a literal thinker, a photo of a bowl of cereal is likely to mean that bowl of that cereal. They won’t necessarily be able to generalise that photograph to just mean ‘breakfast’.
A breakfast symbol is much more general – it can mean whatever is for breakfast that day. The important information to convey on a timetable is that it is time for breakfast, not which food option they will be having that day.
Having breakfast symbol also cuts down the number of symbols you need to keep handy to keep the routine current.
Why is there only space for 5 symbols?
Trial and error, plus feedback from our lovely customers, has shown that 5 symbols on the board at a time is the ‘sweet spot’.
It’s about striking that balance between including enough information for the schedule to be useful, whilst not showing so much that it is overwhelming.
While some people could cope with more, and other people can only cope with less, the majority of people find that 5 symbols is just about right.
How can I get my child to follow their routine?
This is the million-dollar question… If it was as easy as simply giving your child a routine and them doing it, life would be much simpler…
The routine helps your child to organise their thoughts, keep track of what they need to get done, and where they are in their routine.
It also provides a fun way to do all this, and the bright colours are to encourae engagement.
However, it can’t work miracles, and your child has to want this to work in order for it to do so. If there’s something else going on (for example, difficulties at school), then no amount of visual routines will suddenly make them want to whizz through the morning and get out the door for school.
Having said this, we’ve incorporated as much as we can into the design of the product to improve engagement, and there are some things you can try too to help things.
- Keep things consistent – use the same symbols, in the same order every day. This can make it easier to understand what’s expected of them.
- Consider including an ‘easy win’ at the start of the routine – for example, include the ‘wake up’ symbol. Chances are, by the time they look at their routine in the morning, they’ve already achieved something on it. This can help boost motivation.
- Even if your child isn’t instantly drawn to their new routine (this is unsual – most children see it as a novelty and then realise its benefits after a while of use), keep the routine close by. Constantly point out what’s next on the board, show your child the routine even if you’re still the one giving the prompts. Over time, they’ll learn to check their schedule themselves.
Where can I get extra symbols?
We’ve worked hard to make sure the symbols that come with the board are as helpful to as many people as possible.
However, inevitably, there will be some that aren’t so relevant for you, and others that you wish you had.
If you need additional symbols, we have a couple of options for expansion packs that you might find helpful.
- Morning Routine Expansion Pack – a collection of 24 morning-themed symbols, specially curated through conversations with our customers
- Blank Symbols Expansion Pack – 24 blank symbols you can print your own images onto. Simply print onto the self-adhesive plastic film using a regular laser printer, and then stick to the base plastic symbol.
 Click HERE to view our full range of expansion packs
