F&Z's top parenting tip for the week

[FrannyandZooey]

This has worked wonders for me to get my 3 y o to remember how to do certain things. I have made a list and stuck it up on the wall in the toilet (has just started using toilet independently but forgets all the things he is meant to do). He can't read so I have drawn pictures next to the different items which are:

wipe yourself (drawing of toilet roll)
pull up your pants and trousers
put the seat down
wash your hands
shut the door (nb yes I am a bit anal about this but otherwise it is left wide open and blocks out all the light into the hall)

This has been very effective for us this week and he is proud that he can 'read' the list and remember what to do. I think it could work well for other jobs such as room tidying, getting ready to go out etc (put on your shoes, go to the loo, get your coat and so on). Am now wondering if it would work for dps....

Oh just coming on to express massive support for visual stuff like this.
Invaluable in my work as a SALT.
Great for kids with SN as well as NT ones.
Am also thinking there could be a niche market for ones aimed at errant husbands.

1)Remove boxers
2) Place in laundry basket
)Replace lid.

Whaddya reckon??

Franny,you have misinterpreted what Jimjams meant/said completely and utterly.

Jimjams - thanks for the link - I was looking for visual image for something at work the other day and put PECS on Google images - no symbols but a lot of muscly men!

Bloody good idea, moondog - how do I draw "the dishwasher is over there, if you put your mug and plate next to the sink they will not walk over there and get in the dishwasher by themselves you dimwit?" for my darling dh?

Oops, put my closing pair of inverted commas in the wrong place.

No I didn't - I put an extra question mark in. Brian is playing up today.

Marthamoo - How about this

(Ignore the link about uploading a picture - don't know how that got there)

I don't think I did misinterpret anything that was said to me. In fact I know I didn't.

but it is like the pecs system isnt it?

its commanly used in schools and nurseries. dd2 nursery has a lot of SN kids so there are pecs cards everywhere. spursmums ds also goes there.

dd's Nursery school and Reception class (mostly NT) both used similar visual clues. I do something along the same lines at home for toy boxes etc.

The staff used images from the internet or took photos of relevant items.

Thanks moondog. God I needed you there handing me laminated cards 40 mins ago- could have done with some visual backup (had PECS with me obviously but no bridge, wet clothes, deep river, no change, had car, but no home). The screaming continues.......

yeah it is misdee (although pyramid the people behind pecs pass out if you use pecs and visual timetables interchangeably I do though - and feel terribly risque when I do it )

lol jj

i find it just helps dd2 remember what she is doing. and where things go, because the girl still cant follow a point 'ts over there,' 'where?' -me frantcially pointing- 'there' 'no mummy' 'its next to the drawer the nappy on it' 'oh'

Message withdrawn

For those that are interested

some fab home made schedules here I'm jealous because when I try and do this the younger ones throw them on the floor.

and loads of freebies listed here .

oh noooo save us purlease ds1 is NOT getting his hands on these

on the Barney stuff jimjams. dh hates Barney with a passion. Thanks for the links - been very useful. Just starting on doing visual stuff for ds. Although he's very verbal am now realising a lot of the time he doen't always understand what's going on. It will help with him to organise himself better too. Having said that I asked him to put his own socks on today and he did actually put them on, but.... he rolled them into strips and then tied them around his big toes

Very useful indeed for sequences etc eulalia- Does school use them? Can be a useful way to keep on track when working through a series of tasks. DS1's school for example has his then at the end he has a piccy of an IKEA chair he's allowed to sit on

Also if you are using social stories then backing those up with symbols can apparently be really helpful.

glad the links are useful btw eulalia - if I think of more will post, If you can beg, borrow or steal () boardmaker, widgit, or something like clicker with meyer johnson symbols added they can be really useful. Pricey though so unless you need them a lot the free stuff should do the trick.

oh actually widget is definitely worth looking at they have free stuff as well.

We've just got Widgit on trial at school - is it really good?
I create a lot of visual aids for our ASD children - last summer I did an online course on understanding ASD & my project was on researching the use of visual aids & drawing up some guidelines to help in producing them.One useful thing I discovered which i didn't know before is if you're creating a visual timetable it really helps to have some way of signalling that a job or part of a task is done - whether by tickboxes or by physically putting something in a particular place

or removing it from a velcro strip ......

school use marking over the symbol quite a lot (they use a lot of printed visual timetables each day)- that must be why, I thought it was for pencil control! durr- that makes far more sense.

I like widget- I think the symbols are clear- I use it with communicate in print 2 (cheaper), although I'm still getting to grips with the program.

I think Boardmaker is often popular with schools although it's very pricey......

I mean the thing you said makes far more sense than pencil control!

My BIG recommendation though (especially if you are spending LEA money) is intellikeys. Have a search for the intellitools exchange as well (google will get you there) to give an idea of the sorts of things you can do with it. You can import symbols into that as well to be used.

Thanks I'll have a look at it.

Thats a bit uncalled for Fio.