Visual schedules are lines of pictures, words, or objects that represent major transitions or activities throughout the day. There are many different formats to visual schedules. These schedules can be made, or bought, and they can be tailored to whatever the student needs. These visual schedules will also help the students cope with change because the schedule allows them to know about the change ahead of time. This paper will focus on five different empirical studies which used visual schedules to help teach students with Autism.
Results
The articles discussed in this paper are studies which utilize visual schedules to help children and students with autism develop social and communication skills. The first study was conducted by Naomi Schneider and Howard Goldstein. Three students participated in the study. They were in kindergarten through fifth grade, been diagnosed with autism, demonstrated off task behavior, had problems with verbal and social communication, and could not have had an intervention for the impairments in the past. The three students were assessed using the Social Skills Rating System and the Oral and Written Language Skills. The target behaviors were identified based on the …show more content…
While, it will help slightly with younger child, as shown in the study by Ganz and Flores, it appears to be more effective for K-12 students (Ganz & Flores 2008).. Visual schedules appear to be more effective when another intervention is used alongside it. In the study by Scheinder and Goldstein, social stories were used alongside visual schedule, and the students’ scores improved drastically (Schneider & Goldstein 2010). Many studies emphasize how autistic children have trouble with transitions. In two of the studies mentioned above the visual schedule intervention is used specifically to help the students through transitions. Cihak used two different types of visual schedules. One of the schedules was made through pictures, and one used video modeling. Both of these techniques were effective in helping the students transition from task to task properly (Cihak 2011). The study conducted by Waters, Lerman, and Hovanetz showed the visual schedules alone were not effective at all, but there were significant improvements when they were pair with extinction and DRO techniques (Waters, Lerman, Hovanetz 2009). Bennett, Reichow, and Wolery used a structured work system which included a visual schedule. They fund the structured work system very effective, but only when used 100% of the time (Bennett, Reichow, & Wolery