Kitchen
The kitchen is one of the most sensory-loaded rooms in the house, with frying smells, fan noise, sharp knives and adults moving fast between stove and sink. The visual support below gives your child a place and a role in the bustle.
Kitchen
A cartoon image of a kitchen with a stove, sink, and refrigerator.
Kitchen with a light blue fridge
A kitchen drawn with a light blue refrigerator, a counter with a sink, a stove holding a red pot and a brown wall cabinet.
Kitchen with a table and two chairs
Drawn in warm wood tones, this kitchen has a fridge, a counter with a sink and hob, a wall cabinet and a round table with two red chairs.
Kitchen counter
A cartoon image of a kitchen counter with a sink, kettle, toaster, and microwave.
About this visual support
Most parents underestimate how loud a kitchen actually is. A pan hisses, the extractor fan hums, someone chops onion, a pot bubbles and an adult asks where the scissors went – all at once. For a child who tips into overload easily, the kitchen becomes a room to escape rather than enter.
Visual support rewires the entry point. When the child sees a picture of where to stand, perhaps a step stool at a safe distance from the hob, and a picture of what they may do, they no longer have to read fast-moving adults for cues. A picture of a sharp knife means stop. A picture of a whisk means come and stir. The sequence becomes predictable and the noise less startling.
A concrete suggestion: place three cards at child eye level by the kitchen doorway – one for watch, one for wait, one for help. Entering the kitchen becomes a signal instead of a fight. Families who want to build the routine further can use Routined, which combines pictures with timers and check-offs. The first 14 days are free to try.
Use this image in a schedule
Build your own visual schedule with this image and download it as a print-ready PDF. Completely free.
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