Buy groceries
A grocery run is several jobs stacked on top of each other: remembering the list, finding things on the shelves and walking past everything that tempts. The steps below turn the trip through the shop into something a child can follow without reminders all the way.
♂Man buying groceries
A man in a yellow shirt pushes a shopping cart full of fruit, vegetables and milk while carrying a green tote bag.
About this visual support
Shopping for food takes more mental work than most everyday chores. The list has to be held in memory while the shop is full of impressions, the shelves are not in the order you planned at home, and in every aisle there is something that was not on the list but looks very tempting. For a child still practising planning and holding back impulses, that is a lot at once.
Pictures move the planning out of the head. A picture list the child carries turns the trip into a task with a clear start and a clear finish, and every item found becomes proof that things are moving forward. Sort the cards in the order the goods actually sit in the shop rather than the order you thought of them at home, and you avoid walking back and forth while the energy lasts longer. Give the child responsibility for three to five items instead of the whole list.
You can also build the list in Routined and try the app for fourteen days at no cost.
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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