Go shopping
Inside the store everything happens at once. Fluorescent lights, music, strangers, queues, a ticking clock and a parent staring at a list. The child handles every impression alone. The steps below give something to hold on to between the peppers and the till.
♀Go shopping
A woman pushes a shopping cart full of groceries. She is also holding a pink shopping bag with a star.
♀Go shopping
A woman holds two full grocery bags and a mobile phone. A speech bubble with a shopping cart icon is next to her.
About this visual support
Stores are designed to keep adults inside longer: bright light, music at low volume but constant, smells, the clink of the till and movement at the edge of vision. For a child the same environment is a flood of impressions without pause. And just when the child needs the most support, the parent is busy with the list, products and payment.
A visual schedule gives the child a small private map of the trip: in, cart, fruit and veg, dairy, bread, till, out. It becomes a parallel thread running alongside the store's own logic. For many children with autistic traits, the predictability makes more impressions bearable. A concrete tip for this routine in particular: give the child their own short list with three items to find, so the gaze is aimed forward instead of at everything at once.
In Routined you can save the shop route and pull it up next time. Try the app free for 14 days.