Active play
It takes ten seconds to get going and twenty minutes to come back down. Active play has no brake of its own, and the steps below add what the play is missing: a visible limit and somewhere to go next.
♂Boy with a frisbee at the playground
A laughing boy stretches out his arms holding a red frisbee among a slide, a yellow football and a swing set.
♂Boy jumping with a beach ball
A laughing boy jumps high holding a striped ball above two green grassy mounds, with motion lines around.
♂Boy leaping between a frisbee and a ball
A laughing boy leaps with clenched fists in the air between a red frisbee and a colourful beach ball.
♂Boy jumping by the slide and hopscotch
A laughing boy jumps with his arms up in front of a yellow slide, a swing set, a ball and a colourful numbered hopscotch grid.
♀Girl jumping and tossing a ball
A laughing girl with long hair jumps with her arms up, tossing a yellow ball into the air.
♀Active play
A girl jumps with a basketball in a playground with a slide and swings.
About this visual support
A child who runs, climbs and throws a ball gets exactly the physical input that makes the rest of the day work. The problem is not the play but its edge. Nothing in the running itself says when enough is enough, and a spoken reminder in the middle of full speed rarely lands before the pace has already gone too high.
This is where visual support does something other than stop the fun. It shows the whole arc in advance: two pictures for the play, one for what happens after. The child sees the ending before it arrives, which is very different from being interrupted. Many families notice that the winding down goes faster when the next step is already laid out on the table.
One concrete variant is to set a number instead of minutes: three laps around the house, ten throws, then the water bottle. A number is easier to grasp mid-movement than a clock. In Routined the play and the wind-down can sit as two steps in a row with a timer, and the app can be tried 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.
More similar visual supports
Afternoon playtime
A happy girl runs and plays with a ball outdoors in front of a playground.
Play and move
A child jumps happily next to a colorful ball.
Exercise in the forest
A child does a lunge exercise among the trees in the forest.
Go horseback riding
A person rides a trotting brown horse with a red saddle and reins.
Move around
A person jogs forward in a green top and blue trousers.
Play outdoor bowling
A child holds a blue bowling ball and aims at three pins on a grassy lane.
Play with friend
Two children high-five each other while a beach ball is in the air.
Ride a bike
A smiling child rides a red bicycle seen from the side.
Take the visual supports with you
In Routined you build schedules from these pictures, add timers and voice instructions, and your child follows the day on their own.
* 14-day free trial included for new users.