Meet friends
Keeping up with friends rules, waiting your turn and handling suggestions you never saw coming takes constant reading that drains energy fast. The visual support below breaks the meet-up into parts you can prepare.
♂Meet friends
Three happy children play together with their arms outstretched.
♂Talk to each other
Two people stand facing each other talking with a speech bubble between them.
♀Three children holding hands
Three laughing children in purple, red and yellow tops stand side by side holding hands.
About this visual support
The social side of play is full of invisible signals. Who starts, which rules apply this time, and what happens when a friend suddenly wants to switch games halfway through. For many children this decoding runs nonstop, and the energy runs out long before the play does.
Visual support makes some of the invisible visible. When the steps of a meet-up are laid out, it gets easier to see what is coming: say hi, ask what you will do, take turns, say goodbye. The child no longer has to hold everything in mind at once and can spend that energy on the company itself.
One concrete tip: walk through a couple of common turns beforehand, like what to say if you want something other than what the friend suggests. Then an answer already exists when the moment arrives. In the Routined app you can put together your own meet-up with pictures and bring it up before you get together.
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
Play with friends
Three laughing children stand together around a large colourful ball with confet...
After school friends
Two boys and a girl, all smiling, one boy holding a soccer ball, in front of a s...
Friend play
Two boys are kneeling on the floor and playing with a small blue ball.
Active play
A girl jumps with a basketball in a playground with a slide and swings.
Activities
A child surrounded by icons for a book, paint palette, ball and building block.
Activity
Inside a dashed circle a girl runs along holding a paintbrush in one hand and a ...
After school club
A symbolic image of an after school club with three people, a clock, a book, a s...
Afternoon playtime
A happy girl runs and plays with a ball outdoors in front of a playground.
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.