Mum works out
An adult who is exercising is at home but not available, and that difference is hard to grasp without explanation. The child sees someone in the same room and wonders why the answer is delayed. The pictures below show how long the session lasts and what to do meanwhile.
♂Mum works out
An adult with a headband does a squat holding two dumbbells.
About this visual support
Unavailability is easier to understand when the person is away than when they are in the same room. A workout does not look like work, it looks like someone moving on the floor, so the refusal is hard to grasp: why do I get no answer when you are right here? For younger children a vague soon rarely helps, because soon has no length.
Visual support makes the time visible. A picture for the session, a clock or timer showing how much is left and a picture of what happens afterwards make the wait measurable. That removes most interruptions, because the child can see the answer instead of asking for it.
A concrete tip is to add a shared part at the end, a stretch together for instance. The session then ends with contact rather than with silence. In Routined the session can sit as a block with a timer and a parallel activity for the child, 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.
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A child stands dressed in leggings, a t-shirt, a vest, a headband and trainers.
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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.