RoutinedScreen-free time
The hard part of screen-free time is not the time but the break: a child has to let go of something already running without knowing what takes over. The pictures below give the moment somewhere to land instead of an empty gap.
♂Boy reading instead of using a screen
A boy sits cross-legged with an open book while a crossed-out tablet appears in a bubble above him.
♂Screen-free moment
A boy holds a book while scissors cut the cable between a tablet and a phone, in front of an orange sun.
No tablet
A tablet with a red prohibition sign over the screen.
♂No screens
A man points away from a computer, a tablet and a phone on a table, with a red prohibition sign over the screens.
♂Screen-free day
A happy boy holds a crossed-out tablet in one hand and a book in the other, with a sun and a potted plant nearby.
♂Saying no to screens
A happy boy holds up both hands in a stop sign behind a tablet with a red prohibition sign.
♀Screen-free day
A girl holds a book and the sun next to a crossed-out tablet.
About this visual support
Giving something up weighs more than starting something. A screen-free moment is defined by what will not happen, and an absence is hard to picture, especially in the middle of something that is fun right now. That is why the last minute in front of the screen is often the hardest of the day.
Visual support flips the task around. Instead of a rule about what is forbidden, the pictures show what is actually available: building, going outside, playing a game, reading for a while. The child gets a destination, and the break becomes a move between two things rather than a loss.
Give the warning in pictures, not only in words: point at the next image when five minutes remain, so the screen and what follows it are visible at the same time. That makes the ending predictable before it arrives. In Routined the screen-free stretch can be built as a short routine with your own pictures and a timer, and the app can be tried for 14 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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This visual support in other languages
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, then $2.39 a month or $20.99 a year (US pricing). Cancel anytime.