Bring backpack
Shoes on, jacket in hand, and right in that motion the backpack is already forgotten. Holding a future consequence in mind while the body is heading out is hard. The picture below catches the backpack before the door shuts.
♂Holding the backpack
A boy holds a blue backpack ready to bring along.
♂Wearing the backpack
A boy wears a green backpack on his shoulders, holding the straps.
♂Boy wearing a red backpack
A smiling boy in a blue t-shirt wears a red backpack and holds on to both straps.
♀Girl carrying a yellow backpack
A smiling girl in a blue top swings a yellow backpack onto her shoulder as she sets off.
About this visual support
Forgetting the backpack is rarely carelessness. In the morning rush the brain is busy with what is happening right now, the shoes, the jacket, the door, and has no room to hold on to the image of something needed only an hour later. The more hurried it gets, the smaller the space for what is not right in front of you.
Visual support moves the backpack from an invisible should to a visible thing to tick off. When the picture hangs where the shoes go on, the reminder lands at the exact moment it is needed, not ten minutes early and not once you are already in the car. It becomes the last thing the child sees before the handle goes down.
One concrete tip: place the backpack picture at the very end of the morning row, after shoes and jacket, so it acts as the gatekeeper at the door. The child then gets used to that picture always coming just before leaving. In the Routined app you can set it as the final step of the morning routine and let it pop up only once everything else is checked off.
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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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.
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