Draw the curtains
From dark and warm under the duvet to bright and going is a bigger leap than it looks. The pictures below prepare the child for the curtains opening soon and the morning taking over.
♂Drawing the curtains
Two boys each pull a blue curtain across a window.
♂Boy pulling the curtain
A boy pulls a yellow curtain along the curtain rod.
♂Closing the curtains
A boy pulls yellow curtains across the window.
♂Opening or closing curtains
A boy stands between two red curtains with the sun behind him.
♂Pulling the curtain
A child pulls on a red curtain.
♂Closing the curtain
A boy pulls a yellow curtain across the window.
♂Lowering the blind
A man pulls the cord to lower the window blind.
♂Pulling the blind
A man pulls the cord of a window blind.
♀Open curtains
A girl draws the curtains apart so the sun shines in through the window.
About this visual support
You draw the curtains open and the light pours in, but the child in the bed is nowhere near as ready as the day outside. The step from dark and safe to bright and active can feel abrupt.
That is why it is worth making the opening its own step that the child recognises. When the curtain picture comes first in the morning order, the child knows what is coming, and the light becomes an expected part of waking rather than something that switches on without warning. One idea is to open a little at a time on the mornings it is hard, or to let the child draw one curtain while you take the other, so the big step splits into two smaller ones.
Over time the bright square in the window becomes a signal the body links with the day beginning. If you want to place the first step of the morning in an order the child recognises, you can build it in the Routined app, which you try for fourteen days before anything costs.
Use this image in a schedule
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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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