Morning checklist

#checklist#morning#ticking off#routine

An ordinary morning holds around ten steps, and most of them have to happen in a set order. Working memory cannot hold all of it at once, and whatever drops out is noticed only when the door closes. The pictures below make the list visible instead of remembered.

A boy holds a tablet with three ticked boxes, with a small sun beside.

Morning checklist

A boy holds a tablet with three ticked boxes, with a small sun beside.

About this visual support

Working memory has a limit, and the morning usually sits just above it. It is not that the child does not know what to do, but that the list is longer than what can be held in mind while also getting dressed and eating. Something therefore always drops out, and it is rarely the same thing two days running.

Visual support moves the list from the head to the wall. A row of pictures lets the child see where they are in the sequence without asking or guessing. Being able to tick things off also gives a clear sense of progress, which is why the last steps often go faster than the first.

A concrete tip is to put the list where the morning actually happens, not in the child's room. A list in the kitchen gets used more often than one hanging by the bed. In Routined the morning can sit as a routine with tick-off and times, 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.

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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* 14-day free trial included for new users.