Take the bus
A bus journey is full of things that cannot be negotiated. The departure is set by someone else, stops pass whether or not the child is ready, and strangers sit close to the body. The visual support below gives the child anchor points through the whole trip.
♀Woman taking the bus
An icon of a woman standing in a bus, holding a pole and a ticket.
♀Take bus
A girl with curly hair and a backpack is stepping onto a yellow bus, with the word 'BUS' on its side.
About this visual support
The bus is one of the few places in a child's day where most things lie outside their own control. The timetable rules the departure, the number of people on board ranges from empty to packed, the noise of engine and brakes shifts constantly, and at every stop the same question hangs in the air – is this ours? That uncertainty builds a quiet, low-grade stress that the child may not be able to name but shows in the body.
Visual support makes the outside world a little more graspable. Walk to the stop, check the sign, wait until the bus arrives, board at the front, find a seat, press the signal in good time, step off. When each step has its own card, the child knows what to do even if the bus is late or crowded.
A small thing that genuinely helps: decide in advance which stop is yours, and show it as a picture or on a map before you leave home. The signal button is then tied to a specific place rather than guesswork. In Routined you can build the full bus routine and get a reminder when it is time to head out, so the time pressure disappears from the trip itself.