There will of course be moments and tasks where he needs my input but in the future hopefully he will overcome those challenges as well.Ĭonor like many children with Autism, is a visual learner and with that in mind coupled with life skills I have been busy creating many new Visuals Schedules for Conor, to help him learn to do as many things for himself as he can. I have been making myself stop and wait now to see if he can do things for himself.

I have been known to help my sons with tasks that in reality they are more than capable of doing, if I just let him try. We wanted to offer other aquatic professionals and parents the ability to make their own visual schedules to use at the pool as well.Free Life Skills Printable bumper edition with four different printables to download. ( if you’d like to see what other equipment we use, click here). (Example – PECs for Dressing)Īt Swim Angelfish, we have a visual schedule at each pool as part of our standard equipment. On a case by case basis you may find that you may make a few strips of laminated activities, specifically for a difficult client.Remember you can set up the equipment as a schedule poolside or use an iPad if you want to try other techniques. If you don’t need it and don’t find it helpful its ok not to use this strategy. The schedule is to compliment your lesson and often you will need to be flexible to try this technique and determine its value in your lesson and assess the response of the swimmer.They can point to the photo, perform the activity and then turn it over to signify it is finished. Non-verbal swimmers, seekers and anxious students may benefit from short term use of this schedule.One good tip is to ask the parent if they communicate or use the PECS for increase in following directions, transitions or to reduce anxiety There is no “recipe” for what swimmer will benefit from this type of schedule.Use the First then card if you need to use only a couple picture during the lesson.Give swimmer 4-6 cards and let them pick the order for the lesson.

Use the First, Then or the Choice card if you need to add breaks for the swimmer. Allow options for activities that support the techniques and strategies for you to overcome roadblocks and achieve swim skill benchmarks.Eventually you will want to decrease visual supports when possible. Use these PECS photos to create a swim lesson plan that gives visual support for some or all of a session.

Pecs for autism free