Using Picture Schedules Essay

Words: 1351
Pages: 6

The common thought of picture symbols and schedules for students with autism is that they will increase their independence by mapping out tasks they can understand and follow with little guidance. Since students with autism are usually dependent on visual cues, picture schedules are used so that they may better comprehend tasks and routines. Overall, the use of picture schedules did not impact these students’ progress in increasing their independence. In the beginning of this research study I was very optimistic in achieving results from this research study. In the fourth journal entry I stated, “I believe that through using these picture schedules, my students’ vocational skills will improve. This will happen through pairing the schedules with their classroom job.” Because previous research indicates positive results from using …show more content…
The prompting varied from physical, verbal, and gestural, but all students required some sort of prompting. There were slight changes in the types of prompts that the students needed but most of these changes were not consistent throughout the entirety of the study. Figure 5 shows Charlie’s change in the types of prompting needed to complete a specific task. Although he changed from needing two physical prompts to needing one physical prompt, the need for prompting was still prevalent. To increase independence, it is important to try to decrease the amount of prompting each student needs and the severity of this prompting. The independence-tracking charts were created to show how much prompting and what type of prompts each student would require for each task. These charts opened my eyes to the amount of prompting that took place for students to complete even the seemingly minor tasks. As seen on Figures 2, 4, and 6, the amount of prompting varied for each student, but was still prevalent for each student. Journal entry 7