My son has a difficult time with everyday tasks such as cleaning up after himself, remembering steps in everything he does, personal hygiene, etc. For example, if a task has more than one step, chances are he won’t remember it or complete it. If he makes himself chicken nuggets in the microwave, he will a) leave the bag of chicken nuggets on the counter to defrost and go bad or b) put them back with the bag open (He cannot close ziploc bags for some reason, I have to get Hefty Sliding Bags, it’s a coordination thing I guess).
Many kids leave things out, but he can’t remember the steps to anything. He will take a shower (when I force him lol), and forget to wash his hair, or some other body part. Then he will get out and put back on the same underwear and clothes. I cannot tell you how many times I have had to battle this little problem. He either hates the feeling of fresh clothes or can’t remember. He also cannot PEE IN THE TOILET to save his life! LOL Poor mom! I cannot stand having a dirty bathroom and he refuses to sit because his older brother makes fun of him if he does. He is too “cool” to sit to pee and doesn’t notice that he has no aim and pees all over the entire bathroom floor and toilet, wall, tub, etc. And no, I’m NOT exaggerating!
Then washing his hands, brushing his teeth, hair, etc., grooming is not his thing. He forgets to turn off lights, forgets where things go, he will go into a room to do something and forget why he went in there. (I do that too! LOL)
Anyway, in an attempt to help him remember, I decided that the only thing I can do besides the iRewards iPhone application is to make visual reminders and post them all over the house. I have had SUCH a difficult time trying to find something online that I could use to make these storyboards/reminders, that I decided to create my own.
I tried Boardmaker, but didn’t like it. He is 12 and very high functioning and wants the reminders to be “cool” as far as the pictures go, so I let him choose between a couple of graphics I found for each one. This way, he is more willing to actually pay attention to them and hopefully it will help him with the problems he has around the home. I’ve done a few and am going to hang them up this weekend.
If you are trying to figure out how to create visual reminders for your home for your child or even a teenager or young adult with autism, aspergers or some other disAbility, feel free to use the ones I’ve created. You can edit them to make them your own if you wish.
I created them in Word (2003) and used PSP to fix up the images. They should be ready to print as is unless you want to change something. If the images do not print correctly, leave me a comment and I’d be happy to email you all of the documents/images in a zip file.
TIP: I printed them on cardstock and then used my Xyron Machine to laminate them. On a couple of the them, I used the cartridge that has the front side laminated and the back is (repositionable) self adhesive.
- The first is a reminder to brush your teeth.
- The second one is a reminder to be a “germ stopper” and wash your hands often.
- This is for the front door to remind Ty (and everyone else) to take off their shoes. I used an image of a shoe that looked most like the ones he wears (skateboard shoes) so he’d connect with it easily.
- This is a reminder to turn off the lights, it goes above every light switch in the house!
- The last one is for the bathroom. It goes on the wall just above the toilet. This is the most important one for me! I sure hope it kicks in soon and works!
If you have anything similar to this that you’d like to share, please leave a comment, I’d love MORE signs for our house.
Good luck!
These are GREAT!