Work task schedule or mini schedules

Children with language learning difficulties learn best when they can predict what they are going to be doing.  In another blog (  http://prakovic.edublogs.org/2014/05/30/would-you-turn-back-home-if-you-forgot-your-cell-phone-the-importance-of-schedules/)  I discussed the importance of a schedule.  It is also important that the child understands not just what work they need to do but also “how much” work  and how will they know they are finished .

You may know that you are expecting to read a book, answer some questions and complete a craft activity but you need to tell this to the child.  You can do this in a variety of ways from a simple check list to a visual task board with the steps written out in it.

This can be very specific for the task such as this one about how to make a sandwich:

It can also be a checklist if you have multiple activities within a category.

It can be more abstract with the information presented in a checklist, number format or white board write on board.

It can also be simply numbers too ( 1, 2, 3) if there are three things that you are wanting the child to do.

Sometimes you might organize this in a file folder in which there are multiple pages that you want the child to complete. Even when you do this you want to make the child aware of the multiple pages in some way.

There are times that you don’t want to finish an activity in one session ( read a book, write a story) then indicate either through timer or through a visual where you will stop.