DIY Visual Calendar for Kids

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We live in a very visual world. Our social media is visual based, our advertising is visual based, everything we look at around us is visually vying for our attention. And I don’t know about you, but I am a very visual person. If I see it done first, I can do anything.

Kids tend to be the same way. It helps them to visually see what’s going on and what’s going to happen next. Especially for my son who has autism. We have tried many different visual calendars and charts, but the one that has worked the best is this DIY visual calendar that is very versatile.

My son’s BCBA therapist is the one who created this visual calendar and she gave me permission to share it with all of you. To be honest, I have seen nothing like it before. Not online and not even on Pinterest! I wanted to share it with all of you because I know it works and I believe it works for both neurotypical kids and special needs kids.

Make This Visual Calendar:

What You Need:

• Large Poster Board
• A Laminator (or you can go to staples)
• Velcro
• Permanent Marker
• A Ruler

How to Make It:

1. Get your poster board laminated. Pick any color. My son’s is blue since it’s his favorite color!

2. Take your ruler and permanent marker and draw your lines and boxes to make your calendar. Each month is different so make sure you have enough boxes total.

3. Cut out your velcro. A small square for the date for each day and then three longer strips for each day. Peel and stick your velcro on the visual calendar. Include strips for the days of the week and for the name of the month.

4. Next, use paper or poster board and permanent marker to make the numbers for each day, and the names of the days of the week. For the names of the months, print out the words in a large, fun font and then laminate them.

5. This next part is the funnest! It’s time to pick the things that your child needs on the calendar. For my son, they have cards for birthdays, days he’s off from school, pictures of the therapists who come and work with him, and cards for therapy days.

There’s a lot more cards, but this gives you an example of what you can do. In the picture below, you can see that there’s a card that says, “No School,” a picture of a little boy who’s saying something that represents the day he goes to speech therapy, and pictures of several of his therapists.

For these cards, you can take pictures of the actual people or items or go online and find clip art that represents the item or activity. Be as creative with it as you want!

What do YOU think? Have you ever seen a visual calendar like this before? What kinds of visual calendars work for your child?