What is a First-Then Schedule?

Visual first-then schedules are a great tool to use with students with autism and other disabilities. It is used to communicate a sequence of events or to reinforce the completion of a non-preferred activity, e.g. “FIRST clean up, THEN go for a walk.” They are wonderful to have in both the special education and general classroom.

This resource includes:

• 1 × First-Then board
• 24 × task picture cards
• 24 × reward picture cards
• 12 × blank cards.

How to Use a First-Then Schedule in the Classroom

Use as a Behavior Support

Use the first-then schedule as a behavior support when you think/know a student doesn’t want to do something you want them to do. By showing them a reward in the ‘then’ box, you have provided a motivator to complete the thing they do not want to do.

Transitions

A first-then schedule can be used to assist a student who struggles with transitions. Just by showing them the transition before it happens, you can relieve the student’s overall stress and anxiety.

Reminder for Students

For those students who have short-term memory issues, it can be used to break a large schedule or task into smaller steps.

Download and Use Today

Use the Download button to choose between the editable Google Slide version of this resource or the easy to print PDF version of this resource.

Kendall Britnell, a Teach Starter freelancer, contributed to this resource.

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