Does lunch feel forever away?

Not yet and Later and In a couple minutes are incredibly unsatisfying responses when you ask “When is lunch?”

They’re also pretty vague and very context-sensitive responses, which may be a challenge for autistic students.

Using a timeline visualizes how much time there is, which makes it concrete and predictable.

Hungry kiddo timeline

This timeline from Katie Volpe, at PS 682 in Brooklyn, New York, shows a timeline of how much time there is until two (!) snack breaks in between a couple writing tasks to do.

Transformer Talk

When it’s 8am and your student really wants to talk to you about Transformers—but you’ve got four lessons to get through and reading assessments to finish… what do you do? You could half-listen and give a cursory “mmhmm, oh…” but that’s not an authentic interaction, nor is it honoring their interest.

Instead find a time when you know you can really sit and talk to them about their passion—and show them when that’ll happen using a timeline. That way your student will know when to expect it and can look forward to it without having to ask you “How about now?” And you can hold yourself accountable to honoring this connection with your student.