📅 My Daily Routine
A visual daily routine chart is a picture plan of the day your child can see, so they always know what’s coming next. Print it free, go through it together each morning, and let your child tick off each step as it’s done.
How to use it at home
- Draw a simple picture (or stick a photo) for each step of the day.
- Go through it together each morning so your child knows the plan.
- Let them tick or move a peg as each step is done — they love this bit.
- Keep it in the same spot so it becomes part of the routine.
A quick preview — here’s what you’ll print:
- Draw a simple picture (or stick a photo) for each step of the day.
- Go through it together each morning so your child knows the plan.
- Let them tick or move a peg as each step is done — they love this bit.
- Keep it in the same spot so it becomes part of the routine.
Pairs with our free Better Sleep program at inclusivetherapycentre.com/home-programs
Why this helps
A visual daily routine works because children feel safest when they know what’s coming. Two questions sit underneath most meltdowns — what happens next, and when will this end — and a picture plan answers both without anyone having to argue about it. Once your child can see the answer on the wall, they can stop bracing for the day and get on with being a child. The chart above is free to print, and it sits alongside the other sheets in our printable parent toolkit.
It also hands a little control back to your child. Instead of being marched from one thing to the next, they can look at the chart, see the plan and move a peg or tick a box themselves as each step is done. In our clinic, parents often tell us the transitions that used to spark the biggest fights become surprisingly smooth once the routine is on the wall. We explain the thinking behind picture plans in more depth in our guide to visual schedules and routines.
Be realistic about what changes first. Usually the meltdowns don’t disappear — they get shorter, and your child starts protesting before the change rather than in the middle of it, which is far easier to help with. For the ones that still boil over, keep a calm-down plan on the wall beside the routine, so your child knows where to go when a step is too much. Give it two to three weeks of steady, every-single-day use before you decide whether it’s working. Resistance in the first few days is normal, not a sign that it has failed.
Don’t try to run the whole day from day one. If ten steps is too much to take in, chart only the stretch that goes worst — usually the morning rush or bedtime — or drop right back to two pictures at a time on a first–then card. A short routine your child actually uses is worth far more than a beautiful full-day plan that hangs on the wall untouched.
Make the chart fit your family’s real day, not a day from a parenting book. In many Multan homes that means school finishing around midday, a rest in the afternoon, homework or a Quran lesson before Maghrib, and cousins arriving without warning in a joint-family house. Put those on the chart honestly — a routine that doesn’t match the day your child is actually living stops being used within a week.
If you bring the chart to us, what we look at isn’t the chart — it’s the two or three moments in the day where it keeps breaking down. The fix is often small: the warning came too late, one step was really three steps in disguise, or the picture meant something different to your child than it did to you. That’s a short conversation, and it’s usually worth having before you give up on the routine altogether. If you’re not yet sure whether to come in at all, our free online development check takes a few minutes and gives you somewhere to start.
Tips for using it well
- Do start with the part of the day that goes worst — usually the morning rush or bedtime — rather than charting the whole day at once.
- Do keep the chart at your child’s eye level, so it belongs to them and not to you.
- Don’t cram in every tiny detail — the main anchor points of the day are enough.
- Do give a warning before each change — ‘two more, then bath’ — and point at the chart as you say it. The warning is what prevents most transition battles, not the chart on its own. If the protest is about the feeling rather than the step, a feelings chart gives your child a way to show you which it is.
- Do let your child do the ticking or peg-moving themselves, then fade your help: point to each step at first, later just glance at the chart, and finally let them lead it.
- Do use the same word and the same picture for a step every time, even if you switch languages elsewhere in the day.
- Don’t use the chart as a punishment. Never take a step away or cover it up because your child has misbehaved — a routine chart is a map of the day, not a reward chart, and it only works while your child trusts it.
- Don’t abandon the routine on busy or difficult days; that’s often exactly when your child needs it most.
- Do warn your child about a change to the usual plan as early as you can, and show them on the chart which step is different.
Common questions
When’s the best time to go through the routine?
First thing in the morning, before the day starts — sit beside your child, point at each picture and name it in order. Then come back to the chart just before each change, especially before the steps your child finds hard. Two minutes at the right moment does more than a long explanation afterwards.
My child’s days are never the same — is a routine chart still worth it?
Yes. A visual routine doesn’t have to be a fixed timetable. Even on unpredictable days it gives your child anchor points to hold on to — waking, meals, bath, bed — and the order between them stays the same even when the timings move. Add a ‘something different today’ card so a change is shown to your child rather than sprung on them.
What if my child ignores the chart, or nothing seems to change?
Keep gently drawing their attention to it and let them do the enjoyable part — ticking a box or moving a peg. Routines usually take two to three weeks of steady daily use before they settle in. If a few weeks of consistent use changes nothing, or your child becomes very distressed by ordinary changes, that’s worth talking through with a therapist rather than pushing the chart harder.
Does a visual routine chart help children with autism or ADHD?
Visual supports like picture schedules are widely used with autistic children and with children who find attention and impulse control hard, because seeing the plan takes far less effort than holding it in your head. It is a support, not a treatment, and it won’t do the same job for every child. If your child already sees a therapist, ask them to help you set the chart up so home and clinic match.
My child can’t read yet — what pictures should I use?
Use whatever your child recognises fastest. For most young children that’s a real photograph of the actual thing in your own home — your bathroom, their school bag, their own plate. Simple line drawings work well once photos are understood. When reading starts, keep the picture and add the written word beside it, so the chart grows with your child instead of being outgrown. If your child is starting to notice letters, our printable alphabet cards sit well beside the routine.
Should the labels be in Urdu or English?
Use the language your family actually speaks at home — Urdu, Saraiki, Punjabi, English or a mixture of them. Children aren’t confused by the language; they get confused when the same step is called ‘naashta’ one day and ‘breakfast’ the next. Choose one word per step, keep it, and add the second language in writing later if you’d like your child to read both.
Written by the Inclusive Developmental and Therapy Center therapy team · medically reviewed by Dr Muhammad Suffyan, MB BS (GMC 8023727) · Last reviewed July 2026
Want help using these with your child?
A short, friendly conversation is the best first step. Call, text or WhatsApp us — we’ll listen and guide you, with no pressure.
MPS Road, Block A Model Town, Multan (near Bloomfield Hall School, Street No. 2) · Mon–Sat, 10 AM – 7 PM