Jen from The Autism Helper shows how to organize PECS cards and visual supports in labeled storage boxes with Velcro attachments. Color-coded categories—red for schedules, green for reinforcers, yellow for reminders—make cards easy to find, and the system grows as your collection does.
Hey guys, it's Jen from The Autism Helper, and I want to talk to you about visuals. If you're anything like me, in an autism classroom, we live and breathe by visuals. You probably have them everywhere, but if you were like me, you struggled with storage and you often ended up with a baggie that looks like this, and it was not functional, and you can't find what you need, and you're struggling every second of the day because what you need is not on hand. I have a solution for you. It's really quick and it's really simple. I want to show right here. So I got a storage container box, and I will link it in the comments below, but I want to show you what I did. Each of these boxes is now labeled and holds visuals, and these visuals are Velcroed and ready to go. So at any time, any kid who has a visual need, we have them ready. So even if they're not on their PECS book, even if they're they're not in their first then boards, we can grab them. I wanna tell you a little bit about it. The first thing is that my assistants are amazing because they helped me do this. And we kind of thought through the process of what made sense for us. So first of all, we alphabetized them. So you can see that they are alphabetized all the way across. The second thing is we split them into 3 sections. That's why you see 3 different colors. So the red ones are schedule pieces. So those are anything that we need to do throughout the day that are non-negotiable things: OT, morning meeting, journal time, time to go home, whatever that might be. Green things are reinforcers. That's what makes us go, so that's why we made it green. And then yellow are reminders, things to help us slow down. Okay, so I talked to my assistants about what to do, because if you are like me, your visuals change year after year, probably day by day, on what you need. So you're constantly making new ones, or at least you should be, to be meeting the needs of your students, right? So we talked about how best to do this. So we actually took these and we Velcroed them so you could easily take this out and replace it with something else later on. So it's adaptable and easy to move. So as your visuals grow, so can your container. So I'm actually maxed out of this one and I am ready to create a second one. I'm excited. I'm gonna put it right on the wall. Right over here, so it's right next to it. I actually think we're going to fill up a whole one with schedule pieces, and then the second one is going to be split between reinforcers and reminders. If you have any questions on how I did this, drop it down below. I've got a template for you that's free if you'd like for these little pieces that go in this little container. Um, you're welcome to use it, customize it to what you use, and get those visuals in order. Anything you can do to help your assistants and your staff be consistent with visuals and be organized is a winner in my book. So that's why we did this. Um, get your assistants involved, ask them how to help organize it, find a system that works for you, and get going. Have a great day, guys!
