Visual Schedules and Autism Ranking:

Future Research

Summary of Existing Research

Individual studies

There is no high quality research evidence to suggest that visual schedules have any effect on the core features of autism or provide any other benefits.

There is some very low quality research evidence (one group study and over 20 single case design studies) to suggest that visual schedules may provide some benefits (such as increased independence) for some autistic children. However, the research also suggests that visual schedules may only work if the children have been taught how to use them and are prompted and rewarded for using them.

Research reviews

There are a number of scientific reviews of visual schedules stories as an intervention for autistic individuals, all of which have concluded that visual schedules can be effective. For example, Knight et al (2015) reported that

“Results suggest that VAS [visual schedules] can be considered an [evidence based practice] for individuals with ASD, especially when used in combination with systematic instructional procedures. VAS can be used to increase, maintain, and generalize a range of skills of individuals from preschool through adulthood in a variety of settings (e.g., general education, community).”

However it is important to note that some of these reviews accept single-case design studies with small numbers of participants as evidence-based practice whereas we do not. This means that we do not necessarily agree with all of their conclusions, particularly in terms of whether or not visual schedules are an evidence-based practice.

Recommendations for Future Research

Future studies should

• Use more scientifically robust, experimental methodologies with larger numbers of participants.
• Provide more details about the participants, such as whether they had a formal diagnosis of autism, intellectual ability etc.
• Examine which elements of visual schedules (such as different formats, providers, settings etc.) if any, are the most important for which outcomes for which groups of people.
• Examine the role of instruction and reinforcement when using visual schedules.
• Examine the effectiveness of visual schedules when transitioning from play or free time to more demanding conditions (such as compliance with teacher instructions).
• Compare visual schedules with other interventions which are designed to achieve similar results, such as video modelling or other behavioural techniques.
• Continue to examine how important visual schedules are as one of the elements within comprehensive, multi-component, treatment models (such as TEACCH).
• Identify if visual schedules can be used in areas not previously examined, for example, improving study skills.
• Identify if visual schedules have any beneficial effects in the medium to long term.
• Identify if visual schedules have any beneficial effects in real world settings
• Involve autistic people in the design, development and evaluation of those studies.

Updated

17 Jun 2022

Last Review

01 Nov 2017

Next Review

01 Feb 2024