First / then is a two-slot visual: the thing happening now, and the thing that happens next. Families already say it out loud. The ADHD-friendly move is to put it on a card at the exact doorway, couch, or table where the stall lives, using photos of your actual stuff.
Educators and therapists use visual schedules in many settings. This page is not their protocol, not a social-story curriculum, and not a treatment plan. It is household layout: two boxes, a clip, a wall. If a professional already issued a schedule, hang theirs and steal only the placement ideas below.
Two slots beat a 14-hour strip
All-day visual schedules can help some households and overwhelm others. For a first wall, start with first-then at one sticky transition: screens to shoes, play to dinner, yard to bath. When that card is boringly reliable, you can add a second card somewhere else. A laminate strip of the entire day on the fridge often becomes wallpaper.
The first slot should be a concrete action the person can start without a committee (“shoes on,” “plate on the counter,” “toys in the bin”). The then slot should be true. “Then park” on a day you are not going to the park trains everyone to ignore the card. “Then audiobook in the car” can be true on school days.
Build it from your rooms
Photograph the real shoes, the real bin, the real back door. Print small. Tape or velcro the photos onto a two-box card. Clip art is faster and colder; kids scan for the object they recognize. If reading is solid, add the word under the photo so guests and partners use the same language.
Mount the card at the transition, not at the command center, unless the transition is actually in the kitchen. A first-then about leaving the bedroom that lives next to the calendar is a message to the fridge, not to the child in the bedroom.
Make the interaction obvious. An arrow, a clothespin that moves from first to then, or a flip card all work. Pick one. Large empty frames — the same ink-saver vibe as the printables — invite you to swap photos when the season changes.
What first-then is not for
It is not a threat board. “First homework, then I will not be angry” is not a visual schedule. It is not a place to write medical instructions. It is not a substitute for enough time. If the first task needs twelve minutes and you have four, the card cannot invent the other eight.
It is also not the whole morning. Keep the longer sequence on a morning checklist and let first-then handle the one step that derails the rest. If chores stall, a first-then can sit on the chore station (“first table wipe, then playlist”) without replacing the owned-job chart.
Partner and caregiver use
Adults can use first-then too, privately: “First inbox zero for school mail, then tea.” Put that on a staff-side sticky note, not on the kid wall. Mixing adult coping notes onto a child’s schedule makes the child the audience for someone else’s load. Adult load belongs on the weekly dashboard.
Agree on the words. If one adult says “then iPad” and the other never allows iPad on weekdays, the card becomes a custody fight in two boxes. Write the household truth, even if the truth is “then chapter book.”
What to put on the fridge — or the actual doorway
- One first-then card for the stall that happens most days.
- Photos of your objects, not a generic pack of 100 icons.
- A clip or marker so “first” can be obviously finished.
- The matching word labels so every adult says the same thing.
- Not a row of first-thens that recreate an entire planner.
When to retire the card
If the transition is smooth for a few weeks, shrink the support: move the card out of the center of the door, then take it down. Visuals can be scaffolds. Leaving every scaffold up forever crowds the wall and hides the next problem.
If the card does nothing, check honesty and placement before you add stickers. Wrong wall, lying “then,” or a first step that is actually five steps — those are layout bugs. Two big boxes on scrap paper, or the same large-checkbox style as the free morning checklist, are enough to test the idea. If the stall is “which toys are out,” set the shelf first with toy rotation.