School Lunch for a Selective Eater: What Comes Home Empty
5 min read
Visual Routines
When a Routine Stops Working after months of it being fine.
The routine ran beautifully for two months and now your child ignores it. Nothing obvious changed, and reinstating it with more enthusiasm has done nothing.
Free 7-day trial · No email or credit card to start · Built by an autism dad and a licensed SLP
Why it works here
Why a visual routine helps with when a routine stops working
A routine that stops working has usually either faded from familiarity, been outgrown, or started asking for more than your child currently has. Those three causes need opposite responses, so working out which one you have is the entire task.
You will recognize this if
- It worked and then gradually stopped without an obvious event.
- Some steps still happen and others do not.
- More enthusiasm from you has changed nothing.
The setup
How to set it up for when a routine stops working
Takes about five minutes. Use it as written, or keep only the steps your family needs. A short setup that gets used beats a complete one that gets abandoned in week two.
- 1 Check first whether something changed at school or in your child's health
- 2 Count how many steps have quietly accumulated since you built it
- 3 Cut back to the version that originally worked
- 4 Refresh photos your child has visibly outgrown
- 5 Remove the routine for a few days and see whether the behavior continues
- 6 Ask your child what they would change, and change at least one thing they say
The mistake most families make
Adding rewards to revive a fading routine treats a design problem as a motivation problem, and it usually buys a week before the same fade resumes.
In the app
Built into the routine, not bolted onto it.
The Visual Routines lives inside the same routine your child already follows, so when a routine stops working is a step with a visible length rather than a separate tool somebody has to remember to open.
- Attach it to any step in any routine
- Works for pre-readers, gestalt language processors, and AAC users
- Same setup at home, at school, and in therapy
Set this up for your child.
Five minutes to build, and your child sees it every time when a routine stops working comes around.
$6.99/month after the free trial · Cancel anytime · Also at app.vizyplan.com
Common questions
About when a routine stops working
Do visual routines stop working over time?
They can fade from familiarity, and they can also succeed themselves out of a job. A routine that has become automatic no longer needs the support.
How do I tell fading from outgrowing?
Remove it for a few days. If the behavior continues, your child outgrew it. If it collapses, the routine faded and needs refreshing.
Should I rebuild from scratch?
Usually not. Cutting back to the version that originally worked is faster and keeps what your child already learned.
VizyPlan supports routines and communication at home and school. It is not a medical device and does not diagnose or treat any condition. Talk to your child's care team about clinical questions.
