Now and Next: Visual Schedule

Show a child what is happening now, and what is happening next. Now and Next takes the part of the day that is hardest to explain and makes it something a child can see. Put the current activity on one side of a card and the one that comes after it on the other, and “we're leaving the playground after this” stops being an argument and becomes a picture to point at. Teachers and therapists usually call it a first-then board. It is the same idea, and the app does both. It was built by parents, and it is used at home, in preschool and elementary classrooms, and in therapy sessions: with autistic children, with children who have ADHD, with children whose speech and language is still developing, and with any young child whose day goes better when they can see it laid out. NOW AND NEXT CARDS Pick two activities and the card is made. Tap a picture to hear the activity read aloud. If your family or your classroom says something other than “Now” and “Next,” change the wording to the words you already use. CHOICES, WITH TWO OR THREE PICTURES Ask with pictures instead of words. A prompt card holds a question and two or three answers — milk or water, playground or backyard, which book at bedtime — so a child can answer by pointing. TIME LINE Put your cards in order and the Time Line runs the routine for you: a morning, the hour after school, a whole school day. Each card stays up for as long as you set, then moves on by itself, with an optional friendly sound as it changes. 60+ ACTIVITIES, AND ROOM FOR YOUR OWN More than 60 illustrated activities come with the app, covering home and school from breakfast and brushing teeth to school, nap time and the dentist. Your own are just as easy to add: take a photo, choose one from your library, or create a picture with Image Playground on supported devices. Name them in your own words, and organize them into categories that match your day. ACTIVITIES THAT SPEAK Activities and prompts can be read aloud when they are tapped, in the voice you pick, so a card works for listening as well as looking. IN YOUR LANGUAGE The app follows your device language in English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch and Italian, including the names of the built-in activities. Anything you typed yourself stays exactly as you wrote it. BACKUP AND RESTORE Export everything you have built — activities, cards, prompt cards, categories and the Time Line — and restore it on another iPhone or iPad, or on a new device. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no sign-in and no ads. Your photos, activities and cards are kept on your device; nothing about them is collected or shared. A backup goes only where you choose to send it. ONE PURCHASE Now and Next is bought once. There is no subscription and nothing else to unlock, it works on both iPhone and iPad, and Family Sharing lets up to six family members use it.