Personalised Visual Support Guides

A collection of 19 supportive visual guides designed to help children understand everyday situations, explore their feelings and learn what they can do.

This resource brings together 19 child-friendly visual guides, created from my own personal and professional experience of supporting children. They are designed to make everyday situations that may feel confusing, worrying, frustrating, uncomfortable or overwhelming easier for children to understand.

Each guide breaks a situation down into clear, manageable sections using simple language, colourful illustrations and reassuring explanations. Rather than simply telling a child what they should or shouldn’t do, the guides help children understand what is happening, recognise how they might be feeling, learn what they can try and know who they can turn to for help.

The 19 visual guides included are:

1. When It Is Still Light but It Is Time for Bed
2. When I Prefer to Use My Potty
3. When I Go to the Hairdresser
4. When I Go to the Barber
5. When I Go on a Long Car Journey
6. When I Run Across the Road Without Looking
7. When I Press the Exit Door Button and Leave Without an Adult
8. When I Go to the Supermarket
9. When I Want to Lick My Friends
10. When I Bite
11. When I Want to Play My Way
12. When I Find It Hard to Wash My Hair
13. Why We Do Homework
14. When I Feel a Little Bump as a Big Hurt
15. When I Talk to Strangers
16. Accepting Help When We Get Dressed
17. When I Hear a Baby Cry
18. When My Mum Goes to Work
19. When My Dad Goes to Work Untitled design.pdf

The guides cover a broad range of experiences, including daily routines, self-care, transitions, safety, social situations, emotional regulation, sensory experiences, separation from parents and situations that can lead to big feelings.

Throughout the resource, children are encouraged to identify and understand their emotions rather than being made to feel that those emotions are wrong. Each guide offers practical strategies, helpful choices, reassuring self-talk and clear plans that children can use when they find a situation difficult.