Tip of the Week

Managing our new "normal" during quarantine... Ha!

Okay, so its day (I don't even know) of quarantine... there's no more school, kids are running around the house crazy (and jobless)... and chaos doesn't even begin to help explain half of what's going on in each of our homes.  

The sudden shift we all know as COVID-19 has likely caused a ton of turmoil and stress not only for you, but your kiddos at home who no longer get to attend school, play dates or go to their favorite playground. Well, we did some research and came across a few helpful tips and suggestions. Take a peek below! 

  • Find a way to implement more structure at home-- especially if it has been shown to be effective in the past. If your child has attended school at some point, their classroom likely had some sort of structure or routine that helped them to get through the day.
  • Depending on your child's current level of functioning, this might look like implementing a visual schedule (a list of picture icons that demonstrate activities to be completed) or maybe even a "to do list" (for older kiddos). 
  • Be sure to include plenty of choices to create a sense of control for your child and consider intermixing maybe not so preferred with preferred.
  • Give your little one some time to learn the system (will likely require prompting) and remember to give lots of reinforcement and social praise for following the schedule in absence of negative behaviors.
A note about visual schedules: Visual schedules are incredibly useful for...
  • Creating structure, helping with transitions and signaling to your child what comes next.
  • In some cases, this strategy may also be useful in gaining compliance with non preferred tasks like school or chores.  It may be beneficial for your child or student to see that once it's completed, they can engage in a much more preferred activity.
If you're interested in implementing this intervention at home and/or if you need a little more assistance in getting started, please feel free to reach out via email to book a consult!

*Disclosure: The information listed in this post does not serve to make any specific treatment recommendations for your child.  It is made available to you for informational purposes only.*


References



Dettmer, S., Simpson, R., Myles, B., & Ganz, J. (2000). The use of visual supports to facilitate transitions of

students with autism. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 15, 163-169.



Flannery, K. & Horner, R. (1994). The relationship between predictability and problem behavior for students with

severe disabilities. Journal of Behavioral Education, 4, 157-176.



Mesibov, G., Shea, V., & Schopler, E. (2005). The TEACCH approach to autism spectrum disorders. New York, NY:Plenum Publishers.



Sainato, D., Strain, P., Lefebvre, D., & Rapp, N. (1987). Facilitating transition times with handicapped preschool children: A comparison between peer mediated and antecedent prompt procedures. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 20, 285-291.



Schmit, J., Alper, S., Raschke, D., & Ryndak, D. (2000). Effects of using a photographic cueing package during routine school transitions with a child who has autism. Mental Retardation, 38, 131-137.



Sterling-Turner, H. & Jordan, S. (2007). Interventions addressing transition difficulties for individuals with autism. Psychology in the Schools, 44, 681-690.