Happy Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month! As our understanding of autism continues to grow, so too does our knowledge of effective strategies for creating environments conducive to success. What's become increasingly clear is that approaches beneficial for individuals with autism often prove beneficial for all children.
Throughout my practice, working with neurodiverse children and their families, I've found three strategies consistently successful: visuals, structure and routines.
It can be very frustrating when we have to tell our kids multiple times to put on their shoes, especially when we have the SAME routine EVERY morning! Maybe you find yourself thinking, “Are you new here, kid? Yep, it’s bedtime again. EVERY night we go to bed.”
Visuals can really help with these routines, especially if we have consistent routines each day for getting ready in the morning, mealtimes or bedtimes. When we give verbal directions our words disappear as soon as we say them, but visuals are static and stay for as long as it takes our child to process what they need to do next.
Visual supports can range from single pictures illustrating tasks to more complex routines with multiple steps. These routines can accommodate children at various literacy levels, utilizing pictures, words, or both, depending on the child's abilities. Effective routines often alternate between non-preferred and preferred activities in which the preferred activity acts as a reinforcer for completing the non-preferred task.
A bedtime routine for example might be laid out like this:
Put pajamas on
Eat Snack
Brush Teeth
Read a book
Kiss goodnight
Step one might be non preferred of putting on jammies, but its followed by a snack. “First get on your PJs and then we can have a snack.” Brushing teeth might be non-preferred, so we can say “First brush your teeth and then we can read (insert child’s favorite book here).” Its always a bonus when we can end our routines with a preferred activity.
In addition to visuals, structure can be another really helpful tool. Most people when they think of structure think about setting clear limits and boundaries. While that type of structure is absolutely essential, I'm referring to more physical structure that makes it obvious to the child what they are expected to do. Embedding structure within existing routines further enhances clarity and predictability. In the bedtime example, you could have two book pictures to indicate specifically how many books will be read before lights out. Another example of creating structure, is to identify a designated spot by the front door for shoes. You could trace their shoes on a piece of paper or cardboard and place it on the floor. The next time you return home, teach your child to place their shoes on top of the shoe outline. The next time you have to leave the house, everyone will know exactly where to find the shoes, so we aren’t still trying to find them 5 minutes AFTER we were supposed to leave the house!
When we tell kids to clean their room or pick up their toys, we make the assumption that they know what that means and that their definition of “clean” matches our expectations. This sets everyone up for disappointment and failure and makes us more likely to respond with yelling or punitive consequences. If we are more proactive we can prevent a lot of frustration for everyone. When my kids were little, I would sort their toys into bins: cars, blocks, dolls, etc. I took a digital photo of each bin and taped it to the front. Then when it was time to clean up, I could show them to match the pictures: cars go in the car bin and blocks go in the block bin.
If you find yourself repeating yourself or feeling frustrated with daily tasks, consider integrating visuals, structure, and routines. Though they may require additional time and effort initially, the long-term benefits in efficiency and reduced stress make them invaluable instruments in fostering harmony within the household.
For more information or a free consultation on how you can support positive behavior in your home visit www.emilydonovanconsulting.com
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