A SCHEDULE A DAY KEEPS BOREDOM AWAY!
- Aishwarya Sawant
- Dec 21, 2021
- 3 min read
Imagine a day where you don't know what to do or a day off from work and home chores. All you might do is lay on the bed, maybe watch TV the whole day, walk around which eventually might lead to feeling restless, bored, and uneasy. A kid's day without routine is the same! The kid might indulge in stimming more than needed. We might see inappropriate behaviors more often without routines and schedules.
During a recent discussion about routines and schedules with one of the parents, we came to a point where we appreciated the importance of routines and schedules in the kid's life. We all struggled during the lockdown and the biggest struggle was setting up routines for our kids. As the restrictions eased, I could see parents coming back to their routine and so did the kids. Routines provided predictability, involvement in the day-to-day activities, and definitely keep them busy!
Things to consider while setting up schedules
1. Organize and ask questions before implementing!
If you are new to the scheduling system ask yourself or your behavior analyst/therapist- Who will teach the scheduling? What should be included in the schedule? When will be the right time to start teaching? What kind of prompts will be good while teaching the schedule? How to maintain consistency? How should I fade myself and make my child independent to follow his routine?
List down activities he prefers to do and activities he need help with. Remember one of the goals for the schedule is to encourage the independence of the child.
2. Where to set it up?
Keep a fixed location for the schedule. It could be the child's room, living area, or study room. If you go for a schedule book or a handy schedule, make sure it's always kept in a place where the child can access the schedule easily.
3. Type of schedule.
Take help from the child's therapist or behavior analyst to decide which schedule suits best for the child. Some kids might benefit from the First/then schedule, picture schedule, object schedule, picture cards, written schedule, checklists.
4. Providing choices
It is not necessary to set up activities only by parents. Once the child gets the hang of the schedule, include your child in setting up activities which he would like. After all, it is his day and his routine! For example, when you have included lunch-homework in the schedule, the third activity could be of the child's choice. He could select his favorite painting, TV, iPad, music. Get them involved more in setting up their routine.
5. Which prompt is best for my child?
When you start implementing a schedule, check with your behavior Analyst or therapist on which prompts will help your child to learn to check the schedule independently. For some kids, you might have to start with hand to hand and then slowly fade to gestures. Some kids might learn better with just modeling and providing reminders to check the schedule. It completely depends on the child! Make sure to check each day whether he requires reminders like "check your schedule" or prompts.
6. Be creative and Play with the schedule!
Weekends would be the best for parents to play around with the schedule. You can add surprise activities, shuffle up the cards, keep all things fun instead of adding academics, and activities which they usually won't prefer to do. You can always add visits to zoos, parks, cooking with dad/mom. You can give a theme for daily schedules- My gloomy day schedule ( when the child is not well, or really tried to follow his routine), Grandma house schedule, Back to the school schedule and the names are endless...
7. Celebrate the participation!
Give a lot of specific praise like "Yay you are done with drawing! Good checking your schedule!" Provide acknowledgment to the child for finishing up or attempting less preferred tasks.
Hope this gives some idea on how to set up schedules. Schedules surely are a great way to explain neurodivergent kids when their favorite activities would be available, helps manage challenging behaviors, teaches new skills to parents and the child, and encourage independence.
Here are a few more articles on visual schedules:
A detailed description of schedules with a video example: special learning house
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