We want to ensure you and your child are able to maintain a sense of normalcy due to the unpredictability of COVID-19. Chances are children may be asked to stay safe and at home due to being exposed. Changes in routine can be especially challenging for children with developmental conditions such as autism, ADHD, down syndrome, and sensory processing disorders. Here are some strategies for what you can do for your child during times of quarantine. 

Provide your child with a consistent schedule 

• Stick to the same wake up time and bedtime routine 
• Stay as close as possible to their daily schedule 
• Have visual or written schedules of your child’s daily routine to refer to so they know what to expect throughout their day  

Provide them a dedicated time for play and movement breaks 

• Opportunities to engage in a fun hobby or relax 
• Having breaks from the structured daily routine can be helpful to reset your child’s mind and increase their attention. 

Check in with them and talk about the conversation  

• Parents/caregivers can have a conversation with their child to validate and empathize with them on how they are feeling 

Reach out to your therapists for support and ideas 

• Creating an obstacle course with household items 
• Fun sensory activities such as messy play 

Don’t forget to take care of yourself! 

• Find ways to take your own break throughout the day to reset 
• It is completely okay if there are days where only 1 structured activity was completed or none at all. Especially during times when someone is sick, it is important to rest and recover first and foremost! 

 Don’t forget to reach out to your BBD therapists who are available for virtual sessions to brainstorm ideas during times of quarantine! 

A sample of a day of quarantine:  

8:00 AM: Morning routine (Wake up, breakfast, get ready for the day) 

9:00 AM: “The Floor is Lava” mini obstacle course 

9:30 AM: Table top activity  

10:00 AM: Quiet play with preferred toys 

11:00 AM: Snack time 

11:30 AM: Sensory messy play activity with paint 

12:00 PM: Lunch  

1:00 PM: Rest and Relaxation  

2:00 PM: Movement Break 

3:00 PM: Table top activity 

4:00 PM: Free time 

5:00 PM: Family time 

6:00 PM: Movement break  

7:00 PM: Bedtime routine 

Citation

Parenting In a Pandemic. (2020, October 23). Retrieved from https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/COVID-19/Pages/Parenting-in-a-Pandemic.aspx 

Family dynamics can change frequently for a variety of reasons.  There are many influences on family dynamics, some of these influences may be: 

• Number of children in the family 
• Events that affected family members 
• Family values 
• Culture and ethnicity 
• Economic influences

There are different approaches you may take to prepare your child for changes in family dynamics.  Here are some of the approaches you can take: 

Open yourself up to questions from your child: 

Your child may feel curious and confused about different life changes.  If you open the door to discussion with your child, they may feel more at ease as these changes affect your family dynamics.

Utilize social stories:

Prior to these changes taking place within your family dynamics, utilize social stories with your children.  Creating and reading stories to your child about how things may be different in your home life is useful in preparing your child for these changes.  In these stories you create, paint the picture for your child.  You can explain what the change is going to be and what it is going to look like for the child and your family.  Reading this book may also assist with a guided discussion with your child about these changes in your family dynamics. 

Does your child have difficulty remaining on task when given an activity? Are you frequently trying to gain back their attention and redirect them to what they were doing? For example, you ask your child to clean up their toys, come over to you, bring you something from another room, etc., and a few minutes go by and they are doing something completely different? If so, we can help you with this! It is very common for children with disabilities to present challenges with staying on task and being able to recognize in themselves when they have abandoned a task. This blog gives tips for parents to help your child learn to recognize when they are on/off task and self monitor themselves in these tasks.  

A great place to start is implementing the use of various visuals. Visuals are a great tool to use in helping your child, as it requires them to do more of the thinking. Also, research shows that children can become "prompt-dependent" and verbal prompts are the most difficult to fade. That being said, your child may be unconsciously waiting for you to tell them what to do next. A visual is an amazing way to shift some of that responsibility on to them.  

Self-Monitoring Checklist: 

These can be made dependent on the task you are finding your child struggles to remain engaged with. For example, if your child frequently becomes distracted when getting dressed, your team at Blue Bird Day can help make you a visual for this. Steps can include pictures of: removing pajamas/putting on underwear/pants/shirt/socks/shoes. This visual acts like a checklist and your child can practice checking off the item upon completion. We can make visuals and task-analysis — which break down routines step-by-step — for anything your child may be struggling with! 

Green-Red Visuals 

This visual support is great to use in a more structured setting, such as during therapy sessions, school, or homework times. The visual is simple: it's an index card size sheet of paper that is completely red on one side with the words "OFF-TASK" on it and green on the other with "ON-TASK" written on that side. The teacher, therapist, or parent would assign the child a task to complete. If the child is observed engaging in off-task behaviors such as day-dreaming, eyes wandering, abandoning the task for a certain prescribed time (for example, 10 or more seconds), the adult would silently approach the child and flip their visual to the red side.

Since we are targeting independence and self-monitoring of on-versus-off task behaviors: it is the responsibility of the child to recognize that they are "off-task", flip the visual back to "on-task"/green, and re-engage with the activity. Eventually we can fade this visual system by removing the words and having a smaller red/green visual and eventually to fade it to nothing.  

Social Story 

Social stories are great tools to use in helping your child learn new skills. For encouraging on-task behaviors, we can make your child a social story that includes all of the necessary steps for them in order to complete a task. This would be read prior to engaging in the task and a reminder to set the expectations. 

In conclusion, we hope to set your child's goal to independence and generalization with many of their routines. It is our job to help you feel supported and to work with your child to get there. By practicing with the use of self-monitoring checklists, visuals, and social stories, we can help your child achieve their goals in learning how to recognize on/off tasks and self-monitoring.  

As the spring draws to a close, many school-related milestones can be right around the corner for your child. Changes can be difficult for all children, especially those with diverse learning needs. If your child is graduating from preschool or kindergarten this year, you may have questions about the transition to a new school and how to prepare your child for the new setting. Below are some ideas to help smooth the transition so your little one feels ready to learn in the new school year!

1. Contact the new school and connect with teachers and administrators.
   Communication is key for successful transitions for children with diverse learning needs. Talking with the teacher, principal, and other administrators a month prior to your child’s transition can help ease any tension you may be feeling and will help the school understand the routines and preferences of your child. By talking with the school, you can also gain an understanding of your child’s unique daily schedule as it relates to his/her IEP and the services provided.
2. Write a social story about the upcoming transition.
   A social story is a story written from the child’s perspective. It details upcoming changes and differences and uses child-centered language to model appropriate interactions with the new environment. With the child as the main character of the story, she or he can gain insight and information in a way that is easy to access. At Blue Bird Day, our school transition social stories usually include pictures of staff at the new school in order to familiarize our clients with the new adults who will be with them in their environment.Social stories can also include lists of if/then statements to help the child have a framework for problem solving in their new environment. For example, a social story can include statements from the child’s perspective such as “If I have to go to the bathroom in my new school, I can tell the teacher and she will give me a hall pass.” Before writing the social story, brainstorm a list of potential questions your child may have before going to a new classroom. This can also be a great conversation to have with your child, as well!
3. If possible, preview the new space.
   Context is a great teacher for children with diverse learning needs. While you’ve been preparing and communicating with your child about a big change in their life, it may help to contextualize it by showing your child the new space. Some schools may not assign classrooms to teachers until a few weeks before the school year starts, but a tour of the school itself — including key places like the cafeteria, the nurse’s office, etc. — may help your child feel more comfortable when the school year begins.

While changes can feel scary for little ones, they also mean big opportunities lie ahead. Graduation is a special time, and we hope that you enjoy it fully.