It’s no secret that kids – particularly kids with unique learning needs, such as autism – thrive on routine.
Not only does a set schedule provide kids with the structured environment they need to feel secure and to master new skills, but it will also help keep everyone organized and on task. Translation? Less stress for everyone – including you, as a parent or teacher.
Creating a daily schedule sounds like a no-brainer for anyone who works with a child with unique learning needs. However, it can be somewhat challenging when you actually sit down to do it. When creating your daily schedule, you’ll need to communicate your shared goals as a family or as a classroom. It’s important that everyone’s needs are taken care of to keep things running as smoothly as possible.
Here are some tips on setting up a new routine – and a step-by-step guide to building a daily schedule that you can implement whenever you are ready to do so.
Why a Daily Schedule is Important?
Daily schedules aren’t just important to help you, as an adult, regain your sense of control over the course of your day. Creating a consistent daily schedule will also help to reduce stress, establish a sense of order and calm, and encourage shared activities.
A daily schedule can help improve your mental and physical health. In fact, recent studies prove that children who have solid daily routines have a more than 47% increased likelihood of having a strong socioemotional health as they get older. Those are good odds, don’t you think?
Plus, a daily routine that’s implemented and followed as closely as possible will help your child maintain consistency and can eliminate power struggles. It can encourage cooperation and build a stronger parent-child connection, too (or even a stronger teacher-child connection).
A daily routine can even help your child take ownership of his own activities and behaviors, something that’s incredibly beneficial for any child, but particularly one with behavioral challenges.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Daily Schedule
1. Evaluate the Day
Begin by analyzing your day. This will help you get a feel not only for what your daily schedule looks like in an organic sense, before you’ve done any kind of planning at all, but also it will give you an idea of what you need to fit in. This will help you set a routine that takes into consideration your current routines and habits.
Look at problem items for your child with unique needs. Do mealtimes cause struggles? Bedtimes? Transitions? If so, you’ll want to think about how you might be able to set up your routine to eliminate problems related to these particular stressors.
2. Think About What You Want to Accomplish
Next, put some thought into what you want to accomplish. If you’re creating a schedule for your own child, what sorts of things do you crave in your family life that you might be able to accomplish with a daily routine? Is it getting homework done before dinner? Kids in bed by a certain hour? More playtime together? A cleaner house?
Whatever the case may be, focus on a balance of what you want as well as what the needs of those in your family might be. Be honest with yourself and about the abilities and needs of your child.
3. Brainstorm as a Family
Next, take the time to hear directly from your family about what they want. If you’re reading this article as a classroom teacher, don’t worry – you can also do this with your students. Rather than thinking about household struggles, consider what sorts of means you have for your classroom. You can also host classroom discussions to help you pick the brains of your students to find out what they need and want.
Of course, there’s a good chance that you won’t be able to make everyone happy. However, by at least hearing everyone out, you’ll make everyone’s needs feel recognized and responded to.
4. Put Pen to Paper
Next, you’ll want to write things down. Grab a poster board and a marker and post your schedule where everyone can see it. Have a conversation about each and every item that’s on that schedule to make sure the whole family is clear on what needs to happen and when.
Creating lists of activities that need to occur in certain timeframes can also be helpful. For example, you could block out the chunk of time from 7:00 am until 7:20 am as “morning routine.” In this morning routine, the list of activities your child needs to complete might include things like brushing teeth, getting dressed, and eating breakfast.
5. Do a “Trial Run”
Now that you have a solid schedule ready to go, it’s time to do a trial run. Try following your new routine for at least one week. Instruct your child to follow the schedule and check it if he has any questions. A few reminders or prompting from you every now and then won’t hurt – but remember, the ultimate goal is to get your child checking the schedule and taking responsibility for his own parts.
6. Tweak as Needed
Knowing how well your child is doing with a routine is essential, as is tracking his or her progress. You can easily do so by treating each task in a daily routine as a goal, with each including several micro-goals. You can keep track of completion of a task, completion of a task without prompting, completion of a task without a problem behavior, and completion of an entire routine, for example.
This will not only help you all stay organized but also inform you of whether there are changes that need to be made to the routine.
7. Use External Supports
Creating a schedule is one thing but sticking to it is a whole new beast altogether. Stay on schedule by setting an alert on your phone. You can use a timer that both you and your child recognize, with timed events such as brushing teeth to make sure your child brushes for a full three minutes.
These alerts can help you stay on task – and keep your child on schedule – without too much stress. Over time, they’ll learn how to respond to various timers without having to be prompted with a reminder of what to do.
You can even use things like digital planners and autism apps that are meant to serve as a source of daily routine management. They are accessible on all kinds of devices and will keep everyone on track with notifications, alerts, timers, and calendars.
Tips for Creating and Implementing a Daily Schedule
Get Visual
There are many benefits of using visual aids when it comes to children with unique learning needs. Not only does a visual schedule help create a routine so your child can have a more organized day, but it also helps with transitions. A visual schedule will eliminate the “what’s next?” worry when it comes to mastering a new routine. It will also give your child a sense of control since they always know what’s coming.
A daily schedule that’s implemented in a visual form can even help to improve your child’s executive functioning skills! It will help your child learn how to complete simple tasks and follow steps in a certain order. Because of this, it can also help your child understand concepts of time.
Include Decompression or “Free” Time
Don’t forget to include some free time in your schedule. While you may feel tempted to load your child’s daily routine up with all kinds of “beneficial” activities like hygiene tasks, homework, and extracurriculars, there’s a real value to including some “fun” stuff, too. While you should include blocks of time for free time, it’s totally fine to include pockets that aren’t 100% pre-planned.
Use Numbers
For many children with unique learning needs, having a daily schedule with quantifiable steps is beneficial. Rather than saying, “okay, we have to do all these chores,” you might say, “we have three things left to do, and then we can play video games.” It’s much easier and less abstract.
Try Positive Reinforcement
It can be tough to get your child on a schedule without any prompting or tears. One of the easiest ways to get everyone used to a schedule is to bring in some positive reinforcement. You can use something as simple as a token economy or a star chart to reward your child, but whatever you do, keep the praise coming to help your child stay on task.
Don’t Panic if the Routine Veers Off Course
When it comes to changes in routine, the best way to help your child with unique needs cope is to let them know ahead of time. In a perfect world, you’d be able to predict any future changes. Of course, that doesn’t always happen (especially in a school setting where things like assemblies, fire drills, and snow days are common).
If the routine has to be changed at a moment’s notice, try not to freak out. Your child will pick up on that nervous energy and be nervous or agitated himself. Instead, have safety nets in the palace so that if a sudden change happens, you or a support person can help your child through the crisis.
Be aware of your child’s triggers and do your best to minimize these whenever a change in routine is imminent. Using visual cues and practicing with social stories is another way to deal when things veer off course.
Over time, your routine will become second nature to everyone – and so will occasional mishaps. However, setting a daily schedule is essential for keeping everyone organized, happy, and healthy.
Further Reading
- Allison Bond: Kids with family routines more emotionally, socially advanced
- Nebraska Autism Spectrum Disorders Network: Rules and routines
- Kim Davis: What triggers anxiety for an individual with ASD?