My son was diagnosed with ASD when he was 8 and my daughters were adolescents. It took a couple of years to figure out how to help my son but once we had a handle on things, this is how it looked. My daughters needed to stay after school for various practices. I picked my son up from school and we came home and the first order of business was to pay attention to the sensory cues he gave and try to address them. He needed to decompress from his day. It was much easier for him to do this if his sisters weren't home, Here are some of our routines that helped most days.(there are always some less than perfect days.)
- He would bring his backpack In the house and put it in his room(heavy work)
- He would eat a large snack that was crunchy and salty. We found that this kind of snack was "alerting" since it provided joint pressure to his jaws, it gave him the focus that he needed to complete his homework.
- If he still needed more sensory input, he would jump on the trampoline for 15 minutes.
- I sat with him and helped him with his homework. I scribed for him. If he didn't have to write he could move through homework in a few minutes. The writing would add hours to the process. By the time he was in jr. High and high school he did the writing himself since accommodations kept writing down to a minimum amount.
- Home work was usually done by 5 and then the evening was his until dinner time. Our daughters usually drove to school so we rarely had to pick them up after their activities which enabled our son more time to decompress from his day before dinner and the evening routines needed to begin.
An added benefit to this routine was that I was able to spend about 2 hours a day with my son. This was a a volatile time of day so it needed to be handled carefully to avoid a meltdown and be productive. It set the tone for the rest of the evening. It was normally a positive time but it could be quite different if his sensory cues weren't met.
I would love to hear what has worked for your child as you help him "reset" his sensory system after school.
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