Can your child move through his morning and evening routines by himself? If not, that's a great place to start. Visual schedules of some sort are a great place for you to invest your time. It will be time consuming to make these or a chunk of change to buy them. Honestly, it will save an unbelievable time in the long run. Otherwise, you will be verbally prompting your child through these for years. Believe, I know because I did it. With a visual schedule, you can point him back to the schedule when he gets off track.
Let me give a little warning, this son or daughter may fight using the visual schedule and try to brink you back into the verbal prompting loop. You see, when you walk him through the routines, you are responsible. If something goes wrong, mom or dad is at fault. You are are out on the "point." That needs to change or you will stay there and your child will not learn to be independent and responsible in these activities. There needs to be an exchange and your child needs to take the role of being responsible for his daily routines. But how?
First, there needs to be a visual (pictures, words, or both) that tells him exactly what the expectations are. When he asks for help or gets distracted, walk him back to the schedule and point to the next thing. He may need a place to check each item off or move a piece from do to done place under each schedule item. Give him as little attention as possible when redirecting him back to the schedule. In the beginning, a reward or incentive may help. Remember the incentive is based on completing the routine independently.
Next week I will have some examples of visuals and resources for finding them. In the following weeks , I will walk you through the steps to teach your child the visual routine and how to follow through so the visual schedule really works in your home.
Join me next week for ways to lose your job as the resident verbal prompter. Believe me, it will be worth the effort it takes.
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