Morgan's ERR teacher, Lindsay Rodriguez, just sent this to me to include on the blog. I thought that was so nice of her!
Hints for Teachers:
The holiday season often means an increase in school assemblies, school holiday parties and activities. While this is a disruption to your regular schedule, you can often minimize the impact it has on your students if you plan ahead. Students with autism often have difficulty with transitions and with changes in routines. However, if you create and implement a picture schedule (or word schedule for students who can read) on a daily basis, it provides the student with a concrete representation of their schedule for the day. When there is gong to be a change to the routine such as an assembly, prep the student for that change by both pointing out the change (ie: "Johnny, after lunch today we are going to have a holiday party instead of going to gym.") and by indicating the change on the schedule.
The more changes there are to your daily schedule due to holiday activities etc., the more critical it is to adhere to a routine during the rest of the school day.
Maintain a classroom environment which is predictable and structured. When there are changes in daily schedules, having a classroom environment which is structured and predictable can make it easier for our students to deal with those changes.
Don't forget about behavior management systems. It's not hard for things to get a little hectic and for there to be lapses in the implementation of things like token economy systems. Remember, consistent implementation is the key to behavior change.
Reinforce, Reinforce, Reinforce! Be sure to reinforce students for accepting changes to their routines. These changes may not seem that significant to you or I, but they are significant for many of our students.
Parents and other family members often struggle with what to purchase for their child for the holidays. Take note of what types of activities your students gravitate towards during free play periods and share this information with parents. While listing specific toys is helpful, it is even more helpful when you can provide information about the type of activity the student enjoys. Does the student gravitate towards visually stimulating activities such as looking through a viewmaster or kaleidoscope or does he/she enjoy tactile activities like play-dough?
Individuals with autism often struggle with unstructured time, Help parents add more structure to their days during the holiday break by sharing ideas about activities you have done with your students that a parent could easily duplicate at home.
Hints for Parents:
While there are many changes in the daily routine during the holiday season, try to adhere to as much of your regular routine as possible. For example, while bedtime might be a bit delayed due to a holiday gathering, adhering to the same sequence of events on your child's schedule (ie: bath, story time then bed) maintains a level of predictability that is so important.
Consider getting your child together with other students from his/her class. Plan an activity that the two children can both do. It need not be elaborate or complicated. Having some type of structured activity helps to break up the day.
Save strong reinforcers for the holiday activities which are most likely to create the most amount of stress for your child. For example, if your child loves to watch dvds and struggles most with long car rides, consider not allowing your child access to favorite dvds for a few days before the trip. He/she would then be permitted to watch then during the long car ride. By being denied access to the dvds for a period of time, their strength as a reinforcer is increased.
Leave holiday parties before your child gets overwhelmed. Plan your arrival and expected departure time to coincide with the schedule of events. For example, if the party starts three hours before dinner is going to be served and this would be difficult for your child to deal with, plan your arrival closer to mealtime.
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