My son often struggles to do simple activities in a certain order. For example, every night when it's time to shower, he goes into the bathroom, closes the door, and proceeds to dork around. He'll fill the sink with water, hand flap and watch himself in the mirror, anything that's a distraction.
You'd think he doesn't enjoy taking a shower, except once he gets started, he loves it so much that you have to pester him to get out. And once he's out, he'll wrap up in a towel and sit on the floor by the heat vent, etc.
He'll do all of these things--unless he's supervised. To help him focus a little more, I had his ERR teacher print out a visual task strip using her Boardmaker program. You can see a sample of it here: http://www.mayer-johnson.com/boardmaker-v-6/?gclid=COnq0ZDwgK0CFcVgTAodm1nETQ
The program basically allows you to make and print out a visual "schedule" of what to do next. My son, Morgan, has had many task strips for a variety of tasks, and they've all been very helpful to him. Now that he's reading we write task-list cards. But these visual cues are the best way to help a youngster to focus.
The Boardmaker software is expensive, about $329. I recommend you ask an ERR teacher or therapist who's working with your child if they have access to the program. Then think of a few daily scenarios that your child seems to struggle with. Write down the desired activity step by step and ask the teacher to print out a picture of each step. The software program has hundreds of images to choose from.
If you don't have access to this program, it's worth it to hand-draw some simple images for your child to follow. You could also take a picture of them doing each step, and then post the photos for easy reference.
This might seem like a time-consuming process to help your child visualize things better, but it's really what they need. And when they correctly practice something over and over, they can eventually toss the visual and feel a sense of pride in having accomplished their goal.
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