Similarly, when routines are changing for kids who are on the spectrum they often have a lot of anxiety of confusion and so we try to structure that for them initially, field trips, you and I are going to be partners today for this field trip and here’s how it’s going to go.
You and I are going to walk outside together, we’re going to hold hands, we’re go to the bus, you’re going to get onto the bus, you’re going to sit down in the first seat behind the driver. And if you do all of that without making a fuss, there will be a sticker waiting for you as soon as I get on too.
At first we structure it for them and then the principle of backing out as soon as possible, we can say to them, you know what tomorrow is a field trip day do you remember what we did last time?
I was your partner, here’s what we did, how did that work for you? Do you want to do that again or do you have a different sort of routine in mind that you want to do? So the organizational strategies are generic. The flexibility strategies take a little bit more work.
And the more trouble the kids have with flexibility, the more people they may need on their team in order to help them. So very often it’s a speech and language pathologist actually who helps with that and there’s a lot written on social thinking. And those social thinking tools often help with inflexible children.
Now as kids get older we start teaching them to monitor those routines themselves and the kids who tend to be inflexible we have to teach them that that’s the case. And we teach them routines for what to do when they don’t know what to do.
So this is one of those confusing times for you, what are the things you do when you’re feeling confused? I can go to the teacher and ask what I’m supposed to be doing? I can sit down in my desk and wait for instruction. If it’s a time when we’re allowed to talk I could ask the child next to me what I’m supposed to be doing.
All of us who have good executive functioning skills learn over time how to structure situations that make us feel anxious. But these kids need help.
