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Does Your Child Struggle with Change?

Does Your Child Struggle with Change? | District Speech & Language Therapy | Speech Therapists in Washington DC

Fall is often a time of many changes. When the school year begins, children have changes in their sleep schedules, routines, and who they’re around along with various others.

Many of these changes can pose as great challenges for some kiddos, so it’s important to provide daily routines and schedules to help ease this.

“Children, like the rest of us, handle change best if it is expected and occurs in the context of a familiar routine.”

There are several benefits of establishing routines with your child.

When a child knows what to expect with specific aspects in their life, it is often comforting and helps them cope better when the unexpected arises.

Adding structure to your child’s day can also help them build a strong foundation of good habits, whether it be setting a time for homework or creating good personal hygiene routines.

Routines are also great for encouraging communication and learning steps in a task.

When daily tasks that may have once been a struggle (like nap time and brushing teeth!) become a routine, the power struggle for parents is often reduced or eliminated.

That alone is usually enough encouragement to start setting up more clear schedules for your child!

Back to school change for children | District Speech & Language Therapy | Speech Therapists in Washington DC

Tips for Creating Routines and Schedules for Your Child

  1. Enforce consistent timing to help create good habits
  2. Create a daily schedule
  3. Visual and picture schedules are often helpful
  4. Using Velcro or sticky notes to represent each task, so your child can take the task off of their schedule once complete (child can also cross out or put a check mark next to competed tasks)
  5. Decide on an appropriate length or number of items for your child’s schedule
  6. Make sure you teach your child how to use their schedule when introducing it
  7. Keep it consistent, but adjust as needed
  8. All children are different, do what works for your child!

Contact us to see how we can help incorporate schedules into your child’s daily routines.

References:

https://www.ahaparenting.com/parenting-tools/family-life/structure-routines

District Speech and Language Therapy
1300 I St NW, #400E,
Washington, DC 20005
- https://g.page/districtspeech

District Speech and Language Therapy specializes in speech therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy solutions, for both children and adults, in the Washington D.C and the Arlington Virginia areas.