Breaks during the school year can end up being stressful for parents. The key to success would be to prepare as much as possible beforehand.
Try these 7 tips to help your child with Autism handle breaks from school:
- Give your child a heads up that there is going to be a break in the routine. Mark down the days on a calendar, and consistently review it with them starting a couple weeks before leading up to the break.
- Work with outside therapy providers to create visual schedules or prompts that can make the break run more smoothly—this is especially true for kids who follow schedules at school regularly.
- Keep your routine as consistent as possible during the break—keep bedtime, chores and meal times as close as you can to what kids would typically do.
- Provide as much structure as possible during the break, the less down time you have, the better! This can be a good time to plan outings to places you can’t typically go, such at the zoo, aquarium, museums, and parks.
- Check in with teachers about possible activities and academics that could be practiced over break. Frequently, teachers will assign extra work during this time.
- Use the break to keep your child caught up in school—review their homework and give them a head start for what’s coming up at school after the break!
- Breaks are also a great time to add more hours of therapy!
