Many of us do not realise but we all go through routines in our daily lives. When we work with children with additional needs, it will be helpful to plan out daily routines to balance out your day and make it structured.
Benefits of establishing routines:
– routines gives children a sense of security and help them develop self-discipline
– routines is a good tool to teach and reinforce good habits e.g. brushing teeth and washing hands
– routines makes it easy for parents/ teachers to plan out their day and resources to manage difficult behaviours during “high risk” situation
– routines help children understand the rules and expectations of different activities
Tips for implementing Routines and Schedules:
– visual cues helps children understand schedules and routines by giving them a “visual prompt”
– present the routines either from left to right or top to bottom
– if your child has poor scanning skills or easily distracted, it will be helpful for the child to remove the completed schedule/ routine and place it in a basket to indicate completion
– visuals has to be simple and can be easily understood by the child
Schedules and routines need to be taught. Hence, parents/ teachers will need to go through the routines/ schedules with the child consistently for at least 2 weeks for the child to understand the purpose of the schedule and routines.
Therapy Kidz programmes are all home-based to save the parents the journey to clinics. Home-based therapy is also helpful for children as it is done in their natural environment and in a place that they feel comfortable and safe.
Visit our website at https://therapykidz.com.sg to learn more about the programmes that we provide. Our programmes are individualised to fit every unique child that comes to us.
