The school year is ending and summer is on its way. For any family, planning transitions from school to camp, home to vacation, vocational site to rec center, or any other form of change is key for accommodating schedules. For families of children with special needs, transitional planning is even more important to ensure that the child will be comfortable with changes in routine.
The definition of transition is the passage or change from one position or state to another. For people with autism spectrum disorder, or other special personality, these passages may be difficult to cope with. Regardless of how minute or momentous changes are to us, to others, it may be the antecedent to emotional turmoil. While some may say we should try our best to avoid these moments of anguish and anxiety that result from change, the truth is that life is full of variety, passages, and movement.
Here are some ways you can plan for transitions to help prevent the breakdowns brought upon by familiar routines ending and novel events beginning.
Make note of transitions
Work with your child on changes to his schedule by mapping them out on the calendar. Highlight the months of June, July, August, and September (depending on your specific school schedule) as summer months. Mark half-days of school and specify where lunch will be eaten.
Mark the first official week of summer break. Identify when your child’s activities — such as camp, pool, free time, and family vacations — begin. Locate major summer holidays and jot down some possibilities of celebratory festivities. Star the end of the summer and first day of the new school year.
Take walk-throughs
If your child is attending camp this summer, you can help alleviate nervous jitters by taking virtual tours on websites, and following up with actual one-on-one tours of the grounds. As the camper tours, have him take photographs. Looking through the pictures prior to the first day of attendance will be most beneficial. You can also physically de-sensitize a camper who is feeling uneasy by washing, drying, and folding the camp T-shirt.
Communicate with school
The sooner you iron out details, the less hectic it is for all. Articulate with the current support team at school to gain a better grasp of the physical transitional changes that will occur within the classroom. This would include: cleaning out desks, taking home books, removing artwork from walls, and more.
Use this information to make a checklist at home for your special-needs child. Keep it on the refrigerator. As each task is completed, he checks it off and moves on mentally. Ask the school support team to make a copy of the reinforcement system that worked well for your child. Keep this. The new team may have a fresh outlook of ideas that work better for your child after a summer of maturity, but this will provide worthwhile background information.
It is important to respect and consider the rules of each school. However, having knowledge of the future school year is most beneficial. This would involve who the teacher is, the main focus of the curriculum, the exact location of the classroom, and maybe more.
Photographs speak volumes to people with limited preparation skills. With permission, take pictures of the new classroom setting and create a scrapbook titled, “My New School Year.” If your child tends to display stressed-out behaviors when the workload in school is difficult, pre-teach some of the trickier curriculum in a fun, hands-on method. For example, if your child struggles with money and that is a major focus in math for the upcoming year, sell lemonade during the summer to raise money for charity.
• • •
The overall message behind transition planning for a person with special needs is to touch, taste, journey, and experience a future change in small doses before the actual passage takes place. The goal is to have the person move from state to state and setting to setting, smoothly. Planning a transition will not only help with the present passage, but will also help him understand the concept of change.
