Monday, January 12, 2015

Scattered with Autism and Picture Schedules

I'm getting a little distracted. I see it in the posts and I know ya'll notice it as well. I always have so many things going on that I can't help to get a scattered mind. There are things that I have to do for Doodle. Things I have to do for my companies. Photo shoots, therapies, doctor's appointments, the list goes on. Sometimes it's okay to vent. Recollect stories and things that have happened.

You have to tackle one thing at a time. Don't start one project and head on to the next before the first is finished. Sometimes I will do the larger projects first because they are more time consuming and the easy things that take less then 30 minutes to do for last. That's always been my trick for working. If I have a day where it's an "autism" type day. Depending on the time of day the appointment or meeting is all of my work is the easy stuff for the entire day. If I have moments in the morning. I will do 5 or six easy things on my to-do list and when I get back from my meeting I will finish up all the rest of my easy work and leave the harder tasks for the next day.

If anything has to be read or researched, that is done at night or on the weekends. If Doodle is out of school then I'm basically taking the week or so off and getting all of my ready done during our "vacation". Though it's not much of a vacation, it is more of a relaxed schedule for us.

Speaking of schedules, do you have a visual schedule in your home? Children no matter if they are special needs or not need structure. If they don't have some sort of schedule that tells them what the day holds for them they will drive you up the wall! That's another one of the secrets that I have in my home. Doodle only has to check her schedule to see what needs to be done. Or what she is going to be doing that leads to her reward. She's not much of a television watcher but she loves ipad time. So the moment she gets home form school the first thing she knows she has to do is homework. normally it's two pages front and back for homework. When that is finished she has to change out of her school clothes and if it's nice and warm outside she goes outside to play for 30 minutes. After that she's to come inside and can play with her play sets in the bedroom or play on the ipad. All of this is on her picture schedule. A picture schedule is a visual to do list. I live by a to do list and my planner/organizer.

To find all the different pictures so you can put together your own picture schedule just do a simple google search for picture schedules autism. it will pop up a lot of different pictures for you. That's how I acquired a huge portion of what goes on her schedule. You can also take pictures of your child doing different things that they love to do. Jumping on the trampoline, playing on the ipad, biking outside, playing with kenitic sand or what ever your child likes to play with. The best thing you can have at home is a laminator. I love mine. Every picture that goes on the schedule is laminated a strip of velcro goes on the back so that it can go on schedule when it's time. My pictures for the schedule last a lot longer. You need to have a picture schedule in place. Don't put off having a picture schedule.

When Doodle transferred to her new school she was unbearable. Such horrible behavior out of her. I insisted that the teacher put in place a picture schedule. Once that was put in place in the classroom, her confusion stopped and her behavior improved.

Time to get back to work. Lots to do and so little time to do it! Have a great day!

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