Do you have an overflowing Outlook calendar? Would you be lost without your phone or computer beeping at you or popping up a reminder when you have something to do? If you're like me, the answer is yes.
Do you juggle the needs of your kids based on YOUR schedule? Do you eat dinner at a different time every night based on working late or your kids' activities list?
Are your kids (or are YOU) sluggish, grumpy and irritable in the morning and evening? Do they fall asleep in the car (younger kids) or want to nap immediately after school (older kids)?
Like most families these days, things vary greatly based on who needs to do what or be where when. Unfortunately, many children end up feeling "lost" without a predictable schedule. This is even more true when it comes to children with special needs.
Zeke has always been pretty easygoing when it comes to routines - he is very easily able to switch gears depending on what the day has in store. He is like his mom in that if he doesn't get enough sleep, he's a grumpus in the morning, but otherwise, he adapts well to change. He has always been able to communicate with us when he is struggling with something, and we have been able to accommodate his needs. Last night he was up too late, and this morning he c
But Sylo is a whole different enchilada. Since he is delayed in the communication area, he's had a hard time telling us when he is unsure of or upset about something. We've had to rely on his non-verbal clues more so than his "whining" when something wasn't going his way. We've had tremendous amounts of help in this area due to the amazing therapists he's had over the past 3 1/2 years, and we've had a lot of help in figuring out how to eliminate the whining. Actually, it was pretty easy - a few simple schedules and we've seen dramatic results.
The morning is pretty easy for us with Sylas and with Zeke as long as he gets a full night's sleep, but the evening routine was killing us because we wanted to kill our sleepy kids (not really, but you know what I mean). So we created a night time routine for both kids (I'll post it below). We have it hung in the kitchen and in Zeke's bedroom in words he can read, and we have a picture schedule in Sylas's room. After less than a week, we began to notice a difference in both kids. If he goes to bed half an hour or more later than his scheduled bedtime, Zeke is grumpy in the morning and resists everything from brushing his teeth to getting dressed. Once he is awake for half an hour or so, he is fine, until the end of the day where "Mr. Grumpus" shows up again. But when he sticks to the schedule and gets a full night's sleep, he is the funny, smart, ungrumpy angel we know and love!
Sylas has some sensory issues that sometimes interfere with his attention span and ability to transition at preschool. We found that a 5 minute "rub" with lotion on his hands, arms and feet seems to calm him down tremendously before bed and in the morning, so we added this to his sleeping and wake-up routines. He has moved forward from parallel play to interacting daily with his peers, he can sit through most of circle time and now eases from one activity to another.
My advice? "Slow your roll", create a schedule and stick to it! Are you thinking... HAH, IMPOSSIBLE!!!! Well, I did too, but we tried and it worked. We try to stick to within an half hour of the times for all things. It's working very well, even on the weekends. And we now seem to have some time leftover for ourselves!
Night Time Schedule
6:00 Dinner
6:30 Family Clean Up
7:00 Bath Time
7:30 Zeke Story
7:30 Sy
Independent Time
8:00 Zeke Bed Time
8:00 Sy
Rub/Story
8:15 Sy Bedtime/Music
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