Autism/Special Needs, Daily Life, My Little Guy, Strategies 
3 Comments A Much Better Day
Hopefully I am not being too optimistic, posting this so early in the day, but today is shaping up to be a much better day than yesterday. After the fiasco yesterday, I did sit down last night and make a schedule for this morning’s routine.
Since I didn’t feel like laminating and we are almost out of Velcro, I improvised by mounting the pictures on card stock and using circles of removable tape to adhere them to the dry-erase board we have for our weekly schedule. I didn’t even make an all done pocket. I put them at the top to cover the days of the week so the extra text wouldn’t cause any confusion, and that turned out to be a great idea.
As soon as I walked into the Little Guy’s room this morning, he said “I’m trying to sleep!” I said, “But I made something for you!” He wanted to see it right away, so I turned on his lamp. He looked at the first one and said, “Wake up, check,” and moved the card to the lower portion of the dry-erase surface. Cool, the problem of what to do with the finished ones is solved and I am glad I didn’t just put them in the center of the board.
We went through the rest of the routine in record time, including going potty and eating breakfast – he even improvised a morning picnic for us on a blanket that I had left on the living room floor. When we got to the last item, car, he made me carry the schedule out to the car so we could check it off when we got to daycare. Another thing, he was willing to take a movie today!! (On Fridays, his class can bring DVD’s and they vote on what to watch; the Little Guy usually won’t take a video because it is too upsetting if they don’t pick his.)
As if this isn’t enough good news, this morning the TSS mentioned that LG had really wanted to go back to the pet store they visited a couple of weeks ago and asked if she could pick him up from daycare, so I have another 2 hours to work extra and/or be home alone! Then tonight we have someone coming for respite and are meeting some friends for dinner. I was still feeling very tired this morning, but now I feel totally energized. Hope you all are having a great Friday as well!!
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Tags: schedules, TSS, Visual Strategies
Yea!! That is so awesome that he loved the new schedule. I hope the rest of your Friday is just as encouraging as this morning was.
Glad to hear that today is a better day for you. I am hoping that today is going to be a good day for me too!
I love that checklist idea. I’ve been brewing for a week or two on something similar to help Dr. D manage his schedule. Our least organized, most easily overwhelmed kid is the one with the most ‘extra’ activities beyond school and church. How did THAT happen?
But going into adolescence, I need to see him taking more of this upon himself and that’s not been as natural a transition for him as it was for Shaggy. I’m inspired, I think I’ll get on it this weekend!