Parent Resources For Assisting Children With Sensory Processing Disorder or Autism During This Time of Change March 24, 2020 Dear Parent, We know you are going through a very challenging time right now as you make every effort to keep you and your family healthy as a result of the impact of the pandemic in our community. At Kids Therapy Associates, Inc. we want to make every effort we can to assist with supporting our precious clients and their families with the changes related to the COVID-19 virus, and with learning how to have fun, and keep progressing towards functional independence! If you have a child or adolescent with Autism or Sensory Processing Disorder, who is suddenly facing very significant change in their life due to schools being closed down, and community activities being cancelled, this can be a significant contributing factor to emotional dysregulation. The home environment is often significantly less structured than the school environment, which can also contribute to increased emotional dysregulation in children with Autism and Sensory Processing Disorders. The following are some supports to assist you with setting up your home environment to maximize your child’s ability to emotionally regulate and participate in functional and academic skills at home. 1) Provide Visual Structure within your home. 2) Provide scheduled structured sensory breaks for your child to participate in throughout the day. 3) Engage in strategies to facilitate a good night’s sleep as needed. 4) Provide visually structured activities for your child to engage in within the home environment. 5) As much as you are able, schedule and reasonably limit engagement with video games and movies. 6) Schedule time for you as a parent to take breaks in order to stay healthy and emotionally regulated. Suggested recommendations will be made below to assist you with setting up and implementing these recommended supports. 1.PROVIDE VISUAL STRUCTURE Providing components of visual structure is a researched based approach to help individuals with Autism understand their environment and daily activities using visual processing, which is usually their strongest learning modality. Specifically, 11838 BERNARDO PLAZA COURT, SUITE 110 • SAN DIEGO, CA 92128 858-673-5437 • FAX 858-673-5434 • WWW.KIDSTHERAPYASSOCIATES.COM visually structured environments allow individuals to: 1) Understand and predict what is happening in their environments 2) Predict the expectations of an environment 3) Acquire new skills 4) Generalize skills from one setting to another. Structured teaching and learning is a visually based approached to create highly structured support for individuals with autism in a variety of educational, community, and home/living settings (Mesibov, Shea, & Schopler, 2005). Structured teaching is associated with the Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH) (Schopler, Mesibov, & Hearsey, 1995). The goal is to create an environment that promotes independence (i.e., decreased need for adult support) by incorporating an understanding of the characteristics of autism and the strengths and interests of each individual (Mesibov et al., 2005). By incorporating visual structure into your home and into specific activities throughout the day, your child will often display significantly improved emotional regulation, improved attention and focus and participation and engagement in daily activities. The five specific components of structured teaching/learning are described below. These are all very important, and they should all be individualized for your child’s age, communication ability, and preferences, as well as the environment that they are in. Please also be aware that visual structure can be developed from materials commonly found in the home environment. 1) Physical Organization / Visual Boundaries – This is the use furniture, rugs, icons, tape, etc. to create physical boundaries in order to make the environment comprehensible and manageable. These boundaries help to define what type of activity will occur in this specific setting, as well as the rules and behavioral expectations for each setting. This picture defines a work area for academic, leisure, fine motor or other tabletop tasks. The table is surrounded by a table behind it and shelf to the left to help define the proximity where the child should stay during the work time. 2) Schedules – Visual schedules are a visual representation of planned activities in the order in which they will occur using symbols, words, pictures, photographs, icons, or actual objects. The schedule can be kept in a defined area of your home, or it can be mobile so the child carries it throughout the day. 11838 BERNARDO PLAZA COURT, SUITE 110 • SAN DIEGO, CA 92128 858-673-5437 • FAX 858-673-5434 • WWW.KIDSTHERAPYASSOCIATES.COM The child’s schedule can be for one day, or a part of a day, depending on what works most efficiently for your child. The schedule can be displayed in pictures, words (or both), or 3-D objects depending on the child’s ability to understand communication. 3) Routines- Routines, when combined with visual schedules, assist individuals in understanding the environment and in becoming more flexible. Because predictable routines serve as another form of structure, children with ASD can show decreased anxiety within a routine situation. With a lower anxiety level, students often display increased attention to task. Children can display increased independence once they practice and learn a routine. Once the child learns the basic routine, the parent can then make gradual changes to specific content. 4) Work Systems – Work systems are visually structured sequences that provide opportunities to practice previously taught skills, concepts or activities (Schopler, 1005). These can be activities that support academics, leisure activities, functional skills, and development of motor skills. 5) Task Organization – Visually structured tasks are highly organized and incorporate visual instructions. Visually structured activities clearly indicate the activity the individual should complete, the steps for completing the task, and the 11838 BERNARDO PLAZA COURT, SUITE 110 • SAN DIEGO, CA 92128 858-673-5437 • FAX 858-673-5434 • WWW.KIDSTHERAPYASSOCIATES.COM important or essential features of the task. Independent tasks are chosen based on emerging skills or independent skills, depending on whether or not you will be providing support for your child when working, or want him to work independently. The task is developed so that the user knows what to do by looking at the materials and task design. There may be a product sample, written instructions, photos, or a cut-out sample. Limiting the work area into a specific box or tray, helps the student to know where to focus his attention. Materials that can cause distractibility if used incorrectly should be secured. Specific areas of importance should be labeled, bolded, or color-coded. These tasks are examples of structure leisure / play skills by defining steps to build a Lego structure, and work on cutting skills. 2.PROVIDE SCHEDULED SENSORY BREAKS Provide a choice of movement activities every 60-90 minutes throughout the day to assist your child with regulation of his attention and emotions. The movement breaks should be appropriate to the environment that your child is in, and should be pleasurable. Longer movement breaks, such as playing outside, riding a bike, taking a walk (within a safe environment) can also be very helpful to assisting your child with emotional regulation. It is helpful to provide a choice board for your child with pictures or words, so that he/she can choose a preferred movement activity when he/she sees “Movement or Sensory Break” on his/her schedule. It is helpful to keep the movement activities preferred and to change the choice of activities every few days. Use of visual structure, modeling, and partnering with your child when doing these movement activities can assist with engagement. Sensory/movement activities should be defined on your child’s schedule with words or a picture. Some suggested sensory break activities are: 1) Running 2) Sit-ups or push-ups 3) Jumping jacks 4) Bear crawls or crab walks 5) Jumping rope 6) Stacking books from the floor to a bookshelf 7) Hula Hoops 8) Dribbling a ball or playing catch 9) Engaging in chores that require movement 10) Brain Gym (information available on braingym.org, additional resources are Brain Gym Teacher’s Edition Brain Gym: Simple Activities For Whole Brain Learning by Paul and Gail Dennison) 11) Just Right Road (See additional handout titled: What is the Just Right Road? 11838 BERNARDO PLAZA COURT, SUITE 110 • SAN DIEGO, CA 92128 858-673-5437 • FAX 858-673-5434 • WWW.KIDSTHERAPYASSOCIATES.COM 3.ENGAGE IN STRATEGIES TO FACILITATE A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP Why Does Sleep Matter? Sleep is critical for the health of every child, and for the health of the parents as they raise their children. Sleep is vital whether you’re 8 or 80. It's a time for the body to recover and rebuild, and for the brain to process new information. But for children, it's extra important. Their growing brains have a harder time dealing with the effects of sleep loss, says Judith Owens, MD, director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Boston Children's Hospital. Establish A Bedtime Routine: Establish a bedtime and put it on your child’s visual schedule. It is very helpful to write out or use a picture schedule during the evening hours to define the order of events leading up to bedtime. Make your child aware of the schedule and adhere to it during the evening hours. As you progress through your child’s bedtime routine, remember to implement bedtime preparation activities (brushing teeth, reading, etc. in a quiet environment without sibling rivalry and sensory stimuli that can add to accelerated behavior and anxiety. Bedtime Snack: Prior to your child brushing his/her teeth, provide a light bedtime snack of warm milk and turkey (if your child is not allergic to these foods).