Tips to Maintain Routine During Summer Break

When children have autism, it is very important to help them to maintain routine activities for them to enjoy life to the fullest and to keep them in a state of calm, happiness, and peace.

Thus, it is also wise to maintain a routine during summer break. Therefore, we provide some helpful tips to do this successfully.

• Try to maintain the routines for the morning and bedtime.

You may be strongly inclined to give your child a larger amount of free time during the summer break. You may decide to allow your child to have more free time during part of the day. But this should not be the case for the whole day. 

This is because having at least some routines in place during the summer break, such as for the morning routine and the bedtime routine, will empower your child to keep the skills that he or she has worked hard to develop. 

The truth of the matter is that activities that are scheduled regularly will grant the structure that children with autism seem to need and this will also allow them to be aware of the time. It is good to have children do chores that they know how to do based on the skills that they have previously learned.

Some things include doing laundry, doing dishes or helping with yard work that is safe and simple. Provide supervision as required and children should do chores in a designated order regularly.

• Develop a new schedule and talk with your child about the plans. 

With the onset of summer, there are many wonderful opportunities, but there are also many challenges. That is why it is wise to make the effort to plan for the summer for your child. You should talk with your child about the possible plans and changes that may take place. 

You can provide various sessions for your child to ask you questions and to allow your child to have time to understand what the summer break may entail. Ask if there are any types of things that the child would like to do that are new. Present some examples and then talk about the details of such types of events if the child seems interested in pursuing various activities. 

Though the summer schedule may be somewhat different than your normal school year schedule, some things should remain the same to create a sense of normalcy for your child. The schedule is valuable to help you to achieve the goals that you have for your child, such as helping your child get enough exercise, helping your child to increase learning and helping your child to improve social skills. 

• Include the homework routine.

It certainly is normal for your child to have less homework during the summer break. However, it is wise to keep up with the routine of doing homework because much effort has been put forth to create the routine as well as maintain it during school time. 

If you are too casual regarding this issue over the summer months, there can be a crisis of setbacks once school goes back into session. It may be helpful if you buy some workbooks for your child, particularly ones that deal with emotional skills as well as social skills that can be the key areas of concentration during the homework routine for the summer. 

• Get support.

Sometimes parents who have children with autism may sense isolation as well as loneliness. It can seem to be unfair that other children get to attend camp when you know that your child cannot go along with them. The children will be developing friendships and bonding with those that they are already friends with. But this also happens among the parents of the children.

You need to have adult friendships too, so you should indeed book a babysitter for some time out with your friends. You do not have to feel guilty about it. Taking time for yourself will give you new refreshment and stamina to continue taking care of your child. Your well being should never be neglected. 

• Develop social skills.

It is wonderful when you can allow your child to spend time with other children. This will permit your child to engage in the usage of his or her social skills. This may seem to be a challenge, but making the extra effort to get involved within your community can prove to be highly beneficial for your child. Also, you can provide more occasions within your home to socialize. 

Your child can develop strong social skills when he/she participates in playing a game where the children must take turns. Furthermore, if your child can speak, you ask your child about things that have occurred during the day. Truly, this can be a terrific method to aid in the development of a variety of social skills that are important for the well being of your child.