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Copyright controlled materials. Cannot be reprinted without permission of the publisher.
From Chapter 11, SENSORY PROCESSING
TRANSITIONS
Many young children have difficulty with transitions; that is, stopping one activity and moving on to the next. When you tell your child to pick up his toys and come to the table for lunch, you are asking him to make a transition. Obviously, there are many transitions to made throughout the day, and if your child resists at each transition, it can lead to frustration for parents and teachers. There are many possible reasons or combinations of reasons for a child with Down syndrome to have difficulty making transitions. They include:
- difficulty with self-regulation: it may be difficult for your child to change his level of activity and alertness quickly in order to meet the expectations of the next activity;
- difficulty processing and understanding the nature of the next activity and what is expected of him;
- difficulty communicating and making himself understood;
- inconsistent, unpredictable, or inappropriate expectations of the child;
- too many people telling him what to do;
- enjoying what he is doing right now and not wanting to stop;
- disliking the next activity.
Making Transitions Easier
Here are some tips on how to make transitions go more smoothly for your child These ideas involve a combination of sensory, behavioral, and cognitive approaches.
1. Use a picture schedule to help make the day more predictable, and, therefore, more manageable for your child. Often, Picture Communication Symbols from the boardmaker software by Mayer-Johnson are placed on a strip, showing a clear sequence of activities to help the child understand and remember the schedule. (Pictures can be arranged in a left-to-right or top-to-bottom sequence.) These pictures are particularly useful for children who have: a) difficulty understanding all that is said to them, and/or b) difficulty expressing themselves verbally. For example, a child can see from a series of pictures that first he picks up his sister, then he comes home and has lunch, and then he plays until naptime. He then has a sense of the sequence of activities and knows what to expect.
2. To prepare a child for a transition coming up, it is helpful to give him a warning, such as "in five minutes we have to put on our coats and go to pick up your sister." A visual cue, such as a picture card or the picture schedule, showing what is next, and/or an auditory cue, such as a timer going off, can also be helpful.
3. Be clear about your expectations. Help your child understand the steps of the process. Saying, "Now we're going to get your sister" may not be enough. He may need to hear the steps: "Now we have to stop what we're doing (wait for him to stop), put on our coats, and go in the car to get your sister."
4. In spite of all your preparations, it still may be hard for your child to leave what he is doing. Let him bring something from that activity with him to the next, such as bringing a small toy with him in the car.
5. Sometimes if a child feels he has an important role to play in the next activity, he will be more interested in stopping what he is doing and moving on. Try to find something that he likes doing. For example, perhaps he likes doing up seat belts in the car. He can do up his sister's and his own seat belt so that he feels he has a helpful role a play.
6. Children can manage transitions better if they are calm and alert. If a child with poor self-regulation is over-responsive or under-responsive at that particular time, he may not be able to make the transition on his own. You may need to plan an extra few minutes into the routine to help him calm down or "rev up." To calm down your child, you may want to try one of these suggestions:
- Join him in his activity or play, match his energy level, and gradually try to lower his energy level by the use of your actions and voice (gradually slow down your movements and lower your voice level).
- As he begins to calm down, a slow rhythmic song accompanied by rhythmic actions may help him regulate himself to make the transition.
If your child can't seem to make the transition because he needs more energy, here are some ideas:
- Join him in his activity or play, at his energy level, and animation, encouraging him to join in active rhymes or songs that encourage more physical activity.
- Light touch can bring up a person's level of alertness. Try non-threatening touch, like gently stroking your child's fingers, blowing on his hair, or touching his ears. Quick, brisk touch is also alerting, such as giving high fives and clapping.
7. There may be times when none of the above works, and you may have to resort to the distract and entertain routine. Take the focus off what you want him to do and put the focus on the two of you interacting through singing, acting silly, putting on a funny voice, etc., and before he knows it, he will have cooperated with what you wanted him to do!
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