Some children struggle with transitioning, or moving from one task to another. Even in a perfect world this can be difficult! It can be even more of a struggle to pull a child away from a preferred task, like free-time or games, to a less-preferred task, such as school work. Here are some ideas for improving transitions:
Set up a routine
- For most kids, home is home and school is school. The distinct differences between the locations and the people present already signal that a change in expectations has occurred. When we are home and not often leaving, home has become the catch-all location for schooling, family interactions, and leisure time. Some children also have therapy sessions or medical appointments happening in their homes. Be sure to set-up clear expectations for times for an activity, such as school, to start and end and make sure to build in breaks.
- Use schedulers or calendars that make sense for your child. Have a kid that understands time? Maybe you could use a schedule that includes a 45 minute block of time so your child knows that math starts at 10:30, for example, and ends at 11:15. Very clear and concise. If your child doesn’t know how to tell time or can’t keep track of time, try picture cards. Play around with what works for your child. Maybe it’s index cards with the name of the subject. Maybe it’s a picture on your phone of child with their math workbook that you turn into an electronic document.
- Make sure your schedule or calendar has some sort of “crossing off” function, as one would cross an item off a list. That can help a person feel like they are making progress. Delete items from a virtual list, flip index cards over, or take paper labels off the fridge. Often times difficult transitions can stem from a feeling of being powerless over their environment. A chance to cross things off the list, physically or virtually, can give a child that feeling of control that they could be seeking.
- When scheduling, understand the limitations of a child’s attention span. A normal attention span is 3-5 minutes per year of a child’s age. So a typically developing 2 year old child will be able to attend to a task between 6 and 10 minutes. Likewise, a typically developing 10 year old should be able to focus for 30-50 minutes. Attention span can fluctuate depending on newness of a task, personal interest and neurological make-up. Encourage your child to focus as long as is necessary for a task. Understand that some assignments may need to broken into smaller bits so as to not exceed what is reasonable for any age.
- Try to keep each day as predictable as possible. Some schools have alternating days for some classes, or assignments that are due only at the end of the week. Approach your child’s teachers about helping to establish a more consistent approach so days more closely resemble each other.
Give warnings before transitions
- Shortly before the transition from one task to another (2-3 minutes or so), give your child a personal, one-to-one early warning of the impending transition. Try to keep these warnings quiet, calm and in-person. Get on eye-level with your child, use eye contact, and if tactile cues work for your child, provide a gentle, reassuring touch.
- Set the stage for a smooth transition with a specific amount of time and stick to it. If “two minutes” was agreed upon, use a timer on an appliance. Time with a microwave, or a virtual assistant like Alexa, or a visual timer application on a smartphone or tablet. Make sure everyone sticks to the plan of two minutes. Use of a warning should be consistent for transitions TO and AWAY from all tasks not just away from preferred tasks.
Use breaks to refocus and energize
- Limit the break to a maximum of 5 minutes so the primary goal of completing school work is still kept in the forefront.
- Many kids who experience difficulty with transitions also benefit from hard or heavy work to increase their focus and organize their sensory system. Use the break between larger tasks to build in a heavy work break. Make sure to include this on their schedule too!
- Heavy work ideas could include: push-ups, sit-ups, mountain climbers, jumping jacks. It could also be running in place, marching in place, talking a short walk with a backpack full of books, etc.
- Short sensory play can also be a good transitional activity.
- Breaks could also be a chance to complete quiet, contemplative or mindful activities.
- Deep breathing, meditation or guided imagery can be good calming breaks.
Consider the task itself
- Consider that some difficulty with transitions could be related to the topic of the next task. For example, a student that doesn’t feel confident in reading will often begin to act out as soon as they know reading is the next subject. Anxiety related to the anticipation of the next task might be what makes some transitions more difficult. If you feel this is the case for your child, try to have a frank discussion about this area of concern. Ask your child what they think might be a way to reduce their anxiety.
- Different options are to use a weighted stuffed animal or lap pad during stress-producing classwork. Try a different location or a special snack allowed only during that time period.
- Alternate hard and easy tasks. For some children, this isn’t a good idea. They need to focus on hard tasks first. Get them all out of the way before they move to something lighter, easier, or preferred. For some children, though, they cannot push through too many challenging tasks at a time. They may benefit from having a break from heavy thinking or more challenging subjects.