September 03rd, 2013

Back To School Time!

I hope you all had a great summer. Now it's time to prepare for back to school. Here are some helpful tips for your young child to transition back to school.

• Review all IEP materials (ensure all supports are in place for your child)
• Set up a good communication system with the teacher to be informed and support your child's needs.
• If necessary, allow your child time to visit the school before school starts, especially if it's a new school.
• If your child has to ride the bus, get to know the driver and help educate them on your child's specific needs.
• Set up a good morning and afternoon routine that your child can easily follow.
• Provide positive supports for independence and good behavior. ( set goals e.g having a good bus ride, successes at school and for unpacking their backpack and doing homework) Rewards should be frequent and consistent based on your child's needs.(If you would like assistance in this area please contact me)

Please share any experiences or additional tips that have helped you prepare your child for back to school . I hope this was helpful.

Teens
There's a good chance your teen has been enjoying his or her summer hours of staying up late and waking up later. Here are some ideas for helping them ease back into back to school mode.

• It might be a good idea to start preparing them for back to school time by having them begin to go to bed earlier and get up earlier.
  
• Talk about the morning routine and how you would like it to go. 
• Start preparing your teen to be more independent in the am by having them use an alarm clock to wake themselves up and have them be part of preparing  their own breakfast . Depending on your teens particular needs, a morning check list for getting ready might be useful.
• Put in some type of reward system to encourage them to want to take care of business in the morning.
• As far as school goes, review IEP's or 504 plans to ensure supports are in place and establish a good means of communication with their teachers. Some teachers have their own on-line pages where assignments and schedules are posted. Email is usually the best way to communicate  but an occasional  phone call is good for checking in.
• Review class schedules and get a good notebook organizer to file assignments and cycle through completed work. ( I will be sharing more on how to help your child with executive functioning skills)

Have a great school year and please share any helpful ideas or experiences you may have.