With a thoughtful summertime plan in place, the routine altering days of summer can still be positive and empowering for individuals with autism! Unlike school, HHF’s autism services in Pennsylvania, NY, NJ, and MD continue sessions during the summer months. Even if your child’s routine may change over the summer, maintaining learned behaviors and promoting functional growth is still an achievable goal!
To make the most of your summer break, here are some practical summertime strategies to help you minimize behavior regression and maximize your child’s positive development!
1. Establish a Consistent Routine
Since unexpected change can be a significant source of stress, organizing a plan that replicates your child’s school time routine is a great place to begin. While you may not be able to replicate every detail of your child’s school day, you can infuse similar activities into the mix. For example, if arts-and-crafts time is a constant in their morning routine at school, perhaps you can recreate a fun and colorful craft space at home to use each morning.
You can create visual schedules so your child knows what to expect each day with their summer routine. Once you have organized a manageable weekly plan that blends free time with productive activities, try to maintain the schedule to the best of your ability!
2. Encourage Your Child’s Ongoing Social Development
One of the most important summertime challenges to overcome is the shifting social dynamic. Since school is filled with familiar faces, friends, and opportunities that help your child practice communication or social skills with a group, it’s helpful to find a viable alternative.
Depending on your child’s needs, potential socialization opportunities include:
- Playdates with friends
- Participating in community activities
- Attending family gatherings
Any fun and encouraging event that includes group activities can inspire social engagement! By keeping your child connected with others regularly, speech development, social skills, and confidence can continue to blossom all summer long.
3. Discuss Summer Changes in Advance
Communicating with your child before changes occur can reduce the friction of transitioning into the summertime routine. Using informative tools such as visual schedules, a colorful calendar, or other communication tools is an excellent way to present information while reducing any anxiety or confusion that may arise from abrupt schedule changes.
4. Let Us Help You to Develop a Summer Strategy with Our Experienced ABA Providers!
Since each child’s needs and developmental goals vary significantly, fine-tuning your child’s summer schedule with an expert increases the success rate. Our autism services in Pittsburgh, PA, and throughout the northeast always involve family education in the plan.
- Our BCBAs work with parents to ensure a child’s ABA therapy carries beyond the clinic.
- Our clinical team provides parents with suggestions to help your child excel during the summer routine change!
- Our BCBAs can provide materials and model strategies in the home and community environments to promote the generalization and maintenance of skills.
- Our clinical team can work with other caregivers brought in during summer months to keep your child engaged and happy.
If you would like to learn more about our welcoming clinics or our gentle and encouraging approach to ABA therapy, our kind and helpful team members are an amazing resource for all things ABA therapy and beyond!
