Temperatures are warming up and spring is on its way. That means spring break from school and daycare is right around the corner.
While parents are excited to spend time and travel with their families, spring break can be a challenging time for parents of children with autism. From mitigating meltdowns due to schedule changes to managing their child’s excitement, Autism Parenting Magazine offers tips to help parents make the most of spring break.
Tips to Help Your Child with Autism Enjoy Spring Break
- Try to stick to your daily routine as much as possible. Routine is key in helping your child with autism manage his or her emotions and behavior. Try to keep your child’s schedule as consistent as possible. Have him or her wake up and go to sleep at the same time. Try to eat breakfast, snacks, lunch, and dinner at the same time too.
- Make time for reading. If you’re traveling or staying busy with fun activities during spring break, it can be difficult to find time to read with your child. But, regularly reading with your child with autism can have many benefits including improving their cognitive functioning, reading comprehension, and more! Not sure what to read? Click here for a list of great children’s books featuring neurodivergent characters.
- Work on math skills with fun vacation challenges. Spring break may not seem like the time to work on math, but there are plenty of fun ways to incorporate math skills into your vacation. Gardening is one – counting seeds, measuring plants as they grow, and keeping track of the days and weeks it takes for flowers to blossom or veggies to grow are concrete ways to bring math into each day.
Click here to learn more about how you can help your child with autism enjoy spring break!