Supporting a child with autism can initially be beneficial but gradually providing independence allows a child to feel confident and safe in their own abilities.
Providing too much support can cause children to feel overdependent on you because they may feel that they aren’t capable of doing much without your help. This can cause children to feel more anxious when trying new things.
Giving a child too little support can also cause children to feel confused and overwhelmed when they don’t succeed in completing a task. This can cause children to have meltdowns or to shutdown completely.
Scaffolding a child based on what they need and helping them trust in their own abilities to solve problems, make decisions and ask for help when they need it will allow them to grow. This was they won’t feel abandoned but will know that you are in their corner when they need you.
The following are four simple strategies to help you balance support and independence in your child with autism.
You can your child with ADHD and autism with positive reinforcement in the following ways.
Actionable Steps:
#1. Offer Choices
Instead of telling your children what to do all of the time, give them some agency over their day by offering them choices. This will help them make better decisions, which will increase their confidence. Your child may also be more willing to try new things if they are given the room to choose the activities that they get to participate in.
#2. Provide Visuals
Use visual schedules so that your children know which activities they are expected to participate in and the order of them. This will reduce feelings overwhelm, especially if you provide reminders and turn it into a routine.
If you want a visual schedule that’s already made for you, CLICK HERE or on the following image.
#3. Break Down Tasks
While it’s beneficial to let your children what know about specific tasks, it’s important to break each task that could be tricky for your child into small and clear steps. This will allow them to feel a sense of success as they accomplish each step.
The more capable they feel, the more they’ll follow-through with their tasks and complete them.
#4. Celebrate
When your child asks for help, solves a problem or tries and does their best, praise their effort. This will encourage them to continue trying instead of worrying about failing. Be specific with the praise and provide it to them in the moment.
Recap:
Let’s recap really quickly. Today, we looked at the following:
- The importance of providing a balance between support and independence in your child with ADHD and autism.
- Four simple tips to do it: offer choices, provide visuals, break down tasks, and celebrate.
Free Resources:
For a taste of the resources that were mentioned in step two, check out the following resource in my FREE Education Resource Library.
Teach your little ones how to make good choices with the following FREE Resource:
Next Steps:
If you found this video beneficial, would you do me a favor? Share this with your family, your friends, your loved ones, your co-workers or someone who you think could benefit from this. Thank you!
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I’ll see you next Friday at 5:30pm PST.
Until I see you next time, remember to create, experience & teach from the heart.
Take care,
Charlotte
Disclaimer: I’m a teacher and a parent. I’m not a medical professional, so please don’t take this as medical advice. The advice that I provide in my videos and online are strategies that I have used in my own class or at home that have worked beautifully.
