Does your child with special needs exhibit difficult to manage or challenging behaviors? Consider adding structure to your child’s routine to help reduce problem behaviors.
In today’s Teacher Tips newsletter, Watson shares ideas to add structure to help your child with special needs reduce difficult or inappropriate behaviors.
- Create an area in the room for your child that is very clearly marked his/her area. Add items to the space that your child enjoys playing with so their play time will be more fun and engaging.
- Provide adult guidance and reinforcement during play to ensure he/she is actively engaged in the activities
- Label rooms in your home based on their use, using visual guides and listing out items that will be available in each room for your child to use for play.
- Limit the amount of toys that are available throughout the house, keeping them in baskets or drawers and limiting the number of items that can be used at a time.
- Create a visual schedule for the time of day when your child is most likely to engage in challenging behaviors to increase structure and predictability. Check off each item on the schedule as it is completed.
- Replace inappropriate behaviors with appropriate ones and use positive verbal reinforcements of these corrected behaviors. Catch your child being good!
- Try not to bring negative attention to inappropriate behaviors. Try to interrupt the behavior and redirect your child towards an appropriate behavior by using structured choices.
To learn more about these strategies to add structure to your child’s routine to help reduce challenging behaviors, check out the YouTube video below and visit the corresponding special education resource page. For more special education resources, visit Watson Life Resources.