Lockdown, quarantine, however else you may call it—many of us have had to adjust from the mobility of our lives prior to the pandemic to staying at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our communities.

Commutes, outings, work and school environments, and other places for us to engage and socialize have been shuttered for the sake of protecting and preventing further losses of life. We know this has not been an easy request to undertake for many. You may have found a few unforeseen challenges for your family, particularly if you are caring for autistic children and teens.

In our earlier article, we looked at the coronavirus pandemic, lockdown, and anxiety in children on the autism spectrum. This article gives some help and advice on how to explain the coronavirus and the social distancing measures in place. In addition, we looked at ways to reduce anxiety, both for children and their caregivers.

This second blog post in the series is going to take a deep dive into how to add some structure and stability into your child’s days and time in lockdown. We will be highlighting some of the unique issues and suggesting some workarounds.

Disruption to Daily Routines

Once the novelty of ‘every day is a Sunday’ type vibe during lockdown has passed, having to stay at home for most of the day can be a struggle for most children, teens and parents/caregivers. However, the situation can be particularly challenging for children living with autism.

Don’t feel like yourself without a cup of coffee to start the day? The same feeling goes for kids uprooted from their former routines.

Although each and every child is unique, a common feature of autism is cognitive rigidity. What does this mean? Cognitive rigidity relates to the way in which information is processed. Those with cognitive rigidity thinking traits tend to:

Have difficulty adjusting to change
Experience difficulty adjusting to a transition
Be inflexible
Have fixed and rigid routines
Have restricted Interests

So, even during relatively calm times, a change to the schedule or an unexpected event can create intense anxiety for children and teens with autism.

The complete disruption to almost every aspect of normal routines, combined with social distancing measures and an unseen virus, is obviously going to be very difficult to process.

Creating Structure

As mentioned, autism is a spectrum disorder which means the severity of the condition can vary widely. The information below, therefore, can not be ‘one size fits all’ but is meant to serve as a guide only. Parents and caregivers can adapt the information to suit the particular needs of their child.

One of the most important steps that a parent or caregiver can take during these stay at home periods is to inject some routine and predictability into the day. Abstract concepts such as time and sequencing of events or activities are not easy for some autistic children to understand.

One of the best ways of creating predictability and routine is by creating and following a daily visual schedule.

How to Create a Visual Schedule

Helping your child understand what is coming next in the day can significantly reduce anxiety and help prevent meltdowns.

There are many excellent resources out there to help you make a visual schedule for your child and the benefits of keeping visual schedules around in the long term. For example:

An example of a Visual Schedule kept on the side of the fridge. These pictures can be interchanged depending on the day. (Source: teachingmama.org)

However, you know your child best and you can always make your own daily schedule. You can use photographs, drawings, symbols or cut out pictures from magazines.

The easiest way to start creating a schedule is to include the everyday routines and activities first. For example, you could start with a picture or drawing of teeth brushing, washing and getting dressed.

Next, add the mealtimes and lastly the bedtime routines. This will serve as the unchanging ‘skeleton’ of the schedule.

How to Fill Gaps on the Schedule

Now you have a basic outline of the more routine activities of the day! However, there are obviously going to be some big gaps in the schedule.

How you fill these periods of time will very much depend on your child’s needs and abilities. Some children and teens may have home school work or online speech and occupational therapy sessions. Some will have a long walk before lunch, and a movie in the afternoon. If this is the case, you add the picture, symbol or photo for that activity in some of the gaps on the schedule.

Some downtime, physical exercise, and playtime are also essential and need to be included in the daily schedule.

Tips for Parents and Caregivers

It is important that your child or teen’s daily schedule ties in with your own. Try and ensure that you also get some periods of time to yourself to rest and recharge throughout the day.

Here are a few tips to ensure the schedule works for everybody:

Some outside time on a walk can be as beneficial for you as it is for your kids.

Do not be too focused on homeschooling or your child’s therapy sessions during the lockdown. If your child is managing, then great. However, maintaining a calm, happy household is much more important over the next few weeks or months.
Expect more meltdowns than usual and possible relapses in behavior and progress. This is going to be a very challenging time for all of us, so relax the rules and expectations accordingly.
Although the schedule is important, do not stick to it too rigidly. This sounds contradictory but, if you have allocated some ‘relaxing’ time in the afternoon and your child is alert with excess energy, swap that time for a trampoline, skipping, dancing or jogging session.
Be sure to intersperse different types of activities throughout the day. For example, a physical exercise/play session followed by a ‘relaxation’ activity such as watching a film or playing a video game.
If possible, try and create a ‘calm’ area in your home - with minimal stimuli where your child can retreat to if they are becoming overly-stimulated or agitated. A large cardboard box or a table with some blankets covering the top have been some previously enjoyed examples of Quiet Zones.
Try and ensure that your activities tie in with your child’s. So, if your child is watching their favorite movie, take a bit of time to relax with one of your own favorite activities. Likewise, we all need some exercise throughout the day, so when your child has a physical workout tie in yours too, or when possible exercise together.
Remember, you are not a teacher or a therapist. Introduce the full schedule gradually - it will take time to establish a home routine. Concentrate on one or two activities per day and gradually build it up. If you actually are a teacher or a therapist, that’s awesome! Give yourself some grace if challenges and successes are different than what you’re used to.
Include proper breaks on the schedule whereby your child can enjoy their best activities, hobbies and special interests.
Ensure some ‘outside’ time while respecting physical distancing. It may be possible to find walks or places to visit where there are very few people around. Check with your local government guidelines about outside time. Many children, once they have been for an outside walk will want to repeat the activity during the day. France, for example, has relaxed the very strict rules regarding outside activities for those with autism spectrum disorder, so they can visit reassuring places more often.

Focus on the Positive: A Moment of Pause

Amidst all the new challenges that the pandemic and subsequent lockdown have brought, let’s now give a little time to the positives of the situation.

In what other time in our history have we had whole days and weeks to spend exclusively with our kids, whether they’re 4, 14, or 34?

Even traditional holidays usually involve packing, traveling and a sometimes exhausting round of activities and visits. Try to embrace this unique opportunity to spend more time with your child (children, partner or family).

Following on from our extremely busy lives, with all the associated duties and time restrictions, now is the time to pause, stop and to connect. It is an ideal opportunity for parents and carers of children with autism to slow down and use every day for mutual learning. It is the perfect time to connect more deeply with your child…and even yourself.

As always, stay safe, stay positive, be strong and be awesome!

References

Watanabe, T., Lawson, R. P., Walldén, Y., & Rees, G. (2019). A Neuroanatomical Substrate Linking Perceptual Stability to Cognitive Rigidity in Autism. The Journal of neuroscience : The official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 39(33), 6540–6554. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2831-18.2019