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Pic Schedule and Daily Routines...Hi! Katelyn's EI therapists gave me some pictures with velcro on the back and a big board that I can use to make a visual schedule for her of her day. I tried it once, but I wasn't sure exactly how to do it. We don't have a concrete daily routine yet (I've been meaning to really sit down and make a schedule for our days/weeks) because I have to not only take care of Katelyn (always clinging to me), but her baby sister too. I am hoping some of you who use visual schedules or who just have some sort of routine in place for your days home with the kiddos can help me. I feel like every day is Groundhog Day (you know, the Bill Murray movie, lol). Part of the problem is that I work from home too, so I need to work when they nap. This makes it difficult to go out so we are almost always stuck in the house, which I'm sure is not fun for Katelyn Basically, my day is like this: I get Katelyn up around 7:30 when she wakes up. Usually Ashley will sleep until 9am (I know, crazy!) which works out perfect since that gives me time with Katelyn alone. I give Katelyn her milk and then change her diaper. The tv is on with her shows. Then I give her breakfast (oatmeal, cereal, etc.) but it almost always is a big issue because she has been going through a phase where she doesn't want to feed herself, so it usually ends up being a long drawnout breakfast, lol. Then Ashley wakes up and I get her and give her her bottle. Then change her diaper. Then feed her baby food. By this time, it is already almost nap time, lol. Ashley sleeps for about 1 hour, but Katelyn often takes extremely long naps. So while Katelyn is still napping, I am taking care of Ashley and trying to give her some one-on-one time since she often is left to herself because Katelyn needs so much attention I know this isn't going to make one iota of difference, but what I had envisioned when Katelyn would be 2.5yo would be that she would be more independently entertained (coloring by herself, etc.) and that she may even help with Ashley like her cousin did at her age. I knew having a 2yo and an infant would be difficult, but since our 2yo has special needs and requires much more time and attention, it is so much more difficult. And forget household chores like laundry, etc., lol. How do you all do it? And I know that it could be worse, or that so many other people have 5 kids and are dealing with all sorts of issues and get through it (one of my friends has 6 kids and works full-time from home while homeschooling all 6 kids!!!!!) but I am a perfectionist and I just wish I could do it all. I know I can't, so I'm asking for help from you guys Thanks, as always. Oh, and I meant to mention about the schedule/routine, I would like to incorporate certain activities certain days, like playdough one day, puzzles another, etc., but music (her strength it seems, which we want to cultivate) every day at some point. Does this sound like it would be a good idea?I have started a pic schedule for my son recently and it is only for those things that are hard. for us dressing since he does not like to wear clothes, so we got pictures of his shoes, jacket and our car and his car seat and put them on the board. Just before we leave, I show him these and he does not protest much.. he stilll does but is better. I guess our words make no sense to him, and the photo helps him more. You may want to do that for diaper changes, dressing, bottle or meal times, or bath, start with something you will do daily. and she will understand that seeing those pictures means that, that activity is going to follow. It also helps with the anxiety that these kids have, thousands of sounds which make no sense and not knowing what is going to happen. Good luck. What does she get through EI? I would go through a few days, doing what comes naturally and marking down those activities. Then sit down an analyze what you naturally do and what you'd like to add. I'd add only one thing until that gets incorporated. I'd also do the same thing every day, so it becomes routine -- for you as well as for her. You can have an icon for Breakfast and dressing and toileting and diapering and then switch to music or art or whatever at the end of these "getting ready" routines. Those icons can switch every day, but remain in the same relative space. Ask the therapist for concrete help, too. Once you get a routine established (for all three of you), life will definitely improve. Follow the therapist's lead and ask her all the questions you want. That's part of why she is there, not just for Katelyn but for parent training, too. 1) Keep it simple. For YOUR sake! 2) I use picture schedules only for very fixed sub-routines. T has one for getting to school in the morning). This is about 20 minutes, from getting up, going potty, getting dressed, eating breakfast, brushing teeth, grab your backpack, let's GO! Once I could see she was using it, I considered other ones, but did not need them for NOW. 3) Planning an entire DAY? NO WAY, at my house. So I would say, try sub-routines, first ... if you can do a whole day, let me know HOW, LOL! Thanks, everyone! I will start small and not try to plan the entire day, lol. I think this is where my issue was...I was concerned how I'd fit everything in, and what if something changed, like she wanted to watch tv instead of doing something else, lol...but the picture schedule said THIS, hahahaha!
She gets EI for speech, but now they have added a developmental educator and will be adding an OT this month. Also, I'm sure that will all change soon because we will have her official dx a week from Monday, so she'll be getting different therapies then. Get them to provide as much parent training as you can get. EI is charged with helping the whole family in the home environment. Once she's 3 and has an IEP, it will focus on school-related issues.I would also recommend trying to plan out the "skeleton" of your day, andthen fitting in the smaller activities. Perhaps you can have a schedule icon that says "free time" or "play time" and an icon that says "work with mommy" or something like that. Then when you get to that respective area, there could be a choice board (free time- play doh, puzzle, dolls, blocks, etc.) and (work with mommy - letters, numbers, shapes, colors, language, etc.) This way, you could change it up as to what is being done in each "area" - but the main skeleton would stay the same. Also - don't feel limited by the icons that they gave you. ASk them for more. If they take too long or don't provide them, go ahead and take digital pictures and make your own. Here's a link to some free picture icons: SUMMER.GIF=Summer"> What you need to do is what people have recommended - go through a day or two and see how the schedule pans out. Try to make one up as to how you feel your day will go - and see if you're able to stick to it. You can teach your daughter to be more independent - you can get some tasks that she is able to do independently, or learn how to do independently and start out very small (you leave her with a simple bead activity that takes 50 seconds for her to do, and you come right back, etc.) -- Then she could start to have a picture schedule with different activities. Hope this isn't confusing for you. This could even be called "Katelyn Work Time" and she would know that icon stood for sitting at the table and completing tasks independently. But, be sure to start out very small, you may even need to stand a few feet behind her. You can then fade yourself out. This is something that all kids can do - it just has to be practiced, and expected of them! Good luck, PM me if you have any questions about my rambling.  I may have mentioned this to you already- but I use the PECS pictures more for difficult situations now- but when he was around her age I used it as a skeleton schedule- it looked like this: wake up-milk free play time structured time(puzzles, play do, etc.) lunch nap time free play/snack structured work time free play/dinner bath/bed I really think it helped to establish a good routine and of course on days we had therapy or if we had errands to run I ran them and altered the schedule- for a while I put an actual picture of my car in the picture schedule and labeled it "errands" and if he saw the pic of my car he knew we were leaving the house. Now that he is older I only use the PECS pictures if we are having transition problems, meltdowns, or doing something we don't do all the time like go to the dentist or get a haircut. I carry a "Quiet mouth" PECS card in my purse and use it when we are having meltdowns We tried to not be too detailed in the schedule since it is hard to plan in detail and also results in too many icons. But you will want to see how it goes. Keep in mind that you can alway add or remove icons according to need. Our son liked removing the icons (he was older than 3 at the time) and moving them from the "active" part of the schedule to the "all done" part. We were using that to help him to learn to transition in school but school ended and the new school simply dumped the visual schedule, and now they complain about his behavior. (This was after they tested him to be in greater than the 90th percentile in visual memory.) Incidentally, I made icons by taking photos and then scaling them to 2 X 1.5 inches in photoshop, and combined as many as possible onto an 8.5 X 11 inch page. I took the files to Kinko's on a USB thumb drive and printed them (in color at $1 per page, plus maybe a couple of dollars computer time) and cut them out and laminated them (at about $5 page). These can be cut out with scissors into little cards about 2.5 X 3.0 inches (e.g., about the size of a business card). I left a little plastic-plastic join around the photo so that the lamination would stay together. This gave me about a dozen icons for about $10. A little sticky Velcro on the back and you're done. Skip the Velcro for communications cards to carry with you. Some of our local Kinko's has laminations for luggage tags. These are about the perfect size for communications cards and have pre-cut slots to put as few on a clip to take with you. I think you are going to find the schedual much more useful for days that are not so Groundhogish (as you described). Right now, she knows the schedual. In terms of creating, you already know it to. Milk, TV, breakfast (etc etc etc). For everything else I would just use PLAY right now. Only put things on the schedual that are firm, like lunch then nap (if that's what happens every day). There is no immediate need to schedual her play times into chunks and force her into those chunks (she's got years of that ahead of her with school and all). I would suggest right now, that you are using the schedual in order to teach her what a schedual is. You could have 3 simple things on it. Morning, Nap, Afternoon. When you are going to find it really useful is when your days become different. If you have to go out somewhere, do something different, you can show her the schedual in the morning and point out when the different thing will happen (i.e. Today, after Nap we are going to the Park). I think that is when the schedual will click for you. As well, keep in mind that the visual schedual is not an absolute nessesity. It's is useful for many kids, and many families, and absolutly set it up and point it out throughout the day, but not every child with autism ends up needing/wanting one. One year I was running a camp program for teens with moderate/severe special needs (mostly autism). I spent days making my schedual-finding pecs for everything, laminating them, creating a system to mount them, fitting them in with my program plans so I would know how to set them up each day. When camp started no one cared. I didn't have any participents who were hard to transition, they all went with the flow, and to be honest, no one cared about my schedual  . So it's not always the most important thing. Thank you all SO very much for your input. You have made me realize what I need to do. I now know to use a skeleton and then use the pics like puzzles, playdough, etc., as choices for her at free time or work time. Awesome! I love you guys!  |
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. I use the PECS pictures with a blank sentence that says I want ________________. and he fills in the blank with what he wants to eat- I have to use this at every meal/snack because he will NOT tell me what he wants to eat and it helps him and I both to not get frustrated at meal times.