Change is tough. Transitions are difficult, yet we face them all the time. It doesn’t matter what our inner rebel says to us; we like our routines and structure to have some semblance of predictability, as do our children. I write this, aware of the irony, because for the first few years of my children’s lives, it felt like skiing up a mountain to establish a routine, only for a development leap to change the very routine I had finally established.
And yet, change happens.
Nothing makes us more aware of this than the daily, weekly, and termly transitions that occur at school. Our children wake up for school, attend lessons set by a timetable, know when they’re eating, socialising, learning, and finally, it all gets going... only for the holidays to approach. Then we’re faced with navigating our child through a transition into the holidays and back into school.
I must admit that in the first part of my career, while I taught in mainstream schools, the challenge of this never occurred to me. I knew my pupils were tired for the first week, and on the first day... well, it was common for me to see students put their heads down on their desks and surreptitiously try to catch 40 winks. It was only when I started working at a hospital school and the wider team spoke about the struggle that young people with SEMH needs had transitioning into the holidays due to the sudden stop of their routine; I become aware there was more to this. They spoke about a soft stop where child, parent, and school worked together to ease the young person into the holiday. I learned something that has forever shaped the way I see holidays and the collective approach to it.
I consulted with an experienced speech and language therapist, who specialises in working with young people with autism, to gather some valuable insights on assisting pupils through holiday transitions. Drawing from years of expertise in this field, she shared strategies to alleviate the understandable anxiety that often accompanies the disruption of familiar routines. Here are some suggestions she offered:
1. Prepare your child in advance – give them time to process the change so they can internalise the change taking place.
2. Create a plan with them. Decide on a routine and stick to it.
3. Have the plan written on a calendar so they can see it visually.
4. Set up milestones (events to mark a development) through the holidays to work towards. Let your child decide these milestones.
5. Keep things predictable. This will help minimise chaos and disorganisation.
So, now that you’ve made the plan and kept everything as consistent as possible, only for school to start back again. What do you do now?
Fortunately, once again, our expert was able to share her top tips:
1. Begin preparing your child to return to school in advance.
2. Start talking about school – show them photos. For example, you might have a photo of when the ice cream van came to school; this would be a fun memory to share.
3. Begin to move towards school bedtime and wake-up times.
4. Do a couple of test runs to school to prepare them for the route and journey.
5. Meet up with friends, and if they can’t meet in person, try over Zoom or a phone call.
Transitions are very much a part of life, but that’s not to say they’re easy and a child-centred approach keeps this awareness at the heart of supporting our children who struggle.
And, amidst the movement and changes, we wish you all joyful and restful holidays, where transitions are changes that move towards the ultimate goals of independence, fulfilment, and achievement.
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