Amongst all the chaos and isolation that the coronavirus has caused, the challenges for parents and creating an environment to keep children occupied and interested has become more difficult.
The challenge is even greater for parents with children who have behavioural issues or who have children on autism spectrum disorder.
Our Occupational therapy team and children’s behavioural therapy team have put together some resources and information on various strategies which can be implemented to help parents during this time. By far, the most important step is so establish a routine, whether this routine is written down on paper or on a phone or on a big piece of cardboard in the house. Having a routine can help provide some calm amongst the chaos!
What to aim for each day?
- Ensure the time children wake up is the same time every morning.
- Ensure there is a time for play and free time during the day, this will enable children to have choice around what activities they would like to do.
- Maintain a good nutrition and ensure children stay hydrated. Staying hydrated and eating well will ensure cognitive capacity is optimised.
What to avoid:
- Avoid allowing children to sleep in consistently and avoid allowing children to have a late afternoon nap. A late afternoon nap will mean they are more likely to go to sleep later.
- Avoid allowing long periods of screen time. This might be on the TV, phone or computer.
Possible activity’s to trial?
- Going for a walk, although we are maintaining social distancing currently, you can maintain social distancing when going for a walk. Just ensure the path is not to narrow! When going for a walk be creative asking children if they want to go on a treasure hunt or a bear hunt! This will help keep them more interested!
- Try painting indoors, you don’t need a paint kit either. Children can paint on glass or use chalk to draw on the ground.
- Baking and cooking time, trial baking and cooking to keep children entertained
Some fun ideas?
Here are some more fun ideas that can be completed with children when trying to survive the lockdown
Free play ideas:
- Play Dough
- Lego or Blocks
- Build a pillow fort
- Puppet Show
- Dress Ups
- Letter & Numbers
- Story Time
- Ordering by size
- Colour and shapes
- Paiting & Drawing
- Safe Slime
- Kinetic Sand
- Photo Collages
- Puffy Paint
- Yoga Poses
- Obstacle courses
- Scavanger hunt
- Simon Says
How can we help?
Our children’s behavioural therapists and children occupational therapists are experts in working with children to achieve desired outcomes. Our children’s therapy team will work with children towards their desired goals as well as providing the tools necessary for parents to work to the same goals.
If you are looking for a specific help tailored to you and your children, reach out to us! Our paediatric occupational therapists and children’s behavioural therapists can work with you to design an optimised daily schedule which is goal orientated, specific to the needs of the children and most important is fun!