Creating and Supporting Your Child’s Routine

If you have children or work with them, then it’s likely you understand the importance of establishing routines. Routines can help create predictable and organized environments that encourage a child’s growth and development and foster a sense of security and stability. Routines are crucial for several reasons including time management skills, improved behavior, emotional regulation, cognitive benefits, and the development of good, healthy habits. In this blog, you’ll read about the benefits of different strategies for creating and supporting your child’s routine so you can find what works best for your family. Let’s dive in!  

Finding Consistency and Success 

When building daily routines, it’s important to set realistic expectations that result in consistency. Once you assess your current schedule and identify goals, you can build a routine designed around your child’s abilities. When choosing daily tasks, try picking activities that challenge your child but allow them the opportunity for success, even if it takes time at first. This will develop problem-solving skills, confidence, and independence. Use the Just Right Challenge to determine which activities will be a good fit for your child. 

Be Flexible Creating Routines for Kids 

Understanding what motivates your child, like a specific play scheme, character, or activity, can help build a routine your child is more likely to follow. Periodically reviewing your routine to see what is and is not working models flexible thinking for your child and shows them your willingness to collaborate with them. Because children’s minds are always developing and working, sensory breaks during routines can help regulate their nervous system. Incorporate sensory activities into your morning routine to keep up the participation and engagement! Adding unstructured time into a structured routine can give your child a physical and mental break before getting into the next task.  

Implement Chores in Your Child’s Routine 

Research shows that children gain a lot from doing chores. Chores are a fantastic way to increase your child’s confidence and self-worth, help build teamwork skills and support your child’s motivation and responsibility. Different chores require different skills and it’s important to find chores that your child will enjoy, challenge them, and that they can be successful with. For example, if your child has difficulty with organizing, you may want to try filling and emptying the dishwasher. If your child comes home from school and has extra energy, try yardwork or vacuuming. If your child is working on sequencing skills, folding laundry can be a great place to start. Including your child in daily chores will help them become successful and independent in other areas as well! 

Use Tools or Gadgets for Successful Routines 

There are many tools and gadgets out there to help find success within routines. Learning time management, sequencing, and completing multi-step activities will help your child build confidence and independence. Here are some tools to think about: 

Sunrise Alarm Clock: Does your child have difficulty waking up in the morning? This alarm clock mimics a sunrise, lighting up the room over a period before sounding. Choose different sounds such as birds chirping, a wind chime, or a piano for a calmer way to wake up in the morning.  

Visual Schedule: Using visual schedules can help a child sequence and complete all steps in their routine.   

Buddy Timer: The buddy timer is a watch that can be used to learn time management skills. With 2- or 5-minute options, this can help your child with transitions and learning to do a skill within a certain time. 

Creating routines takes time, patience, and effort. Having consistency in routines sets your child up to build success and confidence. Check out Creating a Sensory-Friendly School Morning Routine to learn more tips and tricks about creating successful routines.  

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