To Routine, or not to Routine? That is the question.

A large amount of autistic children thrive on having routines and struggle to cope with any unexpected changes. They respond really well to visual timetables so that they can see what each day will look like.

Our biggest change recently is Edward not having the familiar routine of the school day. So how have we been learning to cope with lockdown and the massive change of routine?

Personally, I’ve never been one for strict routines. When my two were babies we had a slack daily routine. I never insisted that they went down for a nap at a certain time of the day and if I was invited out and it clashed with when they normally napped, it didn’t matter and I would take them out anyway.

The only routine we did keep to was the bedtime routine. For me, sleep is the key to survival for everyone. So even though we had disrupted sleep during the night for feeds, nappy explosions, puke etc, they both had the same routine and went down to sleep at the same time Mummy and Daddy had a bit of spare time in the evenings. Although when Mummy was particularly shattered I would go to bed straight after them. Survival is key!

The first week of lockdown was very surreal. I couldn’t get Edward to engage in any formal learning and as I was still trying to figure it all out too, I didn’t push him or give him any sort of routine.

Now things have settled down a bit and we’re coming to terms with the ‘new normal’ we are finding some structure to the day.

Edward’s school sent him home with a pack of stuff, including social stories about why the school is closed and the Coronavirus. Using some of the rest of the pack I decided set up a daily visual timetable for him. The first day, he absolutely loved it and kept calling it his ‘chores list’ (This is from the television series of Paddington Bear). The second day, not so much but as I do with everything, I will keep persevering.

Weirdly, I was mildly panicking as I was making it because there wasn’t a picture for every single activity. I wasn’t sure if I should create a fairly generalised routine or go into specifics about each activity, for example, what type of exercise were we going to do each day. Then I thought, but what if I say we’re going out for a walk but then it rains and we end up doing exercise indoors. Is this going to cause Edward stress? So i decided to go general, then that way we have a bit of flexibility.

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I also thought that if I put every activity and specific times on it then it would overwhelm him. So the first day, I only put activities up until lunchtime then added the rest after lunch.

What are guys doing with routines? Is it better to have a routine or not? What do you think of my routine for Edward? I would love your feedback, so let me know in comments below.

Take care and stay safe.