Transitions

peep807
14 hours ago
4 min read

When I hear the word transitions my whole body tightens. The muscles in my shoulders tense and I immediately start thinking about something else to delay the process.

Hello p r o c r a s t i n a t i o n.

While I thrive on change, the initial processes to kickstart change are really challenging for me and I have to ease myself into it. My mum says that my dad reacts in a similar manner.

There is a lot of literature that speaks to supporting children through transitions into and between schools. This feels a lot bigger! I want to start small, as early intervention suggests I want to focus on the transition between getting out of bed, and getting dressed. Or moving between play and shower time, then shower time and dinner, dinner and bed.. everything is transitioning, and it seems harder for those with neurological differences.

When I looked into this I discovered that there are 3 major players in the transition process. Remember when I talked about executive functions? Being the higher-thinking processes that develop from birth to 30-ish. There are 3 main functions, out of the 10 that support a person to shift between tasks and find flow in their process. The first is working memory which develops before the others. Working memory is the ability to retain information, later using it to create our own strategies for recall, decision making and adaptation to new situations. Impulse control is next to emerge allowing the individual to produce thoughtful responses and stay focused amongst distraction. Finally, out of the 3 is cognitive flexibility which ultimately allows us to switch readily between experiences or tasks and prioritise which requires our attention.

There are activities, games and books we can use to support kids EF skills. Cheeky Monkey Manners by Lisa Kerr have some great books for small children learning about their world. My kids and I use tickcharts at home, which we have found particularly helpful in supporting transitions. Tick charts present a visual representation of which tasks are required, in a sequence format. The human brain, as far as evolution is concerned, actually requires far fewer resources to process pictures, as opposed to words. It is also well documented that visuals alongside text reduces cognitive load, improves comprehension and supports memory. My kids each have a morning tickchart which illustrates a list of images that they can tick off once complete. Ours are laminated however you can get magnets and or wooden desk stands to place up to 10 different card-style task visuals. That way when your child is stationary in their room, overwhelmed and procrastinating about how to start their morning process, you can redirect them back to their tickchart. A hint here is to put the tickchart in their room, otherwise I found moving between rooms presents distractions of its own. We also get a little Dopamine hit each time we complete and tick the ‘done’ task.

For bigger transitions like international travel, the arrival of a pet or baby, or the start of a new school an Initiative through the Australian Department of Education put some tips together. These can include:

Discuss with family members, friends and other support people to widen the circle, and provide opportunities for your children to connect with them.
Use maps, videos, photos, online content from role models to show the child what to expect.
Discuss with the child other people in their safety team that they can go to if they have questions or need extra support.
Using calendar visuals create a countdown of the days leading up to the change.

I’ve been speaking with Claire at the Happy Giraffe in Albany, checkout their online store https://www.thehappygiraffe.com.au. The range is incredible and supportive of all the ages, and transitions. I really love this for Western Australia! I have also been in touch with Saara and Michelle at the Creative Sprout https://thecreativesprout.com.au/collections/montessori-toddler-routine-cards and they have offered us 10% off everything in their store with the code SINGMOVEREGULATE. You will notice the routine cards, planners and checklists which are all helpful in targeting executive functions. Here at SMR we recently created an epic downloadable resource on Impulse control. This is a 25 page gem that dives deep into the need for impulse control, where you might see lack of impulse control showing up and what to look out for. In this resource you will also find information on transitions, along with a First / Then Chart and 7 transitions that can be used with your chart. This pack retails at $29.95.