Post #2 Change to routine - FIRST THEN or NOW NEXT (STRUCTURE 1)

This post is about change to routine and how you might think about creating a new routine at home. We are all experiencing changes to our usual routines, especially now most of us are restricted to staying at home. Changes to routines cause anxieties for many people and currently we are all trying to make adjustments to cope as best we can with imposed changes to daily life. 

For autistic children and young people, change is especially challenging. Our children prefer routines that are familiar and many become distressed by the smallest of changes. Creating a new routine at home may well be difficult but, once you have established a new routine that works for your child and your family, daily life may become more manageable and dare I say, enjoyable! 

Managing change on this scale may feel overwhelming and you might find it easier to break things down into smaller steps, certainly for some of our children this will be necessary. This post focuses on 2 steps to starting a new routine which might make the task feel less daunting. Many of your children will be familiar with a routine at school: First - Then or  Now - Next. This enables us to break down time into smaller chunks and add a routine; first do this, then do that or now this, next that. You might make a board or template which looks like this:

 You can add pictures or symbols to show each activity, like this:

I have used free clipart images to illustrate (available from clipart-library.com). You could use photos, symbols or written words, depending upon your child's understanding. Get free printable symbols from www.Do2Learn: Free symbols
Some of you will be able to draw pictures which you could also use. Many of your children will have access to laptops, tablets and mobile phones - there are many First Then and Now Next Apps, some of which are free. (Future posts will look at a variety of Apps).

In order for this to work as a routine, you need to emphasise for your child when the first or now activity has FINISHED. This is a very important concept for helping your child to finish one activity and move on to the next. You can do this in different ways - you or your child could cross out the activity which is finished, you might have made picture/symbol cards which can be turned over when the activity is finished. Many schools use Velcro to attach picture/symbol cards to a First Then or Now Next board, these can then be removed and posted in a finished box. Chose whichever is most meaningful for your child. The concept of finished is a very important one and future posts will provide further examples.

If you want to have a go with First Then or Now Next, start by using activities that your child is happy to do before you introduce activities that you want them to do. Once they have learned the routine, you can start introducing things you want them to do. The First or Now activity should be the activity which you want your child to do, this should be followed with a Then or Next activity which they enjoy. This teaches your child that they have to complete one activity before they can move on to the next activity. When the Then or Next activity is an enjoyable one, this rewards your child.  As you build up your symbols/pictures, you can gradually introduce new First Then or Now Next routines. Some children will need lots of repetition to learn to use this new routine at home, so persevere :)

The TEACCH approach was the first to introduce First Then and Now Next routines, together with the use of visual schedules which present more detailed routine for multiple activities. Please visit Division TEACCH website for tips on managing this period of change to our routines: TEACCH Tips and/or take a look at posts on their Facebook page, there are lots of ideas which may be useful: TEACCH Facebook posts

If you want to see how to use First Then, watch the film clips:

Remember, being at home every day is a BIG change for everyone, so do not be surprised if you are met with some resistance! But this really is worth persisting with and will hopefully make daily life less stressful for you and your child. Use the First Then or Now Next routine with activities which are fun and also activities which are more relaxing. Do not feel you have to try and replicate school routines, home learning is very different to school. If you can support your child to use a First Then or Now Next routine consisting of enjoyable and/or relaxing activities, that's a great start :)  

Your child may use more detailed visual schedules at school, but may resist using these at home, especially if this is a big change for them. So try First Then to introduce the strategy for home learning, you can move on to more detailed schedules when your child is ready. Future posts will focus on more complex routines and structure. For now my own new routine for this period of 'stay at home' moves on to my reward!