You could talk about what will happen during the visit or look at some pictures of what will happen. For example, to help your child cope with someone coming to visit you at home, you could spend some time with your child getting ready for the visit. Your child might feel less anxious if they can spend extra time making changes. Older children might like to use timetable or calendar apps for managing events and activities. For example, if you want your child to have a bath earlier than normal, your timetable could show a picture of a bath before a picture of your child having dinner. In these situations, it can help to use reference points like morning tea, after lunch or after school rather than specific times. Some children can get very upset if you tell them a birthday party will end at 3 pm and it doesn’t, or if they’re told the doctor’s appointment is at 10 am but they don’t get seen until closer to 11 am.

For example, try using pictures of clocks to explain what time your child can expect a certain activity to happen. Timetables are a simple way to let your child know what to expect, and when. Ending the story on a positive note is a good idea – for example, ‘When the appointment is finished, I get to play at the park’.īy letting your child know what to expect, you cut down on surprises and reassure your child that it’ll be a positive experience. You could use pictures, words or both to describe leaving the house, arriving at the doctor’s, having blood pressure taken and so on. Social stories are a good way to let your child know what’s going to happen in terms your child can understand.įor example, you can make a social story about going to the doctor. If your child knows what to expect, they might cope better with these kinds of changes. They include things like leaving the house, going to a party or going to an appointment. There are some transitions and changes to daily routines that you can prepare for, because you know about them in advance. Planning for expected changes in autistic children's routines Explanations and instructions can be hard for autistic children to follow, so just telling your child about a change might not always work.

Not being able to visualize things