In this post I am going to share some ideas around – How to plan a day with your child.
We often struggle to make a schedule for the child, to meet some goals and give him a good quality play time, and also to address the therapeutic needs.
In my experience there is no fixed method that would always work, we need to keep planning and keep changing things to accommodate our goals and keep things as per the child’s interest.
Before we go ahead let’s quickly understand a few things …
BEGIN WITH
For a child who is Non verbal or Not expressive –
Use Visual Picture Cards to try and understand what interests him? What has not been done recently and might pull his interest.
For a child who is Verbal and expressive –
Try to know from him by giving some options like – Do you want to do story telling, play doctor-doctor, or paint a flower today?, Sometimes let him take the lead to start with something and you should engage with him to get your goals achieved.
START
Have your daily goals or agenda set for the day. To begin with you can set something in your diary / phone / sticky notes, also, so that you are prepared with things.
Make sure that your agenda is broad and have things to be covered, like –
Physical Games, Social & interactive play, Pretend Play, Language & Communication, etc.
There is not set rule as to how the day will start, what your child may want or what he may not want, but that’s where you have to be active and hit the nail to direct things your way but lead by the child.
The child may want - cars, fans, doctor set, kitchen set, puzzle, go to mall, playzone, shop, board and marker, sensory play, grain play, bubbles, flags, etc. It could be just anything
OR
He may not want to just wake up, not go to school, not want to do homework, etc.
Each child and his interests, level of expression and everything is different whether verbal or non verbal, I am sharing below an example where the child is 5yrs of age and verbal.
It is just a sample plan to give an idea based on which you can change it to meet the needs of your child at his age and development level.
e.g.
Your child picks up the doctor set to play with you, but you want him to do some writing or play physical games, and that’s where we often lose the game even before it starts!
On the other hand, we also keep looking for ideas on how to teach our child in a play way, but when he himself comes to us, we refuse and want to stick to what and how we have planned to go ahead.
This is not a good deal and we lose on various fronts – we lose our peace of mind, child’s anxiety may go high, or under the pressure even if he agrees to do what you ask him to, he may not be able to give his 100% then.
Walk-through
So let’s have a walk-through of the above situation –
M(Mother) - Good Morning Baby
C(Child) – No response
M - Lets wake up and get ready for school
C – No, I don’t want to go to school today…
M - But why? (Give him options to answer if needed)
C - Because I want to play with doctor’s set.
M – Oh Really! But do you know that real doctors go to the Hospital and Clinics to see their patients, and some are also doctor teachers who teach in Medical Schools. Which doctor you want to become?
C - I want to play with Doctor’s set, no school today.
M – Uses some visual aids – Google, Let Me talk App, drawing, writing etc. to explain the above points.
C – Mumma! I want to be the doctor.
M – Great! Mumma is teaching you how the doctor works. When you come back from school, you get to become the doctor, today!
C – Agrees and goes to school and after coming back, very well remembers the deal that was done in morning and asks for the doctor’s set.
M – Doesn’t t give it right away, Rather starts playing it from right there.
Where is it? Go find out. What colour set do you have? Who got it for you?
Which doctor you want to become today? etc.
(since the child desperately wants it – use it as a puzzle, game, hide and seek, building prepositions, language, questions, anything)
Finally he gets the doctor’s set….
C – (Doctor – ENT ) Hi! You have come for the check up?
M –Yes Doctor! I have bad cold, cough and fever
REMEMBER
Give your full involvement, and step by step help the child to do what a real doctor does, to help him understand some concepts, new vocabulary, etc.
Take it further to writing prescriptions (names of medicines, doses etc will cover writing numbers, alphabets, words etc, make it based on the child’s level)
Now, pretend to be a pharmacist and sell medicines.
Check expiry date – showing calendars.
Then involve him with play dough etc. to make different medicines (tablets, capsules)
Use colors to make some liquid medicines, tonics, etc.
After a while he may lose interest, then whatever he picks next build something around that.
Again, if he wants doctor’s set, you may either fix a time for tomorrow ( use calendar) saying a follow up appointment or give it however it works for you.
Can bring in some craft work, to make a stethoscope, with waste or other craft material.
Next time when he wants the same doctors set again, he can become a different specialist now, or you play as a doctor and child becomes the patient.
Working alone with one toy – Doctor’s Kit in breaks and installments you would achieve your goals on –
Concepts
Language
Writing / Copying from the board
Reading
Play – sensory, interactive, pretend, etc.
Questions & More ...
OTHER BENEFIT
When you have worked with something so extensively and with so much involvement, it becomes one item in your inventory to give it to the child for free play or play alone time, and you are assured, to an extent that he will play with it meaningfully.
This may even take shape in a different way, but let the child lead and you keep directing.
This way, you can play and build around various things and situations, like –
Supermarket, play zone, mall, doctor, lawyer, milkman, cobbler, barber, house helps, ice cream vendors, farms & farmers and even objects of stimming.