Staying at home for long periods

Staying at home or needing to self-isolate may have to happen to a lot of young people with Special Educational Needs. We have written the following guidance that might be helpful in reducing stress and challenging behaviours and help to keep good mental health.

This resource pack for parents and carers of children with additional needs provides advice and support for parents and carers to look after themselves and their young people at this time. Through this link, you will find a social story to help communicate information about Coronavirus to your children and a collection of symbols for you to use at home with any young people who have additional communication needs.

This Social Story helps to explain the virus, and also explains why school is closed. You could also create your own similar one. We would advise any messages you give are simple, short and concrete and where possible you tell the young person what will happen or what they will be doing instead.

Here is a link to the ‘Washy Washy Clean’ video which aims to promote thorough hand washing with young people whilst also being fun.

The Challenges of No Structure and Self-Isolation

Having one or two days at home with no structure might be okay for some young people, however over a period of time this can quickly result in a number of challenges:

·         Boredom

·         Increase in agitation / challenging behaviours

·         Eating and sleep cycles going out of phase and people becoming anxious or low in mood.  Plus of course a lot of people getting frustrated.

This is a particular challenge for young people with ASD (with or without a learning disability) due to loss of structure and disrupted daily life/routine. 

How to Help

KEEPING STRUCTURE AND ROUTINE:

It’s really important to try and keep each day with as much structure and routine as possible in order to support good mental health and help keep any challenging behaviour down. Even if this is just for some of the time it will help.  We know that this is likely to be quite a challenging time in the current climate. Some general things to consider are:

• Have a visual timetable however simple or complex for each day. See our leaflet on ‘Introducing Routines’. This can be a reminder for the carer as well as the young person!

• Try and keep bedtime and mealtime routines the same where possible. See our leaflets on ‘Sleep Problems’ if this is becoming challenging.

• If you are going to do an activity, introduce the ‘Now and Next’ concept. e.g. “Harry, we are going to do some cooking Now and then play on the tablet Next”.

• Keep up some demands – this might seem a bit of a challenge but it will help to prevent a much later challenging situation evolving.

• Place some limits on screen time. It is fine to allow some time on tablets as this can be enjoyable and it can give carers a valuable break but too much time can lead to some quite firmly held addictions and make it difficult to get off them!

• Use the time as an opportunity to teach some new skills – see across for some ‘THINGS TO DO’. They can then be used within a timetable or just ad-hoc.

This document provides support for parents and carers who have children and young people with Learning Disabilities and/or Autism Spectrum Disorder. The document has guidelines on how to maintain a good routine and sleep routine at home, different indoor activities to do with your young person, how to manage challenging behaviour your young person may show and how to improve quality of life and overall wellbeing.

This video* provides clear and practical ideas to best support children with a Learning Disability and/or Autism Spectrum Disorder. In this video, there are ideas on how to make life during this time more predictable, how to transition from one activity to another, and how to provide emotional support for your young person by helping them understand their feelings. There is also important guidance about how to promote safety in the home.

* Please note, this clip was created on 23rd March 2020.  Government guidelines are likely to change in the coming weeks.  For anything mentioned in this clip, such as going outside, please continue to follow the most up to date government guidelines around social distancing and social isolation. 

The Positive Approaches to Support website has been created by professionals and families.  It has been developed to support parents and carers during this difficult time and includes information about looking after yourselves, making the world feel more predictable, developing communication, responding to behaviours that are challenging and support for transitioning back to ‘normal’ life.

things to DO:

Relaxation Training Now is a great time to learn this skill. Its really good to help reduce arousal levels and you can do it as a family altogether. Even if the young person can just manage 30 seconds that is a great start. Always give the same ‘cue’ or symbol that you are going to start it.

Relaxation training can be as basic or as simple as you like or need. Either lying down on a chair and letting your body go ‘floppy’, blowing out of a straw, clenching fist to teach ‘tense’ etc. Here are a couple of possible youtube clips but you can google more – or just look for some nice relaxing music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaTDNYjk-Gw

Exercise Exercise is great for mental health. You could follow Youtube clips (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5if4cjO5nxo as an example). Or you could try digging in the garden, lifting tins of food, star jumps or skipping. Sometimes setting a timer or doing it until the end of a song can give a clear start and finish.

Developing Turn Taking and Waiting Skills. Doing a simple puzzle or playing a simple matching game together can help to introduce this skill. Also reading a book, taking it in turns to turn over the page.

This could be an actual puzzle / simple board game or a made up one or even something on the computer where by the young person is having to wait for short periods or take it in turns.

 Click here to see our leaflet on Waiting and Turn-Taking

Helping with household chores and tasks. Not only is this really helpful for you as a carer – but it means you could get a little help! Even just simple tasks as:

• Sorting the washing into piles of colours / white.

• Emptying a cupboard shelf to clean.

• Sweeping the floor (and remember it doesn’t matter if it isn’t done properly, its about skill development).

Also it can be useful to think about the concept of ‘backward chaining’. This is if you are teaching a new task, start with the end point like teaching the person to take the teabag out first.

Teach life-skills.

This might include anything from doing up a button to making a cup of tea to putting on a sock.

Think about what would be really helpful for the young person (and you). What are they working on at school?

What might help them to feel a sense of achievement?

Is there anything that school have advised you to continue with?

If not what did your young person enjoy? What are their special interests?

You could look up information on the web together, read a story or watch Youtube clips together.

Quick and Easy Activities. Here are some simple short activities that only need to last a few minutes:

• Shaving foam on a tray- give your young person a paintbrush to use as well, add glitter or food colouring where appropriate.

• Paintbrush and pot of water/bucket- on a nice day give this to your young person in the garden/outside space, can use the paintbrush to dip in to the water and make shapes/draw pictures.

• Nature hunt in the garden- give your young person a bag/bucket/basket to collect items in- choose 5 things to find or what suits your young person. ‘Can you find me a stick’ ‘Can you find me a leaf’ Dry pasta/rice in a box- add cars/tractors/plastic animals for play

Looking after your well-being as parents and carers

As parents and carers, it is important to look after your own mental health and well-being at this time. Here are some resources you may find useful:

• The Compassionate Mind website has audio recordings addressing self-criticism, building a compassionate mind, posture, faces and tones, soothing breathing rhythm practices.

• Jack Kornfield has released audio recordings giving guidance on how to build a compassionate mind during the Coronavirus outbreak and a guided practice to help keep a steady heart during this time.

• Frantic World have a wide selection of guided meditations among other mindfulness resources which can be found here.

• Headspace is a guided meditation and mindfulness app which has a free 14-day trial and then subscription is required once the free trial ends. Click here to find out more and start your free trial if you are interested. Please be aware that you will need to cancel your subscription at the end of your trial to avoid being charged.