How do you help your toddler with transitions?

[belindarose]

My 2.6 year old finds changing activity very hard, as I'm sure is very common. I always prepare her for what is happening next etc (I'm a special needs teacher so this is second nature anyway), but it's very difficult when she's involved in play to move her on. She is always engaged in imaginative games (has a whole host of imaginary friends) and these would go on forever, regardless of the need for bedtime or anything else I need to do. She will argue the hind leg off a donkey and always has a good reason (in her opinion!) for carrying on with her game. It's hard for me to reason with her imaginary friends! I'd rather avoid the distress and tantrums of just doing the next thing anyway (such as taking her upstairs to bed regardless).

Any tips, if you can make sense of that waffly post!

Countdowns (10 minutes til x, 5 minutes etc)
Visual timetable you can refer her to (look, now it's playtime but next we have lunch)
Routine
Songs (have a wash-our-hands song, a tidy-up song, a climbing-up-the-stairs-to-bed song etc)

tell her that her invisible friends mums have come to collect them as it's their bed/supper/bath time??

i just use constant cajoling(sp?) and if that doesn't work i go to shouting

ooh, i do the count down thing too

Thanks. I use all those strategies already though. However, she gets irate if I dare to suggest anything related to the imaginaries, such as them being ready to go home! Huge meltdown just now as she really wanted to put them all in their pyjamas before bed. They were all crying, apparently, because they needed their pyjamas on. Oh well, she's in bed now. It's mostly funny, just wearing at times!