Help transitioning from one lesson /class to another

[guggenheim]

Thinking about how spring term went fucking awful I realise that Ds finds it very hard to cope when the class move to another room or start a new activity in a new place.He's reception.

I'm not explaining this very well. For example,he's ok lining up to go to lunch or assembly in the hall,unless he feels anxious or tired or wound up by another child and then all hell breaks loose.

I wonder if anyone has a good trick for helping small children transition from place to place without stupid quantities of anxiety? School are pretty good but we don't have any formal dx in place so we are working on the assumption that he has sensory disorder.

He can't always be at the front but needs some way to take control when he feels anxious. Anything he could carry or do which may help?

I have to ask but are they using a visual timeline with him?

Showing him what is happening next should help to lower his anxiety. My friends Dd used to carry a small timeline or a single symbol around with her so that she felt more secure.

He could always be at the front if thats what he needs, its called a reasonable adjustment.

Good luck

Thank you.

They do have one in the classroom but really need a portable one too. Hmm. I bought a feelings pecs chart / portable chart thingy and ds really likes it.

I need to be a bit more proactive and give this to school - he needs an 'oops' card and a card saying ' we are moving to..'

He's fine with a very small amount of prompting really. I think it's tricky because we are in that place where we don't have a dx,he's been turned down for assessment several times,he copes very well on good days.

You are right about reasonable adjustment but I can see that reception will be reluctant to let him be at the front all the time. I need to talk to school a bit more don't I?

Anyway,MASSIVE thanks to all on this board,think I've learned more about what's 'wrong' with ds here than in all dealings with experts.

I think the mini pecs board could work really well, As I said my friends Dd has used one with great success, she came to the preschool where I work and we used it loads. We also used it to increase her use of sentences so it had more than one use.

It really didnt take a minute to put her symbols on, put it in her hand and go through it with her, she had an extra strip of velcro on the back of the board so that we could remove the symbols as the things happened but we didnt lose them.

Good luck and yes you are right this board is amazing isnt it