Scheduling

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I have always been hesitant to encourage too much adherence to a schedule even though it is usually suggested for kids on the spectrum. My main reason is since I have OCD myself it is too easy to become fixated on the schedule or routine and not be able to deal effectively when the schedule is disrupted. This is only a personal theory, but, I can see the comfort in a general outline of the day because that takes away from the anxiety of not knowing what the plans are for the day, but an intense schedule might increase anxiety if the schedule can not be met. I realize that not all kids on the spectrum have such rigid thinking or OCD but just a thought that this stuff might work in the short term but may not be a good precedence to set. It seems like it really just reinforces the rigid thinking and may have kids fall into patterns of behavior.

Yes, I think that's the key. It has to be fairly simple, to give a general outline to the day (eg a school timetable) but to be too precise then leads to stress when something takes a different time than expected.

when son was little ( and now for daughter), we had a schedule with general activities on it.....i t gives them a sense of "when to do what". ( ie; brush teeth Before bedtime). i found out the hard way with son that too strict of a schedule would not work for us~had this conversation with him on one of those days that morning sickness was overwhelming and i was still in pajamas and planning not to go anywhere~ "mom, it's 10:05 and i'm ready to go to the playground..."..."mommy really doesn't feel good..."......" but the schedule says..."

one teacher at my school is like that~rigid scheduling....problem with that , though , is that when those students move onto a new classroom~they have to learn to be less rigid like others have tried to learn. personally, i've always felt that rigid scheduling=more rigidity. if we are trying to help aspies become less rigid and more flexible, then rigid scheduling is NOT the way to go.

It was suggested that we put my daughter on a schedule and it was just horribly difficult to stick to. The meltdowns made it impossible!

I am more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants parent; I try not to be too rigid because it just doesn't work with my daughter.

Our son has been following a schedule for the last year - don't know if you'd call it rigid or not. I don't have times charted on it (except for bed time) but he always does the same thing in the same order, comes home from school, one hour in his room winding down, spinning, playing ps2; comes out and has snack now that he can be civil; goes back to room and does homework; comes out for dinner.

After dinner he either plays outside if weather permits (and it's not dark yet!) or plays board or card games at the kitchen table with sister. One more hour of ps2, then snack, bath, dress, bed.

My husband is the stay at home parent, and one day I had to leave work and go straight to the hospital. My husband met me there with the kids as soon as they got done school, and my son was very unhappy to be there as he didn't get to stim, and was all off schedule. Hubby took them home and came back around 8pm (I was released, nothing big) and son was fine - it just took a few minutes for him to deal with the sudden change in schedule. Considering he was whisked straight off the bus, I think he handled it well - no meltdowns - he was just uncomfortable.

The first week of summer we had no schedule - it was awful. Now we're on a good one and it's back to good times and few meltdowns.

aspies mom~ his schedule doesn't sound rigid...the teacher i speak of doesn't even let the kids have down-time except for Friday afternoon at the end of the week....her schedule is filled with
1-2 hour sessions of work, work, work.....even if there's a special event at school, she will not concede and let her students go~ administration is a wimp, and just let's it go........