For some parents, mornings with children can be extremely stressful as children often run on their own clock. Morning routines can include many tasks. When you ask your children to complete certain tasks, do they fully understand your expectations? It is important to explain to your child what your expectations are. For example, “John, get dressed”. Do you mean to put on a shirt, shorts, socks and shoes OR just a shirt and pants OR just pants? Explain exactly what you mean and show them how to do it. For example:

Parents, I encourage you to ‘set the stage’ for the morning routine. Help make mornings less stressful for not only your children BUT also yourself!

Other suggestions include:

• Checklist: Write down tasks as a checklist that your child can tick off once completed

• Reward System: Rewards are one of the most consistent ways to change behaviour and build desired responses. Children often need their rewards immediately after the desired behaviour is exhibited (i.e. completing routine). Examples of immediate rewards, in the car on the way to school, include
  • Snack of choice (e.g. cookie, 3 lollies)
  • Verbal praise (e.g. give me a hi-5)
  • Sticker
  • Small toy (e.g. dinosaur)

• Plan Night before: Encourage your child to complete as many tasks as possible the night before. For example, homework, signed papers, lunch money and pack school supplies. How about identifying a specified area near the door to place their bags ready to be picked up before leaving, or laying out the outfits on the couch to wear the next day!

• Limit electronics – A smooth morning routine means unnecessary distractions, including iPod, television, phone, iPad etc. Set your limits “John, 10 minutes on phone”

Remember … these simple ideas may help you get out the door quickly, but some mornings may run more smoothly than others. So, pick a few strategies on different days and it’s all a matter of trial and error.

Written by Didem Karademir, Speech Pathologist.

What is joint attention?

Joint attention is when two people attend to each other or to the same thing. For example, when the adult talks about an object or item (e.g. ‘apple’) and the child engage and looks at the item.

Why is joint attention important?

Joint attention is important to sustain attention, engage in social interactions and develop language skills. In typically developing children, by the age of 3 years, children are able to gain and maintain joint attention from adults and peers. Joint attention is an important social skill that allows children to engage and see another person’s point of view. Children with autism may experience difficulty with joint attention.

How you can help improve joint attention:

– Make sure your child is attending to you before speaking to them. Cue them by calling their name and position yourself so you are face to face prior to talking to them. You can also gently tap their shoulders to cue them. Make sure you are at eye level rather than standing and talking to them while they are on the floor.

– Reduce external distractions such as turning off the TV or moving to a quiet place.

– Create exciting opportunities for your child by changing your voice or adding gestures.

– Follow your child’s lead (e.g. allow your child to choose an activity).

– Praise your child when he/she attends to an object/item (e.g. Good job! You popped that bubble).

Activities to improve joint attention:

– Joint attention can be integrated into your everyday routine (i.e. brushing teeth, bath time, meal time).

– Reading storybooks together and discussing the pictures (e.g. setting, characters) and story.

– Cause and effect games (e.g. bubbles, pop up pirates)

– Nursery Rhymes

– Back and forth interactions (e.g. rolling a ball, singing songs etc.) and exaggerating facial expressions and comments (e.g. open your mouth wide open, rise

If your child has difficulties with joint attention, language skills and/or communication, please see a Speech Pathologist or Occupational Therapist so that she/he can be assessed and suitable therapy goals can be established

Written by Senali Alahakone, Speech Therapist at De Silva Kids Clinic

Every child loves bubbles. In our speech therapy sessions, bubbles are one of our favourite tools.

Here are a few ways you can use bubbles to develop language and speech:

Eye contact – Bubbles are a great way to increase eye contact by allowing the child to look at you in anticipation before you blow bubbles.

Speech – If your child has speech errors or require support with developing sounds, you can use bubbles to teach a sound such as /m/ for ‘more’ bubbles, /b/ for ‘bubbles’, /p/ for ‘pop’

Requesting – You can use bubbles to request by allowing the child to ask for ‘help’ when they need the lid of the bubble opened or when requesting for the adult to ‘blow’ the bubbles.

Vocabulary – Increase your child’s vocabulary bank by exposing him/her to many words such as:

· Nouns: bubbles, lid, fingers

· Describing words: big, little, small, giant, wet, tiny, fun

· Locations: up, down, on, under

· Actions: pop, gone, look, stomp/stamp, kick, find

· Questions: where, who’s turn

· Social: please, more

Turn-taking – Teach turn-taking by allowing your child to blow bubbles and then allowing him to wait his turn while you blow bubbles. Turn-taking skills are important for a child to learn for later conversational turn-taking.

Motivation – If you are working on a particular skill, you can use bubbles to increase motivation by allowing him to pop or blow bubbles at the end of each activity or after each turn.

Phrases – Bubbles can help increase phrase length:

· 2 word phrases – ‘more bubbles’, ‘bubbles up’, ‘blow bubbles’

· 3 word phrases – ‘more bubbles please’, ‘blow big bubbles’, ‘I want bubbles’, ‘bubbles go pop’

Written by Senali Alahakone – Speech Pathologist at DSKC.

Understanding the Functions of Challenging Behaviours…

Children can demonstrate challenging behaviours at home, school, or in the community. At times, these challenging behaviours such as aggression (physical and verbal), absconding, non-compliance, avoidance, etc. can be frustrating for all those who work and interact with the child. Before we can manage these behaviours, it is extremely important that we determine the FUNCTION of the behaviour. The function of the behaviour helps us to better understand WHY the behaviour is occurring. All behaviours have a function. The behaviour itself, although challenging, serves to communicate this function.

There are 4 possible functions of children’s behaviour:

FUNCTION 1: ESCAPE – “I don’t want to do this!”

• Difficult tasks
• Prolonged work
• Social demands
• Being in a certain place
• Being with a certain person

FUNCTION 2: ATTENTION – “I want attention!”

• From parents
• From teachers
• From peers
• From siblings
• From anyone!

FUNCTION 3: TO GAIN ACCESS – “I want this!”

• A toy
• An object
• Food/treats
• An activity
• A privilege

FUNCTION 4: AUTOMATICALLY REWARDING – “I like doing this!”

• It feels good
• It looks good
• It sounds good
• It tastes good
• It’s a habit

To ascertain the function of a child’s behaviour it is important to first observe and collect lots of data about the behaviour. Through this, patterns begin to emerge and the function becomes more clear.

Written by Marisa Donnoli – Psychologist at De Silva Kids Clinic.