Helping Your Child at Home - Video Series
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Using Prompts and Promoting Independence
Prompting is a way to use cues and supports systematically to support your child's independence when they are learning a new skill or task. Use prompting strategies so that you know what your child can do independently and what they need help with. Your child's teacher can help you learn more about your child's prompting needs!
Learn more about prompting strategies by following this link: Prompting Strategies for Distance Learning
Learn more about prompting strategies by following this link: Prompting Strategies for Distance Learning
Reinforcement and Motivation
Positive Reinforcement is something that is given to a person for engaging in a desired behavior. What is reinforcing is different for each person! Some students may like praise, others a snack, and others a favorite toy or book. To make positive reinforcement more powerful, try the following strategies:
- Be Specific - Make sure you say why your child is getting rewarded. For example, "You did a super job raising your hand!"
- Deliver Immediately - Make sure the reinforcer is given as close as possible to the desired behavior so that your child can make the connection.
- Do it Often - The more often you deliver a reinforcer, the more likely your child will continue to demonstrate that behavior.
- Only select a few behaviors to work on at a time, or else it will be overwhelming for you and your child.
Visuals, Visuals, Visuals
In these uncertain times, providing routine and predictability is as important as ever. Using visuals to support schedules, expectations, rules, and independence can be a great tool to use! If you think about it, we all have visual reminders that we use, like post-it notes, agendas, and calendars. Working with your child to create visuals that support their learning and independence is a great way to not only promote independence, but reduce anxiety and frustration. Here are some tips for using visuals to build routines and independence at home:
- Start where your child is. For some children, they may benefit from using a first/then schedule. Other children may benefit from a full day schedule.
- Using timers can help your child understand when activities are starting and stopping. You can use visual timers, like sand timers, or digital timers.
- Practice - Learning to use a schedule takes time. Start with short chunks of time, and as everyone gets comfortable, increase the time represented on the schedule.