Creativity Helps with Back to School Stress

We have three children, each unique with the back to school ritual. ...Kevin is on the Autism Spectrum. Change of routine, new expectations, new people and many other facets create anxiety for him…and us. We have various techniques we use to address his concerns and ease him through his self regulation process.

Increased Anxiety with Back to School Transition
If you live with Autism or work with these amazing persons, I’m sure you have seen the spectrum of how the condition affects them. Any child can have anxiety with the new year, yet these kids feel it and deal with it in a multitude of ways.
Story Strategies
We have a strategy of starting early in conversations about upcoming changes with the children.

Creative Expression Strategies
You can have the children draw their own pictures to communicate their desires as well.

Creative Expression Strategies
We are major proponents of self-advocacy for the kids ...

Remember, All Behavior is Communication
If anxiety is in full swing now that school is in session, make note of what the child is doing.

Decompression
We suspect, they just needed to have a structured activity, that they can control, at their pace, to reorganize their thoughts, feelings and sensory systems.

Simplest Strategy: Breathe!
With all this said, the simplest creative thing you can do with a child is BREATHE.

Using simple creative strategies, see how stress integrates and transforms into imaginative ways to enhance and express our skills while learning the art of life on the Spectrum journey.

Read the complete article:
Creativity Helps with Back to School Stress

Do you know the 'stressors' for your child?
What ways does your child communicate their stress and what relieves them of stress?
How do you help your child reduce Back-to-School stress?
How does your child's Teacher, Therapist help reduce daily school stress?

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'Enjoyable School Year'