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Tips for Setting up a Learning Environment for your child
Tips for Setting up a Learning Environment for your child
1. Visuals visuals visuals – There are many resource packs for visuals of daily activities available online. Some examples have been posted on the school website (www.foxfieldsmh.ie). If you do nothing else at home other than look at your family’s typical activities (eat, sleep, watch tv, play, walk the dog, go to shops) and implement a simple basic schedule for your child it will make a world of difference to life at home over the next few weeks. We are all using visual prompts at the moment with this huge change to our daily routines. Anyone working from home is relying on calendars, schedules, to do lists and systems to help us do our new activities. Our pupils need this too.
2. Define where the work space will be. As much as is practical use the same area laid out in the same way for work activities. Where possible choose a space that is distraction free. Consider certain props you may use to visually ‘cue’ that it is work time. For example if you are using the kitchen table consider using a particular mat on the table along with a clock/timer & child’s schedule. When these items are present it will signal that it is work time. All of a sudden a place which used to just be for eating, maybe watching iPad with very few demands has had a huge change in function, you need to support your child in understanding the new activity which will be happening in this area.
3. Try, where possible, to stick to some form of schedule and go through this with your child visually each time an activity begins and ends. This establishes trust, the child knows when an activity will end and what will come next. This is particularly helpful when a preferred activity (e.g. iPad time) comes after a non-preferred activity (work time). When the child knows that something they enjoy is happening next you are more likely to get through the work task. The first few work tasks may need to be quick so that your child receives their reinforcement/preferred activity faster. When the working trust is built, then the amount, length or level of work can be increased.
4. When your schedule is established make small changes to the schedule and don’t be afraid of this. Changes occur to our daily routines all the time, your child needs to learn the skills to cope with this also. You will help your child by making this change with your child on their visual schedule.
5. Natural Environment teaching – Not all learning happens at the table. Natural environment teaching can occur throughout the day. This is teaching that occurs in an environment that the learner is motivated by. The key to successful learning and natural environment teaching is… FUN! It is essential that the teacher or parent working with the child identifies what the child is motivated by and ensures that they frequently offer choice and assess the child’s preferences. Play is a key part of a child’s development and it can be used to teach children many important skills. Opportunities for skill acquisition can be created throughout a child’s day and incorporated into almost any activity. For example: if your child is learning to count this could be incorporated into lego play, you could ask your child to give you 4 lego blocks etc.
6. Pairing and reinforcement – Pairing is when fun, preferred activities are “paired” with lots of fun, animated interactions with the teacher or parent who in turn becomes reinforcing to the individual. If we are reinforcing to the child, making the learning sessions fun and reinforcing, this will increase the child’s motivation to learn and to follow instructions given to them by the parent or teacher. It is important that when a child completes a particular task or piece of a task that reinforcement is delivered immediately. This can be in the form of social praise, a token or something preferred such as a few minutes with a favourite toy.
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