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Taking care of myself

As your child grows they will learn to do more and more for themselves. The road to greater independence takes time and lots of practise but leads to many successes.

Mom and son sitting at the table eating

In this section you’ll find the tools to build your child’s self care skills during the daily routines, such as mealtime, dressing, washroom and sleep. Skills that once learned will be used for a lifetime.

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Sitting and eating

Eating together with the family, with a group of friends or in a restaurant are more important steps in your child’s learning. Mealtime is not only an opportunity for socializing and connecting, but a chance for building independence skills. We’ll help you take a closer look at your child’s eating habits and give you some tools to make mealtime routines successful at home and in the community.

Take a look at the Mealtime Routines workshop to learn how to establish positive routines around mealtime.

Mealtime routines

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A workshop about easier mealtimes, inside and outside your home.

Getting dressed

From putting on pants and a jacket to using zippers, buttons and laces, dressing skills are important steps on the road to your child’s independence. In this section we will help you to break down skills into simple steps and give you the tools to make teaching easier.

Using the washroom

Learning to use the toilet can be one of the most challenging and rewarding of all independence skills. We’ll help you to recognize the signs of toileting readiness and give you some pre-toilet training ideas. Once your child is ready for toilet training we’ve got the tools to help you teach, schedule and monitor their progress and strategies to use when setbacks happen. We’ll help you to think about ways to make toilet training a positive experience!

In this section, you’ll also find tips about teaching your child to wash their hands and brush their teeth. It takes a lot of practise and commitment from everyone spending time with your child to help them learn and be independent.

Toilet training

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Sleeptime

Young children often need help getting to bed and staying asleep. As your child grows it is important for them to develop good sleep habits which will help them to feel better and ready to learn throughout the day.

In this section, we’ll give you the tools to help you establish a consistent routine around sleep time.

Sleep

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A workshop on chronic sleep problems affecting many children with special needs.

Social

3 children

As social beings we enjoy interactions with others. Learning social rules and interpreting cues is no easy task for a young child. They are usually learned by trial and error with lots of tears along the way.

It’s no secret that children learn through play. Learning to play with others is an important step for your child to acquire on the road to social skill development.

In this section you’ll find information and tools on how to help your child learn to join in play, share toys/activities and special experiences.

Introduction to Supporting Social Skill Development in Young Children

In this module you will learn why social skills are important, the foundations of social skill development and the first steps in supporting that development.

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Developing attention span

Sitting down for a game or activity for any amount of time can be a real challenge for some children. Your child’s age, developmental level and environment will also affect her ability to focus on an activity or task. In this section we’ve provided you with the tools and strategies to figure out why your child may be having difficulty and ways to teach her to attend to an activity for linger than a second.

Let’s get Started: Social Skills

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Visual Communication

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Following rules and directions

Rules and limits provide children with an understanding and a general sense of what is right or wrong. Learning to follow rules and directions is a big step for many children. If your child appears to ignore your directions or rules it may be because they do not understand what is expected of them.

Giving Instructions

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Reinforcement

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Playing to learn

Having a friend to play with your child is a natural desire of all parents. For some children entering play and learning the ‘invisible’ rules of play is something that must be taught.

Children express themselves and communicate with others in a variety of ways. For some children they may need a little extra help from you to develop social and play skills.

Here’s where you find information and tools on helping your child to join in play with another child, learn to share toys and take turns during a game.

Playing to learn

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Sharing and turn taking

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Related articles

Bullying

Bullying can occur in any environment. It is defined as exposure repeatedly and over time to negative actions on the part of one or more people. Bullying happens, on average, every seven minutes on elementary school playgrounds. It most often happens while others watch and it does not stop when victims are left to deal with it themselves.

Anti-Bulling Program kit

This kit is designed to provide classroom teachers with all the activities and material ideas required to implement the sessions in the classroom. Read more

Fact Sheets

Each of these fact sheets contain links to organizations closely focused on a specific disability

Communication

The most rewarding experiences for a parent and a child are to be able to share thoughts, feelings and desires with each other. Successful communication is a two-way street. It’s an active partnership that involves using more than words to send and receive messages.

In this section, we’ve focused on giving you the information and tools you’ll need to become a more effective communicator. We’ve also developed some tools and strategies that will help your child to become more successful and consistent when communicating with you.

Helping your Child Understand

As a parent, you’ll want to do everything you can to help your child understand you and to make the most of daily learning opportunities. For one child this might mean changing the way communication happens by slowing down or simplifying speech. For another child, adding gestures, pictures or signs may be just the right approach.

We’ve built a visual engine that will let you make everything from daily schedules to help your child plan and predict his day to dressing sequences to help him become more independent.

We’ve also pulled together some great workshops and tools you can use every day. Learning can be lots of fun when you use music, play, and storytime to help your child’s understanding of language to grow

Visuals Engine

Create visual supports with our templates and images, or customize them with your own images.

Visuals Engine

Visual Communication

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Helping your child to communicate

There is nothing more fundamental than being able to let someone know what you need and want. Some children need extra practice to learn new ways of communicating. At times, picture systems (PECS) or visual supports can really help with this.

In this section, you’ll find resources to help you learn more about the ways children communicate and find some tools for helping your child to move to the next step

Reading and Storytelling

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A workshop on reading and storytelling.

Family Literacy 2, Reading and Storytelling: Group Guide

Giving Instructions

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Kate Massey of K.I.D.S (Kids Included in Day Care and Early Childhood Services) shares some very practical strategies for helping your child to understand and follow through with requests.

Giving Instructions Workshop: Group Guide

Context Stories

Here are two simple stories about communication. They’re a good place to start. Michael’s story deals with breaking through the frustration of underdeveloped communication skills, and Hamzah’s story introduces the power of visual communication

Emotions

Understanding and responding to the emotions of others are very important social skills for us to have. These skills help us to develop relationships with other people but they do not come so easily to some children. Without being able to correctly identify and understand the emotions of others, a child is more likely to respond inappropriately.

We’ve created some games and activities to clearly teach emotions. Try some of these with your child to introduce and practice recognizing emotions

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Promoting Communication for Symbolic Communicators

This practical resource booklet has been written by Dolly Bhargava, Specialist Behavior Support Practitioner and Speech Pathologist from Behaviour Help for parents. The booklet discusses a range of visual systems that can be used at home to develop your child’s communication skills. Along with the booklet is a video  which demonstrates the use of the strategies discussed in the booklet with children with communication difficulties.

Promoting Communication for Pre-Intentional and Intentional Communicators

This practical resource booklet has been written by Dolly Bhargava, Specialist Behavior Support Practitioner and Speech Pathologist from Behaviour Help for parents. The booklet discusses a range of communication strategies that can be used at home to develop your child’s communication skills. Along with the booklet is a video which demonstrates the use of the strategies discussed in the booklet with children with communication difficulties.

Behaviour

photo of child on slide holding a ball

At times you may become concerned about your child’s behaviour especially if it is disruptive or puts his safety at risk. You may be wondering ‘why does he do that?’ Keep in mind that behaviours occur for a reason and it can take some time to understand why the behaviour is occurring and how to deal with it.

We’ve provided you with many tools and resources to help get started, to gather information, develop a plan for change, and to try new teaching methods. Most behaviour problems can be analyzed by you and others working with your child but, some behaviour problems require professional intervention.

Understanding and Changing Behaviour 1: Why does he do that?

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Start by addressing one behaviour at a time – the behaviour that you are most concerned about. Then you can begin gathering information, such as what happens right before the behaviour or things in the environment that may be a contributing factor. Doing this will help you to understand what purpose the behaviour serves for your child. This information is important as it will help you to plan for change.

Understanding and Changing Behaviour 2: Planning for change

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As you continue to observe your child you begin to develop a clearer understanding of what the purpose of the behaviour might be and you’re ready to make some changes. We’ve included information to help you encourage positive behaviour, create rules/social stories and provide positive reinforcement.

Changing your child’s behaviour takes time and patience. At times you may feel unsure or frustrated if you do not see the behaviour changing quickly. Remember that sometimes a child’s behaviour will get worse before it gets better. This is usually because you are introducing a new rule or expectation and your child has been used to doing it differently. Wait and see how he responds.

Reinforcement

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A workshop to help parents and caregivers influence and manage behaviour.

Giving Instructions

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Kate Massey of K.I.D.S (Kids Included in Day Care and Early Childhood Services) shares some very practical strategies for helping your child to understand and follow through with requests.

Giving Instructions Workshop: Group Guide

Attention and Ignoring

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A workshop designed to take a look at using positive attention and ignoring at the right moments to help your child learn new skills and practice behaviour that will strengthen their relationship with you and others.

Prompting and Fading

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A workshop on teaching prompts and how to fade them when your child is ready

Task Analysis

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A workshop on teaching Task Analysis

Playing to Learn

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A workshop about using simple “play” to help develop and expand motor, language and social skills.

Sharing and Turn Taking

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A workshop on developing critical skills for life through play.

Context Stories

Here are two simple stories about behaviour problems you’ll likely recognize, and the sequence of of steps we took on our way to understanding the reasons underlying Wayne’s and Asha’s behaviour, and what we did to change it.

Teaching methods

Every child is an individual and you know your child better than anyone else. You have the the information needed to decide the schedule, teaching methods and reinforcements that will work best for your child and family.

Although this process can seem overwhelming at times it is also a great time to engage your child in new learning and social situations

Remember to be creative, you have many ideas which you can try to help your child change his behaviour. In this section you will find resources on reinforcement, giving instructions, and general strategies for dealing with problem behaviour.

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Adapt and accommodate

Accessibility in your environment is as fundamental as fresh air and a welcoming smile at the door.

Here’s how to do everything – from creating comfortable spaces, to simple modifications you can make to everyday toys. Sometimes, it’s the smallest things that make the biggest difference.

Creating a Calming Environment

Positive adult-child relationships along with intentional planning of the physical environment contribute to a child’s sense of security.  Creating a safe, nurturing space that has predictable routines and takes into consideration the children’s sensory needs can increase a child’s resilience and self-esteem.

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Adapted Play Materials

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Music circles

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Mealtime routines

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Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)

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Context stories

Here are two simple stories about adapting and accommodating. They’re a good place to start. An important part of the solution to Abdi’s mealtime behaviour is a simple adaptation to his environment at the table. In Chung Lee’s story, we use the environment to support success.

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Palliative Pain and Symptom Management

Presented by Tracey Human, RN, Palliative Pain Symptom Management Consultation Service for Toronto

Considerations for intellectual and physical disability communities of practice – palliative care, hospice, collaborative care planning.

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