THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHOOL YEAR FOR YOUR CHILD WITH DISABILITIES
BY
Jennifer L. Cartwright, B. A., M. Ed., Ed. D. Candidate 

            The beginning of the school year can be a time that parents and their children look forward to and dread at the same time.  The excitement of seeing friends, meeting new people, and participating in new activities can sometimes be overshadowed by fear and anxiety of new people and new situations.  Children with disabilities may be more sensitive to new situations and people, therefore, requiring more time and preparation to ensure a smooth transition into the new school year.  The key to a smooth transition is planning which involves preparing the student for the transition, establishing school year routines, and learning how to provide necessary assistance.

PREPARING YOUR CHILD FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR

            Preparation for the new school year should begin at least two weeks before the start date for school.  Start discussing school with your child, reminding him/her of the start date.  Provide a calendar large enough for the student to see clearly, then mark the current date and the first day of school.  Your child could then count or number the days in between and cross one off everyday until the beginning of school.  This not only helps the child to become more aware of the beginning date, but helps to develop counting, calendar, and organizational skills.

            Make an event of shopping for school clothes and supplies.  Some teachers will send out a list of needed supplies sometime during the summer along with a welcoming letter.  Review the list with your child and, on the day of shopping, not only allow your child to assist in choosing the supplies, but have the child check or cross off each item as it is acquired.  Allow your child to participate in choosing his/her school clothing.  As a note of caution, first check with the school about their dress code policy.  You don’t want to purchase something that will cause a problem between your child and the school administration, so avoid clothing that does not fall into the dress code policy.

            Some teachers may set up a meeting time over the summer to meet the students and parents they will be working with that year.  If your child’s teacher does not do this, contact the school to see if the teacher will be available at the school prior to the school year and arrange for your child to meet the teacher and see the classroom that they will have for that school year.  This may help to alleviate the first day “jitters” if the child already knows who the teacher is and how to get to the classroom.

            The night before school starts can often be filled with lots of last minute activity and anticipation of the first day.  Allow your child to be involved with as much of the preparation as possible.  The activity will not only help the student become more independent, but by being a part of the process and busy, it may help to calm jittery nerves.

ROUTINE AND ORGANIZATION

            During the summer, bed times, meal times, and the expectations associated with regular routines are often more lax or dispensed with entirely.  It is important to start establishing a routine prior to the start of school.  At least two weeks before the start of school gradually establish bed times, meal times, and waking times that will be used for the school year.  Establishing a new, and earlier, bedtime the night before the first day of school may lead to a battle that in turn starts off the new school year with tired and upset parents and children. 

            Katy, an eight year old girl with a learning disability and behavior problems, has great difficulty with any kind of change.  The first day of school for Katy usually found her tired and having a tantrum, causing a disturbance in the classroom by refusing to cooperate, throwing things, or bolting from the room.  Establishing a routine and being consistent helped to alleviate the anxiety that was causing her behavior.  Since Katy had such a difficult time with transitions, her routine had to be maintained year round as consistently as possible with preparation time for any changes in the routine, including field trips and other school activities.  Katy needed a lot of support in order to deal with any kind of change and preparation.  As adults, we can look ahead to these changes and help to smooth the transition for positive outcomes instead of traumatizing experiences.

            The key to any kind of change is consistency.  Once you have determined what the schedule or routine will be, it must be followed consistently by everyone involved.  This is often easier said than done since we, as adults, all break our routines from time to time because we are tired or would just rather do something else.  Young children do not have the ability to make informed, mature decisions the way adults can.  This is still forming, so part of our job as adults is to provide this for our children.  Consistent routines and habits help children to establish patterns of behaving and thinking that will make them more successful in the future.

            Routines and habits help us to make sure that necessary chores get done and then free us to participate in activities that we enjoy.  It is important that children, even young children participate in these chores, with assistance as needed, in order to establish the routine or habit, and to train them how to actually do the chore.  Making lunch the night before, if the student takes his/her lunch to school, will free up the morning rush and teach the child how to make a sandwich and chose food for a balanced meal. 

A time and place should be established to do homework.  If the child has a desk, that area should contain the necessary items to complete homework, i.e., pencils, paper, crayons, markers, rulers, etc.  Determine how long the child should work on a homework activity and then set a timer.  When the timer goes off, the child is done, as long as he/she worked on it consistently and didn’t just sit there staring out the window.  The rule of thumb for homework is about ten minutes multiplied by the grade that the student is in.  If the child is in first grade, then there may be ten minutes of homework.  For third graders, there may be thirty minutes of homework.  Keep in mind that a child with disabilities may need more time and practice to accomplish his/her homework, but a first grader should not be spending two hours on homework.  In that case, check with the teacher to see how to adapt the situation and what the local school policy is about homework.

When the homework is done, it should be placed into the child’s book bag.  Some children have homework folders where all their homework is placed and this helps them to retrieve it the next day to give to the teacher.  Help you child to establish how papers that need to be signed or important notices from school will get to you in a timely fashion.  A folder just for messages and forms works, as well, as having them stapled into a daily agenda by the teacher.  The child can be taught then to put the folder or agenda in the same place every day for you to see, such as the kitchen table or your desk.  This will help to expedite the paper work.

Once the homework has been finished and placed into the book bag, and the necessary papers signed by you and placed into the book bag, it needs to be placed in an easily accessible place on a consistent basis so that it is always picked up and taken to school.  Placing the book bag the night before by the door that the child uses to go to school will make it harder to forget.  Remember that some of these habits will help you as well.  It can be very inconvenient to receive a call at work from your child at school because he/she forgot his/her book bag and wants you to go home, get it, and bring it to school.

In order to feel part of the family and to learn new skills, it is important for your child to have chores.  Obviously, a young child may have more limited responsibilities than an older child, but they can still have chores.  Tidying up the bedroom and choosing what to wear the next day may be a good start for a young child.  Older children may have these chores, as well as, some that benefit the whole family, such as taking out the trash, setting the table, or feeding the family pet.  All these activities help prepare the child for the responsibilities of adulthood.

ASSISTANCE

            Teaching new skills to children can often be frustrating.  Parents often end up doing the task themselves because it is easier and takes less time to do so.  What we need to keep in mind is that our goal is independence not learned helplessness.  Helping a child to become independent in completing an activity may take more time than doing it yourself, but it can be a very rewarding experience for you and your child if approached properly.

            New tasks will require assistance from an adult.  This includes learning the alphabet, multiplication tables, or how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Start by modeling the task.  In the case of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, start by stating that you are going to make the sandwich, followed by retrieving the necessary items and explaining each step as you do it.  Next, have the child imitate what you have just done.  Some children have difficulty with multiple step instructions, so you may want to do the first half and have your child do the last half.  Repeat the steps; meanwhile, you will be giving less assistance until you no longer need to give any assistance at all.  This whole process may take a period of time.

            In the case of learning academic skills or facts, that may require “drill and kill”, such as math facts, determining a specific skill to be learned, establishing a time to practice it, making the practice brief but consistent, and fun, may help to take the pain out of the learning.  As an example, if your child needs to learn the 3’s multiplication tables, break it down into small chunks.  Work on 3x1 and 3x2 until they are learned and then add 3x3 and so forth.  You could practice these facts with your child while you are making dinner and randomly ask, “What is 3x1?”.  When the child answers correctly, he/she could make a tally mark on a chart and receive some sort of agreed upon reward, such as going to the movies, when he/she has received a certain amount of tally marks.

            Entrance into the new school year can be made easier with planning.  In a world in which we are all very busy, planning ahead to alleviate problems, and establishing routines and habits can help you and your child with disabilities to transition smoothly into a more successful school year.