4 Tips For Helping Organize Children On The Autistic Spectrums Toys, Schedules And Schoolwork

Children are significantly more likely to excel in school and in life when they have good organizational skills. This is particularly true for autistic children. Learning organizational skills helps develop other things such as concentration, focus, and motor skills. Helping children on the autism spectrum learn to be organized can be more challenging because they are easily distracted, require visual cues and often times have limited motor skills.

Autistic kids are typically visual learners, which means they generally learn and perform better when provided with visual instructions and prompts. Below are four tips on how you can help your child be organized, develop skills and make smooth transitions between activities using visual instructions and prompts.

These tips vary depending on your child’s age and abilities. You can use this as a reference guide and adjust as needed.

#1 - Create a bin system for your child’s supplies and toys. Separate the types of toys and supplies into individual bins. Take photographs of each type of toy or supply contained within and tape the photograph to the front of each corresponding bin.

For example: Place a photograph of Lego’s to your child’s bin that contains Lego’s. Do the same with markers, plush toys, crayons, and so on. Even if the bins are clear (transparent), it will be easier for your child to be organized if s/he has a visual cue as to where their toys or supplies belong. Choose bins with easy to remove lids or no lids.

#2 - Display your clothing. It is easier for all toddlers and small kids, especially autistic kids, to stay organized and function if they can see their belongings. Drawers are typically not a good fit for children on the autism spectrum. If you must use drawers, tape a photograph to the front of each drawer that corresponds to what is kept in the drawer. If possible do not combine items into one drawer, but if you must, put in dividers. Hang as many of their clothes as possible. Fold the rest and place them on shelves, preferably in cubbies. Place jeans in one cubby, t-shirts in another and so on. Socks, underwear and pajamas are best placed in transparent bins with photographs taped to the front.

#3 - Set up daily routines and stick to them as much as possible. Creating regular daily routines can make transitioning from one activity to another less upsetting. Children in the autism spectrum often thrive when they have daily routines and usually react poorly to changes in routines. Once a solid routine is created small changes can be introduced slowly and can help your child develop coping strategies to deal with transitions. It is best to introduce changes in routines in very small steps. Gradually, your child will be able to use strategies like social stories and self talk to work through the anxiety they experience when making transitions.

One helpful organizing routine — Give your child a 10-minute heads-up before supper each day and then ask them set an egg timer for 10 minutes. Teach them that when the timer goes off, they are to pick up all of their supplies and toys and place them in the appropriate bins.

This establishes a routine, lets them know what to expect, gives them a 10-minute lead-time and then provides them a distinct audio clue when it’s time to pick up and get organized. Be sure to ask your children to set the timer instead of doing it yourself. This will get them involved in the process and they will be more likely to follow through.

A little addition to this routine — When the egg timer goes off and it’s time to pick up and get organized, you could play a special song that your child will soon recognize as the “pick-up and get organized” song. This can make it fun, playful and soothing for them. It also helps keep them on task and get the work done faster.

#4 Take your child’s schedule and make it a picture schedule. Picture schedules work best for all kids on the autistic spectrum. Set up the picture schedule so that when your child is finished with the task or activity they can move that corresponding picture to the all done side of their schedule. Basically you are creating an interactive picture schedule that your child can “control”. Their picture schedule could also be organized by first, next, last. This gives them a specific order of the tasks and they can move the picture to the “completed” side.

To be help your child get and stay organized use visual aids and keep it simple. All four of these tips are only to be used as guidelines and ideas. Each child on the autistic spectrum has different needs, reacts a little differently, and is functioning at varying levels. Consider adjusting modifying these ideas as you see fit based on your child’s age, abilities, and needs.

Getting your home and life organized will make life easier for both you and your child.

Heidi is a professional organizer specializing in organizing paperwork , creator of The Fast-Filing Method home filing system, & publisher of Life Made Simple e-Magazine. She energizes her readers’ lives by teaching effective systems to help you accomplish more in less time! Visit ClearSimpleLiving.com to get a complimentary subscription & a FREE Home Organization Kit.