Whānau Resources for the Summer Holidays

Change can be tricky!

Many of our young people find change difficult. They can find it difficult to understand and cope with. These tools are designed to help support effective communication at these times which can help navigate misunderstandings and reduce anxiety around the changes.

Suggestion:

You can help your young person better understand what is happening, and when. Show them with visual supports like the attached visual calendar, first next board and activity visuals.

Using Visual Calendars at home:

Visual calendars can be placed on the refrigerator, a bulletin board in a common area, on a wall in a hallway, bedroom, or another space where it’s easily seen and referenced. They can also be handy to take with you to reference on the go!. 

Some families look at the calendar throughout each day. It can be helpful to mark off the day, just before bed time. Say, “yesterday was…..” “today is…..”. Then, “today is finished”, (mark it off with a pen together). Other things you can say are, “today is a school holiday” or “home day today”. Some people prefer to use a different calendar. They modify it to suit their child’s needs. Others may need extra visual supports such as colour coding, photos, symbols and a simple layout to help support their young person’s understanding.

About This Holiday Calendar:

Attached is a simple layout, colour coded calendar with symbol support. You can use it to help your child to better understand the school holiday period. There are spaces above some of the symbols for you to write/draw/stick on anything special you may be doing together on those days.

Some spring/summer visuals are also attached. If you need more visuals, the internet is a great resource for free images of common activities you may be doing over the holidays. Cut and paste into a word document to resize them. Then, they can be printed, cut up and stuck on (Blu-Tack works wonders, especially if your plans change and you need to move it!).

BONUS MATERIAL!

First next language and visuals are routinely used across our kura. These can help support our young people during transitions between activities. You might hear or read about people using "now, next", "now, then", or "first then". It doesn't matter what we say, as long as we are consistent.

A "first-next" board is attached so that you can use it at home. You can also hear about some ways to use it by following this link, contact your SLT or michelle.king@allenvale.school.nz to talk about ways you can use it at home.

Happy Holidays!

Kaihoe – Specialist Services