Nicole Lempa, Board Certified Behavior Analyst

Below are some strategies to use with students at home when they are struggling to complete the assigned tasks from their teachers.

Doing school work at home can be a difficult concept for our students to understand, especially our young learners. While you are attempting to keep a routine and have them complete the school work that is available to them, I wanted to offer some suggestions if they start to have some/any behavior difficulty due to the task demands, or you just want to switch up the routine a little bit:

• Consistency/Structure
  • Set up an area of the house (ex. dining room table, corner of playroom) where your child will be expected to complete work. Consistently having your child work in the same area will help create a structured routine for work time. They will learn the expectations when they are in this area (when we come to this table, it’s time for work).
  •  Use visuals during work time.
  • Find more information on routines and schedules here.

• Work/Break Schedule
  • This includes allowing your child to earn a short 2-3 minute break after completing a work demand
  • A break can include drawing, coloring, playdoh, puzzles, reading a favorite short story with an adult, or anything else that your family can think of that your child would like to do after completing an assignment/task.
• Shorten the tasks/demands
  • If your child is struggling to complete an entire assignment in one sitting, break up the work into smaller, achievable tasks, such as breaking up a 10 question assignment into two 5 question assignments with either a break in between or a different assignment/topic in between.
• Gain Behavioral momentum
• • • This strategy is helpful when your child is struggling to get started with or finish a task.
    • This strategy consists of asking for your child to do 2-3 very easy skills before re-directing them back to the original demand. 
      • For younger children, it may be asking them to follow simple directions, such as, "Clap your hands," "Touch your nose," or "Give me a high five", verbally answering some questions about their age, labeling items in their general vicinity, etc... and then re=presenting the original demand as you have gained some momentum.
      • For older children, it may be having them complete the easy parts of an assignment before completing the more difficult tasks, such as doing some basic addition in an assignment before asking them to complete a word problem, etc...