Dealing With Change

Children with neurodevelopmental differences can find dealing with change very difficult. The challenges they experience with processing information mean that the world can be a very confusing and unpredictable place. This change might be a big one - like moving house or experiencing a bereavement - or a smaller change like transitioning between activities at school. Any kind of change can cause anxiety, but there are things which you can do to help:

Daily Routines

You can help by supporting your child with predictability. It is the same for everyone, imagine you are going for a job interview and you are not sure exactly where you will be going, or what the traffic will be like, whether you can park, how many people will be interviewing you and what they will ask. If you are given all this information in advance, your anxiety levels will be far less. You can help your child by telling them what will happen now and next, this could include using daily routine schedules with visual images to support planning.

You can see more information on our Daily Routines page and our Visual Schedules page.

It is also worth talking to your child’s school to see if they use visual schedules as it would be good to use the same ones at home.

Improve Your Understanding

By understanding more about the different way your child processes information, you will be better able to give support. There are lots of Pines videos available which will help you to understand more about why dealing with change can be difficult and the ways you can give better support. We would particularly recommend the video Helping Your Child Deal with Change (Parenting Flexibility of Thought).

Videos

Parenting a Child with Neurodevelopmental Difficulties

This video will help you to support your child to deal with change. Covering flexibility of thought, it explains Theory of Mind, Central Coherence, Context Blindness and Executive Functioning.

Click image for video

Anxiety & Behavioural Challenges in Neurodevelopmental Conditions

A comprehensive film by Rachael Geddes from the Pines team, which looks at anxiety and resulting behaviour. This film will give an understanding of why children with neurodevelopmental differences may behave in particular ways in different situations and what you can do to help. Full of information plus practical strategies and ideas, it looks at the physical impact of anxiety, what impacts anxiety and the ways you can support your child’s behaviour.

Click image for video

Autism & Bereavement

A film explaining more about autism, and the issues that can make dealing with a bereavement for autistic children and young people especially challenging. This film is based on information from the National Autistic Scotland.

Click image for video

Managing Change to Reduce Anxiety

A presentation by Rachael Geddes of the Highland Council Pines neurodevelopmental support team. Rachael talks about managing change effectively so as to reduce anxiety. This talk will be helpful for anyone giving support to autistic young people and includes information about what causes anxiety and how it can be managed.

Click image for video