Helping Students Who Struggle with Transitions and Unexpected Schedule Changes
Consider this scenario: You are teaching art class, and things are not going according to schedule. In what you now realize was a moment of temporary insanity, you chose a project that included white glue and glitter. Now you are questioning all your life choices and resigning yourself to finding glitter in unexpected places for the next five months.
To make matters worse, the clock is not on your side. The minutes remaining until recess time are disappearing quickly—too quickly. You know that if you let the students go for recess with their projects unfinished, glue will dry in inconvenient places, it will take a long time to get everyone back on task again once they return to the classroom, and the whole debacle will take fifteen minutes longer than it really should.
On the other hand, if you just delay recess by ten minutes, everyone will have time to finish their project, help with cleaning up, and order can be restored. So, you make the executive decision to have your students go out for recess ten minutes later than normal.
And everyone seems okay with it. Everyone, that is, except for Bobby. When the dismissal bell rings and you announce that everyone will be finishing their art projects before the class is dismissed for recess, Billy has a visceral reaction. He raises his hand forcefully. You ignore it, a sinking feeling in your stomach. But Bobby is angry, and you know this situation is not going to end well. Despite your best efforts to calm him down, Bobby explodes. He gets into a heated argument with you about why they should be able to go for recess now, and it escalates to the point where Bobby is ripping apart his art project and flinging glitter everywhere. Somehow, his bottle of glue ends up in Sally’s hair, which is going to be an uncomfortable conversation to need to have with her mother at pick-up time.
What should have only been a stressful art class that left you tired but could be cured by an extra cup of coffee ends up becoming a nightmare situation that leaves you crying in your classroom after the students leave, bewildered and overwhelmed. And all because Bobby couldn’t handle a ten-minute schedule change.
If you’ve ever had a student in your classroom who struggles with transitions between activities or unexpected changes to schedule, I imagine you know the particular stress of this situation all too well.
Students may struggle with changes to their schedule for a variety of reasons, such as autism (even mild or high-functioning cases), Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, childhood trauma, or attachment disorders. Because of the way these students’ brains are wired, they perceive unexpected changes to routine as a threat. Their bodies go into fight or flight mode, causing them to be impossible to reason with. Once a student is escalated to this point, it is very difficult to deal with them rationally.
It may seem like these students just need to “suck it up” and deal with the fact that life has unexpected changes sometimes. But the reality is that because of the factors that have caused their brains to be wired the way they are, these children actually do not have the skills needed to adjust to unexpected changes at a moment’s notice. That part of their brain is either underdeveloped or so differently wired that it doesn’t process change the way most people’s brains do. Instead of seeing their blowups as a character flaw, think of it as a moment when they need to be supported in learning a skill.
If a child struggles to transition quickly from one class to the next, you may need to give them extra time. One way to help a child like this is to have an open conversation with them about it. You might say something like, “I’ve noticed you have a hard time switching between math class and spelling class. I often need to remind you several times to put away your math book and start copying your spelling list. I want to help make this easier for you. I’m going to come to your desk and give you an extra heads-up that it’s almost time to put your math book away. I’ll tell you a few minutes before I tell the rest of the class, that way you have some time to think about it and let your brain switch gears. Then, once I tell the rest of the class, I hope you will be able to switch your books at the same time as everyone else.”
This is not “special treatment” or coddling a student. This is simply giving a struggling child the support they need to be successful.
Another way to help students deal with schedule changes or transitions is to give them a stack of cards containing the day’s schedule. The cards will be stacked in order according to the events of the day. The child may carry these cards in their pocket to refer to as desired. This allows them to look ahead to know what’s coming next, which helps them to feel safe and in control. The particular brilliance of this strategy is that you can include a “wild card” that you or the child can insert into their deck of cards when something unexpected happens (such as a fire drill, recess being bumped out by ten minutes, etc.) The wild card will include reminders of how the child can calm himself if the change is upsetting.
If you have a student who gets especially angry or violent, you may need to come up with a system in which they can leave the room, for the safety of yourself and the other students. As children gain self-awareness, many can tell when they are getting upset and may know that they simply need to take a few minutes to clear their heads. If you feel the student can handle it, allow them to use a pre-arranged hand signal which gives them permission to leave the room and go to an assigned “calm-down spot.” You may choose to have a variety of resources there for them, like stress balls and fidget toys, box breathing or pattern breathing diagrams, or a pinwheel or scratch and sniff stickers (these sneakily encourage deep breathing, which physically calms the child).
Another strategy that may be helpful is giving the child the power of choice. Particularly in situations of abuse, neglect, or other trauma, the child’s brain has been wired to believe that if they are not in control, they are unsafe. This is why you may find yourself getting into power struggles over ridiculous things. (I remember once watching a student break her scissors handle in half because she was upset that I told her she couldn’t go out for recess until she had finished correcting a math problem).
In situations like this, give the child choices whenever possible, instead of giving commands. Often, this may look like giving them the illusion of choice (where the end result of both choices is actually the same). For example, if a child is refusing to work on an assignment, you might say calmly, “You may either finish this math worksheet now or do it at recess. It’s up to you. I’ll be watching to see which you choose.” Either way, the child will do the worksheet (and most children would definitely not choose the doing-it-at-recess option). Or for another example, if a child is refusing to take their turn being the goalie during the soccer game, you might say, “Either you can be the goalie for a few minutes or you can leave the game and stand with me at the sidelines. It’s up to you.” Most likely, the child does not want to stop playing, so you’re not really giving them two desirable choices. But, by offering one choice that isn’t really a choice at all, you are still giving them the feeling of being in control, which keeps their brain from flipping to attack mode and avoids a meltdown.
If you have the resources available to you, The Zones of Regulation is a curriculum designed to help students learn about emotional regulation and teach them helpful strategies to calm themselves when upset. This curriculum requires a one-on-one teacher, though some of the concepts in it could be adapted and taught for the whole class. You can purchase the curriculum or peruse other similar resources at https://zonesofregulation.com/
Having a child with these particular struggles in your classroom is difficult—that’s the bald truth. But remember that every child deserves to feel safe, cared for, and loved in your classroom, even if that child needs different support from you than the rest of the class does. And remember that we are called to follow the footsteps of the Good Shepherd, who wasn’t content to just care for the ninety-nine sheep who did what was expected of them, but poured out extra time and energy for the one sheep that didn’t behave like all the others.
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash
