Providing support to someone on the spectrum means to provide the best possible foundations for them to flourish – you might even say it’s essential to their wellbeing.

When we’re planning to provide a supportive environment for someone on the Autism Spectrum, we need to be aware of and provide for their sensory needs, the impact of social interactions, cognitive processing time, their communication needs and routine and structure – for the purpose of this blog, we are focusing on routine and structure.

Routine and structure for a person on the spectrum is a necessity – the world around them is chaotic enough so knowing that their day is predictable and safe helps them to manage their world a little easier.

For someone on the spectrum, they need to know that their day to day structure is predictable and repetitive – after all, they create this world for themselves in the safety of their own home environment where repetitive, restricted play is their whole world.

For the classroom environment, we ensure that that there is structure and routine through planning and organising routines through the use of schedules, timetables and scripts and cue cards etc. Use of these supports provides for consistence within their daily activities and to also help manage any changes that may occur. Change is an unsettling experience for them and needs to be handled with care!

How do you create structure and routine into your environment? Please share your experiences with us! 🙂