Module 3
Planning Schedules, Routines, and TransitionsIn this module, participants learn to plan schedules, routines, and activities to match children's individual and developmental needs.
0utcomes
As a result of completing this module, the staff will be able to:
Key Concepts
- Plan a balanced daily schedule that reflects a child's individual and developmental needs
- Modify the schedule to take advantage of spontaneous events (for example, to respond to teachable moments)
- Use a flexible approach to routines and transitions that reflects a child's skills and needs and is altered when necessary to respond to changing needs and growing skills
- Adapt the schedule, routines, and transitions to meet a child's individual needs
Background Information
- Appropriate schedules reflect children's individual and developmental needs.
- A schedule should offer balance by providing opportunities for children to:
- Be alone, in a small group, in a large group, and one-on-one with an adult
- Develop and use physical, social, emotional, and cognitive skills
- Play indoors and outdoors
- Engage in active and quiet experiences
- Participate in familiar activities and in those that offer challenges or introduce new topics and ideas
- Routines and transitions are opportunities to promote children's learning at home, at the center, and during group socialization sessions.
Routines are activities that take place with regularity each day or week. Some routines typically take place at home-getting up, taking a bath, reading a bedtime story, eating dinner-and each family has its own unique way of carrying them out. Many adults have fond memories of the consistent and predictable activities that took place during their childhoods. For example, performing the same bedtime ritual each evening reinforced a sense of belonging and connection to the family.
Routines are also part of a child's experiences at the center or during a group socialization session. Every day, children participate in routines such as arrival and departure, eating meals and snacks, cleaning up, and getting ready for nap time. Staff and parents need to plan for these routines just as they plan for other activities. When these routines are performed in the same way each day, children feel a sense of mastery over their environments. They are reassured because they can predict what. will happen, in what order, and with whom.
Influence of Routines on Development
The younger the child, the more time he or she spends engaged in routines. For example, a newborn infant can experience ten or twelve diaper changes a day. This time adds up to a significant part of the day. Unlike adults, infants do not think of routines as chores to be completed as quickly as possible. In their view, diapering is another interesting life experience, an opportunity to get to know their parents and caretakers and learn more about the world. It is important for adults to adopt the child's point of view and use routines to encourage growth and development.
When children participate in routines, they develop and use skills in all developmental domains. For example, an infant picking up slices of banana from a high chair tray uses small motor skills. A toddler helping to carry a basket of laundry uses large motor skills and is learning a social skill-cooperation. A preschooler putting away blocks uses both physical and cognitive skills to match the block's shape to the picture of the shape taped on the shelf.
Most young children are motivated to develop the self-help skills they need to participate in routines. At some stages of development, such as during the toddler years, they may go back and forth between wanting to do things for themselves and wanting to remain dependent on adults. These conflicting feelings tend to be temporary, however, and children soon return to their quest for independence.
Planning for Transitions
Transitions are in-between times when children are moving from one activity to the next. Transitions include the time when children wait for the bus to go home; when some children are ready for the next activity, and some are not; and when a child is waiting to run an errand with a parent who is not ready. Some children find it difficult to walt for the next activity. One child might be worried because she does not know what is going to happen. Another might be hot because he has his coat on and. is ready to go outdoors. Yet another might be frustrated because she had to clean up, even though she was not finished with her finger painting. When transitions are well planned and children are not expected to wait for too long-something they are not yet developmentally ready to do-behavior problems are less likely to arise. At home, at the center, and during group socialization sessions, parents and staff need to plan for transitions. Some examples of supportive ways to plan for transitions are:
- Use an individualized approach. If possible, give a child extra time to finish an activity, allow him or her to leave it out to come back to later, or find a way to save and protect the work.
- Respect children's individual schedules for sleeping, eating, and toileting. Extend or offer additional nap times for children who are tired, provide self-service snacks for children who are hungry, and allow children to use the toilet according to individual bodily needs.
- Provide advance notice that a transition is coming. This gives children time to prepare for the change.
- Explain what will happen, when, and with whom. Children feel more involved in their own lives when they know these details.
- Offer one-on-one attention to individual children who have difficulty coping with their strong feelings. At arrival times, some children find it hard to separate from their families; at departure times, some children find it hard to reunite with their families.
You can read more about the importance of planning for routines and transitions in the Head Start publication Responding to Children under Stress. Additional information on how children grow and develop and how adults can enhance development is included in Appendices A through F of this guide.
Handout 9 Activity 3-1 Handout 10 Activity 3-2 Handout 11 Activity 3-3 Handout 12 Activity 3-4 Handout 13 Next Step Handout 14 Module 2 Index