(07-10-2011, 12:33 PM)Trinitysmom Wrote: My daughter is 4 diagnosed w/ spd 2 yrs ago and I read alot and hear routine routine ................... but she fights me on everything from meds to lotion to dressing to brushing of the teeth to getting on the school bus evrything so I have to say I just go w/ it as a single mother it is exhausting and i'm not sure how to implement a routine >? thoughts ? and thses last few mo I see so mnay signs of ocd which I have read can be part of spd . Also I have recently lost my job of 10 yrs due to there were sending us home to work and there is now way I could work at home w/ her is there any resources out there as far as grants for ot and diff therapies ?
All ideas are welcome ! Thanks

Yes, routine is very important for most SPD kids! One way to implement a routine is to tell her that you are going to do A, B, then C. Then do A, B, C. Even before we knew about SPD we had a bedtime routine. It's always been pajamas, brush teeth, go potty (once potty trained), read books, then tuck into bed. Or bath nights, it was bath, pajamas, brush teeth, go potty, read books, then bed. We reinforce this by telling them exactly those words. "in 10 minutes, we're going upstairs to get pajamas on, brush your teeth, go potty, read books, then bed." Over the years, it gets easier because we've done the same thing for so long.

We have a routine for school day mornings too. They have to be all dressed before they go downstairs for breakfast. Etc. I struggle to have routines during school breaks. And there are a lot more meltdowns because of it. I notice on the weekends that my older son asks me repeatedly, "So what are we doing today? What are our plans today?" He does better if I give him a rundown of things we'll be doing. If something comes up unexpectedly, he has a meltdown and says "But you said we're doing X!". So I try to stick to what I say. Or I tell him repeatedly if something might change.

If she's fighting you on it, maybe work out with her the order you and she will do things, then stick to it. Even write it down. Or we had a visual schedule posted in their rooms for them before they could read. Pictures of pajamas, one of someone brushing his teeth, clip art of a toilet, etc. They could look at that if they forgot what was next. And it reinforced what was expected of them.

My older son is a by-books, follow-the-rules kid, so it was easy to get him to do the routine. My younger son is more stubborn, but we tell him it's the rule and he has to follow it.

The key is to be as consistent as possible.