As the new school year progresses, how do we help our children (and ourselves) stick to regular daily routines?
As we venture into the fall and winter quarters of the current school year, it’s likely that your child’s schedule is quickly filling up with school obligations, homework and extracurricular activities that can often be difficult for both the child and the parents to manage.
In this wellness column, I often include tips and considerations that stress the importance of routines as a contributing factor to a child’s social, emotional and cognitive wellbeing. Keeping that in mind, it’s an ideal time to take an even closer look at why consistent adherence to routines can be helpful for our children, both in supporting their success in their current life endeavors as well as in helping to lay the groundwork for becoming competent and responsible young adults.
What the Research Tells Us
While being able to flexibly respond to changes in routine has shown to be an indicator of positive cognitive and emotional growth in both children and adults alike, it is also important for children to experience consistency. Research studies have frequently demonstrated how children who have experienced a structured, consistent and predictable lifestyle – particularly in the early developmental years of infancy and toddlerhood – are known to be more capable and resilient in dealing with life’s inevitable changes and stressors as they occur.
‘Exceptions to routine can account for some of the more memorable events of a child’s life experience’
More specifically, research has indicated how providing children with consistent structure and daily routines helps to create a sense of stability and security in their lives and contributes to a greater sense of self-assertiveness. Structure can also increase the degree of closeness and connectivity among members of the family, in addition to helping regulate a child’s sleep and wake cycles in order to prime his or her brain and body to take on the activities of the day.
In one such example reflecting the importance of routines, an international research study of over 10,000 mothers from 14 countries published by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2015) found that children whose mothers incorporated consistent bedtime routines managed to not only fall asleep easier, but they also slept for longer durations. It ultimately showed fewer daytime behavioral problems in both their school and home environments.
Tips for How To Help Children Maintain Routines
1)Arrange routines to include the entire family. While some routines are unique to the individual person, there are others – namely, mealtime routines, bedtime/wakeup routines, greeting/goodbye routines – that work best if multiple members of the family are included. Stick to these routines and keep them consistent, both in the manner in which they are carried out as well as the times of
