Coping with Waiting!

Coping with waiting is a skill we can all use! Waiting is one of those unavoidable hassles that bring out the worst in us. Add on autism, adhd, emotional dysregulation, and it can be a big challenge! If waiting is a challenge for your middle and high school students with autism or adhd, you can easily work on it while weaving in other skills such as perspective-taking, planning, coping skills and more!

There are two primary areas to address when teaching middle and high school students how to cope with and manage waiting.

Coping skills, and
Planning skills.

Coping with Waiting

First, we teach students what waiting means and that for the most part, it is unavoidable. Since students with autism can’t avoid it, they must learn to plan for it to make it more tolerable. What does that mean? Make a waiting plan. Have things with you (music, earbuds) that make it more tolerable. Practice coping skills when they feel frustrated or dysregulated. Pick coping skills that can be practiced in the actual situation.

Teaching Students How to Manage Waiting

Looking for activities to teach waiting? This set of Boom cards is perfect for lovers of BOOM cards or all things digital and for teletherapy! It offers audio directions for struggling readers and includes an interactive social story and activities.

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There is also a print no print version. In this version, you get a printable pdf and a fully digitalized version in TPT’s free digital overlay, EASEL. This version contains a black and white version of the social story and offers flexibility for use in both online and brick and mortar settings.

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Both versions offer activities that are scaffolded and can be individualized.

While many older students rely on their phones to keep them busy while waiting, there will be times when phones aren’t allowed (or not charged). In these instances, we can provide students with a few phone-free ideas! These are also great games to play to improve language or cognitive skills, or to fill a few minutes at the end of a session. Many of my older students love the alphabet memory game!

1.20 Questions
Pick a topic, an object, a character, a person! Then everyone gets to ask 20 questions to figure it out.
An example:
Leader: Has the secret object or something they see in the immediate environment.
Everyone else asks questions to narrow down the possibilities until they can guess. They only get 20 questions though so they should be smart in their questions. They ask questions like “Is it a boy?” “Are they alive” “Can they be an animal?” until they can narrow it down. Great practice for using wh questions too.

2. Build a Story
Everyone in your group goes in a circle and adds one line to a story that builds upon itself. This one builds on memory skills.

3.Alphabet Memory Game
This is a great game to help build your kids’ memory and patience skills.
You start with a simple phrase like “I went to the store and I bought an ____ (something that starts with the letter A).
The next person in line says what you said, but adds on with another item that starts with the letter B.
This goes on until someone cannot remember then you start over.

4. Tic Tac Toe
Grab a pen from your bag or borrow one, and use a napkin for this simple game. The first player to line up three in a row wins!

5.Would you rather?
Pick two options and everyone has to choose one of them and explain why. So the options are things like ‘would you rather live under the ocean on the moon’. You’ll learn a lot about each other and have a great laugh.