Tricky Transitions
By Dr. Susan Fawcett with Glen Hoos
Reprinted from 3.21: Canada’s Down Syndrome Magazine (Issue #20: The Back to School Issue). Click here to download the full magazine.
Nothing says “back to school” like a good old-fashioned pop quiz! So let’s do this.
Q: Name an activity that surprisingly takes up 25% of a student’s school day?
A: Transitions!
Bet you didn’t get that one! But it’s true: efficient transitions eat up a quarter of the average student’s time spent in school. Now just imagine what percentage they end up taking up if they are inefficient!
A transition involves moving from one activity to the next. A typical school day includes dozens of transitions: from bed to the morning routine, from home to school, from class to class and activity to activity, from school to the bus or car, etc.
Many children with Down syndrome struggle with transitions and require extra time to successfully move from one activity to another (thereby increasing that 25% number). Too much time spent in transition means the student is missing out on learning opportunities, and even preferred activities. It is frustrating for all involved: the student, the educator, and the parents. The cumulative effect of stress further harms learning outcomes.
Although transitions take up a sizeable portion of the day, educators tend not to plan for transition time when devising schedules.[i] Successfully navigating transitions requires forethought, creative strategies, and the development of routines – which are really a way of organizing transitions.
Q: What constitutes a successful transition?
A: Trick question! It looks different for every student!
Every student has different support needs, so a successful transition will look different for each one. The table below outlines general characteristics of successful and unsuccessful transitions. Think of it as a spectrum. The goal is to help the student move from the left side of the chart towards the right.
| Unsuccessful Transition: Characteristics | Successful Transition: Characteristics |
| Takes an unreasonable amount of time | Takes a reasonable amount of time |
| Student does not comply with educator’s request to make transition | Student complies with educator’s request to begin transition |
| Student is engaged in off-task behaviours throughout transition | Student demonstrates on-task behaviours throughout transition |
| Educator and student feel stress | Educator and student feel proud of the student’s ability to complete the task |
| Transition may not be completed at all | Transition is completed |
| Student’s escape behaviours are reinforced (strengthened over time) | Student’s adaptive behaviours are reinforced (strengthened over time) |
| Student misses out on learning and social opportunities | Student participates in learning and social activities |
Q: Why are transitions difficult for children with Down syndrome?
A: Transitions may be difficult for cognitive reasons, behavioural reasons, or because of poor transition routines.
Children with Down syndrome may have cognitive difficulties that contribute to poor transitions. These may include:
- impaired memory
- a need for “sameness” and predictability
- reduced ability to process verbal instructions/auditory information
- inability to adequately verbalize their needs and wants
- inherently low level of intrinsic motivation
In behavioural terms, here’s the scenario that plays out. The above cognitive difficulties set the student up for unsuccessful transitions as soon as an educator makes a demand of some sort, e.g. “Time to go inside and do some math worksheets!” These kinds of instructions then result in challenging behaviour on the part of the student, which has the consequence of delaying or avoiding the transition to the next activity, i.e., an escape function of behaviour. If the student delays or avoids a non-preferred activity (the transition or the thing they don’t want to do next), then they are more likely to engage in these challenging behaviours in the future given similar circumstances. Finally, there could be trouble with the transition routine itself. Transition routines need to be developed in accordance with the child’s unique skills and needs in mind. The objective is to find something that works for them, which may look quite different from other children.
The table below identifies common mistakes that adults make during times of transitions with children with Down syndrome, along with possible solutions. How many of these do you recognize from your own experience?
| Common Error | Possible Solution |
| Not giving enough warning about the impending transition | Give a countdown; use a visual timer |
| Not telling the student what is happening next | Visual schedule |
| Inadvertently communicating your own stress to your student during the transition (eg. through volume or tone of voice, body language, or facial expressions) | Use a neutral face and a firm, confident tone of voice |
| Telling the student it’s time to go and not following through with this | Keep your promise! |
| Going from a highly preferred activity to a non-preferred or aversive activity (e.g., going from recess directly to academic work) | Need an intervening activity that lessens the blow of the upcoming non-preferred task (rather than trying to transition from playing on an iPad to working on math homework, insert another fun activity in between; eg. walk like a penguin over to the table and choose a pencil) |
Q: Are there any proven strategies for creating positive transition routines?
A: There sure are – and you’ve come to the right place!
Transitions don’t have to be scary. By implementing principles of positive behaviour support (PBS), we can create transition routines that play to a child’s strengths and help them succeed.
There are two general types of strategies: preventative and consequence-based. Preventative strategies are always preferred; it is more effective to solve a problem before it happens that to deal with a situation that’s gone off the rails.
Preventative Strategies
Set up clear behavioural expectations ahead of time
Set the stage by telling the student in advance what to expect, and what the order of events will be. A visual schedule and/or social story can help with this. Or, even better, film the student completing a successful transition, and then have them watch it!
Make effective requests
Presenting effective requests means making your request in a way that increases the likelihood of compliance and/or cooperation. Here are some guidelines:
- make eye contact and get on your student’s level
- use a firm, confident, positive, upbeat tone of voice in an appropriate volume
- use statements & simple language
- be specific
- make realistic requests (appropriate for student’s age and ability)
- make one request at a time, and be patient: wait 20-30 seconds for your student to respond before you repeat or give another request
- follow through with the request (even if this means helping your student)
- give praise for following directions
Below are some examples of ineffective requests. Can you spot the errors?
“We need to get going because they’re waiting for us!” (non-specific, too much language)
“First get your coat, put it on, grab your mittens and don’t forget to say goodbye.” (multiple requests, too much language)
By contrast, here are some examples of effective requests:
“Time to go!”
“Coat on.”
“Put toys away.”
Offer choices
A better way than effective requests to initiate a transition involves offering a choice to the student. Offering choices involves presenting a student with two or more options of tasks or activities. Once the student chooses, the parent or educator honours the choice. Research has shown that children with developmental disabilities are more cooperative when offered choices during a task or activity, and this is true even when the choices are non-preferred activities.
Children need to experience self-determination in their lives from an early age: the ability to act as a causal agent in one’s own life. Offering age-appropriate choices is one way to give them this experience. Here are some guidelines for providing choice:
- within a particular situation, identify the type of choice to which your student is likely to be responsive
- limit the choice to 2-3 options
- after your student chooses 1 option, immediately honour the choice
- praise the student for making a choice, or for engaging in the task or activity
Here are some examples of effectively offering choice as part of a transition routine:
“Do you want 1 more minute or 2 more minutes?”
“When we get outside, do you want to go on the slide or the swing?”
“Hold my hand or Ermengarde’s hand?”
“Should we skip or walk?”
Provide visual supports
Visual supports include any visual material that is given or shown to a student for the purpose of aiding understanding or memory, or creating predictability. Visual supports are used alongside daily schedules, task sequences, and behavioural expectations.
Children with Down syndrome attend, learn, and remember more effectively through the visual modality. Auditory processing (listening to information) and working memory tend to be weaker, so whenever possible, auditory messages should have visual material alongside them.
The regular use of visuals requires you to plan and be prepared for situations, which is crucial for successful transitions. Visual supports enhance predictability for your student. Enhanced predictability is important because it decreases the anxiety that often comes with not knowing what is happening next.
Incorporate preferences
Students with Down syndrome have lowered levels of intrinsic motivation. They may not do something just because it’s expected of them. By embedding your student’s preferred items, activities, or interactions into routines or tasks that are difficult or non-preferred (such as transitions), you give them a reason to want to cooperate.
Making hard activities more appealing will make it more likely that your student will attend to and complete difficult tasks and routines. Embedding preferences lightens the mood during an otherwise tough routine or task, and having fun together contributes to a better teacher-student relationship.
Here are some guidelines for incorporating preferences into transition routines:
- identify any currently preferred elements during the transition routine
- identify any preferred items or activities that can be added in to the routine (if necessary, observe your student for a few days to aid with this, or consult their parents, therapists, classmates, friends, or siblings)
- incorporate the preferred items/activities into the transition
Never underestimate the value of using “silly-ology” to make your interactions more fun! Make strange faces or noises, break into song and dance, put random objects on your head, pretend to be a vehicle or an animal while walking, exaggerate your actions… anything that makes your student laugh is fair game and useful for putting them in a cooperative frame of mind.
Consequence-Based Strategies
A consequence is something that happens in response to an action. While you might associate consequences with bad choices or behaviour, we are talking about positive behaviour support. The student needs to know what behaviours they should be doing, not just what they should not be doing. This means rewarding desired behaviours in a way that motivates further cooperation, otherwise known as positive reinforcement.
Verbal praise (a behaviour-specific, positive comment) and/or non-verbal praise (a positive action or gesture such as smiling, clapping, high-fiving, fist bumping, or cheering) should be given immediately after the child engages in good behaviour. Consistent praise feels good, and over time it will contribute to an increase in appropriate, adaptive behaviour during transitions.
More praise leads to more positive educator-student interactions, resulting in a healthier relationship and less problem behaviour.
Here are some guidelines for dispensing praise:
- use specific language: the child needs to know exactly what it was they did right so they can do it again in the future
- be sincere; use an enthusiastic/upbeat tone of voice (or whatever tone your student prefers)
- smile: augment verbal with physical praise
- use varied wording to avoid satiation/boredom
- aim for a 5:1 ratio of praise to correction or criticism
Consider the following examples of praise done well:
“Good listening to Ms. Chattypants!”
“Great work going inside!”
“Shoes off – perfect”
“Wow! We got to gym so fast today!”
“You did an amazing job standing up when that timer went off.”
Q: You are outside at recess with 5-year-old Ian, who has Down syndrome. It is time to go back inside, which is always tricky. How might you approach this situation?
A: By implementing all the strategies you’ve learned from this article!
The likelihood of achieving a successful transition increases as you combine several of the strategies we’ve discussed. There’s no perfect recipe that works every time with every child, but you might try something like this:
- Get Ian’s attention; show him a timer.
- Say, “We’re leaving in 5 minutes.”
- Four minutes later, get Ian’s attention; show him the timer and say, “We’re leaving in one minute.”
- One minute later, get Ian’s attention.
- Say, “Ian, look here.” (Ian looks at you)
- Say, “Go inside. Your iPad is in the classroom.” (show visual schedule)
- Ian accompanies you inside.
- Praise Ian: “Great job getting in the door!”
- Give Ian an elbow bump.
As you work with the child over time and consistently use these techniques, you may just find that transitions go from tricky to triumphant more often than not!
[i] Ostrosky, M. M., Jung, E. Y., & Hemmeter, M. L. (2002). Helping children Make Transitions between Activities. What Works Briefs