October in Alberta is unpredictable. One day students are outside in hoodies and running shoes, and a few days later everyone is digging through backpacks for mittens and wondering where their winter boots went. The mornings are darker, the days are getting shorter, indoor recess starts making an appearance and classrooms that have finally settled into a September rhythm begin to change again.
For students with FASD, all of those little changes can matter.
By October, we often expect students to have school figured out. They have been in their classrooms for several weeks. They know their teachers, their classmates and the daily schedule. The routines that felt new in September are becoming familiar. For students with FASD, that familiarity can be incredibly important. Predictability reduces the amount of work their brain has to do to figure out what is happening and what is expected of them.
Then fall starts changing things.
Something as ordinary as getting ready for recess can suddenly become a much bigger task. Instead of slipping on shoes and heading outside, there are boots to change into, coats to zip, mittens to find and wet clothing to manage. The hallway is crowded and noisy. Everyone is trying to get ready at the same time, and the student is expected to remember several steps while people are moving and talking all around them.
When we look at it that way, “Go get ready for recess” isn’t actually one instruction. It might be six or seven.
For a student who has difficulty with working memory, sequencing or executive functioning, that can be a lot to manage. A student who is still standing in the hallway without their coat on may not be ignoring the teacher or deliberately wasting time. They may have lost track of what comes next.
Fall also changes the sensory environment. Heavy coats feel different. Boots feel different. Wet mittens are uncomfortable. The classroom heat comes on. Indoor recess is louder and busier than outdoor recess. Halloween decorations start appearing on walls and hanging from ceilings. There are costumes, masks, music, assemblies and special activities.
For some students, that extra sensory load can show up in ways that don’t immediately look sensory at all. A student might become louder, more restless or more easily frustrated. They might leave an activity, refuse to participate or have more difficulty concentrating. We can easily see the behaviour without noticing everything that happened before it.
October can also be tiring.
Students with FASD may spend a significant amount of energy throughout the school day trying to keep up with expectations, remember instructions, manage transitions, navigate friendships and regulate themselves in busy environments. By this point in the school year, some students are simply running out of steam.
This makes October a good time for teachers and FASD instructional coaches to revisit the supports that were put in place in September. What is working? What isn’t? Has something changed? Does the student need more transition time? Would a visual reminder help? Is there a quieter place to spend part of indoor recess? Could a complicated routine be broken into smaller steps?
Sometimes the answer is surprisingly simple.
A picture beside the student’s cubby showing the order for getting dressed can remove several verbal reminders. Giving a student a two-minute head start before the hallway fills up can completely change the transition to recess. Showing a student tomorrow’s changed schedule before they go home can make the next morning easier.
Halloween is another good example. For many students, it’s one of the most exciting school days of the year. It’s also a day when almost everything can be different. People look different. The classroom looks different. The schedule may change. There may be costumes, treats, music, games and a lot more noise than usual.
We don’t need to take away the fun to make Halloween more accessible. We can tell students what the day will look like ahead of time. We can let them know when the regular schedule will change and when it will return. We can provide options for students who don’t want to wear a costume or participate in a particular activity. We can make sure there is somewhere quieter to go when the excitement becomes too much.
Those aren’t “special” accommodations. They are practical ways of helping students participate.
One of the most useful things we can do when a student’s behaviour suddenly changes is resist the urge to immediately ask, “What’s wrong with them today?”
Instead, try asking, “What changed?”
Maybe the schedule changed. Maybe recess moved indoors. Maybe the student didn’t realize there was an assembly. Maybe their winter coat feels uncomfortable. Maybe the classroom is louder. Maybe they are tired. Maybe something that looked easy in September actually required an enormous amount of effort, and we’re finally seeing that effort catch up with them.
FASD-informed practice asks us to stay curious about what is underneath behaviour. It reminds us that when a student is struggling, the answer isn’t always asking them to try harder. Sometimes the better answer is changing something around them so they don’t have to work quite so hard just to get through the day.