Like any good early childhood special educator, I spent a lot of time before school started this year setting up various systems and visual cues around my classroom. Consistency is key when working with preschoolers, especially those with special needs. I spent the first 6 weeks of school teaching these systems and allowing my students to settle into their consistent routine.

For example, each student in my classroom has a symbol and a color. One child in my classroom is the green frog. He hangs his coat and backpack at the green frog cubby, takes the green frog off the door for attendance, sits in the green frog cube chair at circle and at the green frog space at the table, and writes in a green journal with a green marker. Using these sorts of visual cues and consistent themes allows my more involved students to become independent and I have seen independence flourish in my classroom this year.

I’m very proud of the systems that I’ve set up, but now I’m starting to wonder if I need to make a change. The real world is very chaotic. You don’t get to sit in a chair marked by a frog everywhere you go….you have to choose your own seat. These elaborate systems aren’t in place outside of my classroom. In fact, the only consistent thing about real life is that things change….all the time!

Now, I know that my students are just preschoolers and I don’t have to worry too much about sending them off into the real world just yet. However, if my students are only able to function independently in an artificially created environment, I’m doing them a disservice. They may not be stepping out into the real world on their own just yet, but they visit the grocery store and restaurants with their parents on a regular basis.

I think it’s time to make a change. I’ve done right by my students in setting up systems that help them to learn the classroom routine and complete their days with a minimum of adult supports. Now, though, I need to pull back some of those supports and let my students become even more independent. This will surely mean chaos in my classroom….and back to the screaming that always occurs at the beginning of the school year, especially for my students who have difficulty changing routines.

I’ll have to start small….maybe you sat in the green cube chair, but today your symbol is on the red cube chair. Yesterday you sat at the circle table, but today you are sitting at the rectangle table. I think that by slowly implementing these changes, I will increase the independence of all my students, and also help to break some of the fixations of my students who are on the autism spectrum.

Consistency is key in early childhood special education, but I also owe it to my students to help them gain as much independence as possible if they are to have any hope of staying afloat in Kindergarten, and in life.