According to Dr. Being able to rely on past experiences in a safe environment allows your child to feel comfortable performing the same activities, such as putting on pajamas, on their own. Greater self-control. If a child has no limits on when they can watch cartoons, for example, they may not learn that sometimes they have to turn the TV off in order to do something less fun. A routine helps your child understand the balance between enjoyable tasks such as play, and functional tasks such as brushing their teeth.
Stress reduction. When a child has a predictable daily routine, it reminds them that they are in a secure, loving environment. Just as when a child is learning other important skills, like reading and writing, self-regulation is a set of skills that build over time.
Every stage includes age-appropriate milestones and important things parents can do to coach children from one stage into the next. There are many parenting behaviors that are important. These include talking about feelings with your child and helping your child respond to his feelings in ways that feel right for your family—such as by taking deep breaths or getting hugs. Parents can also provide structure and support routines for children.
When children live in organized and predictable environments, they learn to self-regulate in organized and predictable ways, leading to optimal mental health over time. What about routines matter. Often parents hear the word routine and imagine it is a proxy for schedule or even more generally structure. Those constructs are similar, but routines require a particular set of characteristics for children to be most developmentally supportive: predictability and accessibility.
Children benefit from relationships and environments that are predictable to them: this includes important caregivers who behave in predictable ways, and events that occur at predictable times. For example, many studies demonstrate the benefit of bedtime routines and dinnertime routines.
Children can anchor their day according to these expected interactions with their families. Furthermore, these are routine moments that provide a high level of accessibility to children. Not only can children know easily when and how they will occur, but even young children can often participate in these routines in meaningful ways by helping to set the table at dinnertime or choose their own book to read with a parent at bedtime.
A special kind of a routine, a ritual, adds an additional layer to the significance of predictable family experiences.
Rituals are routines that also impart a sense of family identity and promote connection among family members. Rituals give children a growing sense of themselves as a member of a greater whole which promotes positive developmental outcomes. When times are uncertain, and children experience worry or sadness, rituals provide the internal sense that they are not alone and have a balance in their lives of positive and negative experiences.
How parents can adapt routines during the current crisis. Children tend to love repetition because of the feelings of warmth and familiarity that accompany it. Preschools for young children should prioritize daily routines in regards to arrivals and pick-ups, meals and nap times, and a number of educational and playful activities. Those are important lessons that can allow your child to adapt as they grow.
However, the stability provided by a structured preschool classroom can ensure that children are able to learn in an environment that feels safe and nurturing, rather than chaotic and uncertain. Predictable routines can also help young children develop their understanding and set expectations for behavior.
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