I’m so excited to talk to you all today about how we run ‘Therapy Thursday’ in our autism classroom. Read on to find out why we started it, what we do on that day and how it’s worked for us and our students.
Why ‘Therapy Thursday?’
You know that Thursday feeling.. where it’s not quite Friday.. but you’re exhausted? That’s pretty much how us – the staff – and our students would feel on a Thursday. Just exhausted. The week would have been so busy that by the time Thursday came around we were just waiting for Friday.
That’s why we decided to look at Thursday in more detail. We were seeing a lot more behaviors on a Thursday, including refusal to work. And staff were feeling exhausted as well. So, we decided that we needed to change a Thursday and take away the usual lessons we had planned. And that’s when we decided to put all of our therapies into one day.
Now, we were a bit hesitant. What would it mean doing them all in one day? Would it have a negative effect? How would we manage and plan it?
Planning
We decided to sit down and look at our timetable and start to work out what therapies work best for our students, and when to do them.
It was decided that the most popular therapies with our students were;
- Art Therapy
- Music Therapy
- Sensory Story
- Sensology
- Sensory Trays
But, we also wanted to factor in time to work on life skills. Now, although this wouldn’t really be a therapy, we still decided to add it in to our Therapy Thursday.
Schedule
Next, we put together our schedule, which I’m excited to share with you all. I’m going to split up into morning (before lunch) and afternoon (after lunch) so that it doesn’t look too overwhelming.
Morning
- 9AM – Students arrive. Staff are split up to help them arrive, sort their belongings, send into class etc. Students come in to sit down for breakfast like our usual morning routine. (Listen to our usual morning routine on the podcast in more detail here or on the blog here.)
- 9.15AM – Choice.
- 9.30AM – Life skills round robin. Each member of staff was placed in charge of an activity on a separate table. We would students 1 at a time to work with us. This consisted of activities like;
– Using our life skills adapted binder.
– Matching socks together.
– Placing dirty clothes into the washing machine > then dryer / hang outside etc.
– Dressing the teddy bear for the correct weather.
– Cleaning dishes.
– Shopping games.
– Tying shoelaces.
– Zipping up/buttoning up clothes.
– Find a list of more life skills activities to try here. - 10.20 – Toileting.
- 10.30 – Playtime.
- 10.50- Toileting.
- 11.00 – Sensory story. Listen about our sensory stories here. You also get scripts every month in our VIP membership to use in your sensory story sessions. Find out more here. And download a free ‘How to Catch an Elf’ one here.
- 11.30 – Sensory trays. Follow me on Instagram for some great sensory tray ideas! We would have a sensory tray for each student, and everyone sat around the table. We’d rotate the trays every 2 minutes.
- 11.45 – Toileting.
- 12.00 – Lunch.
- 12.30 – Playtime.
Afternoon
- 13.00 – Afternoon greeting.
- 13.10 – Music therapy. All students would have the chance to play with instruments, sing along to songs, dance etc.
- 13.30 – Choice.
- 13.40 – Art therapy. Learn more about art therapy here and our St Patrick’s themed one here. I also give out art therapy lesson plans every month in my VIP membership – find out more here.
- 14.00 – Choice.
- 14.10 – Sensology. This is a fun session where we all sit as a group. The aim of the session is work on each of our students senses. You can read more about our Valentine’s session here. And I also give our a lesson plan for sensology every month to my VIP members – find out more here.
- 14.45 – Choice, toileting, brush teeth. Fill in home/school communication books.
- 15.10 – Sit down for goodbye songs.
- 15.20 – Students dismissed.
Results
Honestly, the results spoke for themselves, in so many ways. We saw fewer behaviors, we saw more progression with our students. And best of all, everyone was looking forward to a Thursday!
Some weeks we would also mix things up and have Touch Trust sessions – it’s kept as a very therapeutic day with nothing too difficult or energy-draining for the students. It made the week run much smoother – and Friday’s were a breeze now.
We also had a huge amount of support and positive feedback from our parents. They kept on about how much better their children were when they went home on a Thursday – and they weren’t as exhausted on the weekend anymore!
What About You?
So, have I convinced you to try out Therapy Thursday with your students? Let me know in the comments below. Or if you have a question, leave it below or send me an email on contact@teachingautism.co.uk and I’d be happy to help you out!
I hope you found this blog post helpful to learn more about our Therapy Thursday. If you did, please consider sharing it on your social media with your friends and colleagues.
Helpful Links
Blog Posts
- What Are Life Skills?
- Special Education Life Skill Activities to Try
- St Patrick’s Day Art Therapy Session
- Art Therapy
- Valentine’s Day Sensology Session
- Morning Work Routine
Podcast Episodes
Resources
- Free How to Catch an Elf Sensory Story Script
- VIP Membership
- Life Skills Adapted Binder
- Resources for Life Skills
- Morning Work Resources
- Home/School Communication Book
