The "T" word....

 In any early intervention or preschool setting we are ALWAYS talking about transitions...

So often as a teacher I hear concerns with this... it may sound like this "Alice was playing fine, but when we had to leave..." or possibly this..."Morgan had a rough start but once she started to play she was fine".

Transitions are hard!!!  For all of us, even adults...we use visual cues all day long...we have binders with a schedule, and lets not forget our phones, most of us would be lost with out them!!!  Our 2 year olds can't read and often have no idea what is next, we are keepers of their schedule and day.  So imagine that your 2 year old is having a blast doing whatever it is they are doing, for some its TV, an IPAD or playing with their favorite toy and then all of a sudden we pick them up and want them to go to the store with us.  We wonder why they are screaming and having a tantrum when we are so nicely putting them in the car to take them to a noisy,overcrowded and over stimulating environment.  Even as we are offering them the world in the store they are STILL crying and we can't figure out why.  Well I am guessing it has NOTHING to do with the situation they are in now...it all started when we suddenly, with out warning pulled them from what they were doing and demanded they behave in the current situation.  Now I am not saying that we shouldn't have expectations for good behavior, but what I am saying is, give those two year olds some success and preset them!  Help them learn how to transition from a desired activity to a less desired activity by following a few steps, trust me when I say the whole family will benefit from it!!  

The first step is to pre-set them....

So lets back up to when they were fully engaged in an activity and we decided we needed to go to the store... now is the time to get their attention and say" in two minutes we will need to be all done playing with blocks and we are going to get in the car an go to the store."  

Then at the one minute mark say " in one minute it will be time to be all done with blocks and get in the car to go to the store"

 Alice, I am going to count to five, you can count with me if you want, when I count to five we are getting in the car...1,2,3,4,5, ok lets get into car.

Now it doesn't have to be exactly that but, very simple, concrete and yes all those steps at first.  

This can also be very effective everywhere, I use it in my sessions ALL the time.  When I first see a child I don't immediately put a demand on them.  I ask them what they are playing with or play what they want first.  Then I use this method to transition them to my activity.