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Neurodivergent students need visual choice boards to request breaks and learn to recognize their own triggers. Offering multiple break options gives them control over how they de-escalate, building independence and self-advocacy skills.
Neurodivergent students need visual choice boards to request breaks and learn to recognize their own triggers. Offering multiple break options gives them control over how they de-escalate, building independence and self-advocacy skills.
One way that you can support neurodivergent learners in your classroom is giving accessible ways to ask for a break and then validating those requests for a break. I love simple choice boards like this, or reasons that we can ask for a break. Visuals are a great way to give students a tool to request a break when they need it, or just request to be left alone. I like giving the options of what to do in a break because that really puts the student in control of their own coping strategies and ways that they de-escalate. And of course, I love teaching what triggers or precursors may need to— that lead to that need for a break, because this is going to really build independence and self-advocacy. So whatever type of classroom or household you are in, think about how to teach the skill of asking for a break and then how to always validate it as, as our kids ask.
