- Implementing a morning routine which increases predictability for your child and consequently removes an element of the ‘unknown’, which may be causing their anxiety. Try using a visual schedule or a list to show your child what the morning will look like (i.e., have breakfast, get dressed, drop siblings at school, go to daycare).
- Consider your arrival time at daycare. Some children get overwhelmed arriving at ‘peak’ busy times, which can exacerbate their behaviour. This can be particularly true for children with sensory difficulties, such as aversions to loud sounds or visually stimulating environments. Try dropping your child off earlier or later to avoid this.
- Ensure you are as organised as possible so that your morning can run smoothly. When we rush as parents, our verbal and nonverbal communication becomes very different. This is hard for children to understand, and the rushing may overwhelm them. Prepare as much as you can the night before, get up a bit earlier yourself if needed, so that your morning can run smoothly.
- Try to establish a ritual or routine for arriving at daycare. Entering through the same gate or door, having a goodbye ritual and giving your child ‘something to do’ will make the drop off far more predictable. Giving them something to do could include a direction to follow, such as a special job for their educator, showing their carers a special item from home, or taking a toy over to a friend to play with.
- Sometimes, the tears at drop off can become habitual, meaning there’s actually no problem – but it has subconsciously become part of your child’s routine to cry at drop off. To combat this, try breaking the habit by adding an element of change to the routine, such as a different parent doing drop off, stopping off on the way for a babycino, entering through a different door or having one of the other parents from daycare pick your child up from your house and drop them off.
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