“When he was 18 months, he started showing signs and then around three, he had his like official autism diagnosis," says Christina Lindsay about her son, Maxwell.

For kids like Max who have autism, staying busy and active is important and routine can be critical for success.

“It gets overwhelming when you don’t know what to expect. I think that he likes knowing what’s coming next and what’s expected of him," Lindsay said.

What You Need To Know

  •  For kids with Autism routine and structure can be critical elements for success.

  •  When kids with special needs have a few week off for summer break, it can disrupt their school routine and make going back, challenging.

  • if parents are worried about their child with special needs going back to school, the best advice teacher  Ayecia Simpson can give is to let home be a safe space.

Maxwell goes to the Wildwood school, for kids with special needs. Even though he goes to school year round, he still gets a few weeks off at the end of August. This might not seem like a lot of time but for kids with Autism, it’s enough to potentially disrupt their routine and it could make going back to school challenging.

“Sometimes breaking out of that structure, that routine, their day-to-day tasks or academic lessons might kind of throw kiddos off," said Ayecia Simpson, a special education teacher at Wildwood Programs.

Simpson said if parents are worried about their child with special needs going back to school, the best advice she can give is to let home be a safe space.

“Coming home from a hard day at school, the last thing you kind of want to do is is talk about it and just be kind of overloaded with questions and chores. Just give them give them some love. Let them, you know, kind of melt down or, you know, have a break, whatever that might look like for parents," Simpson said.

For Maxwell, that usually looks like spending time in the pool with his siblings but  to set him up for school year success Christina keeps his bedtime routine and sleep schedule the same year round and tries to plan lunch time at home to when Maxwell would typically eat at school. She also says keeping his brain stimulated and learning is key.

“So our learning at home is more life skill. So we teach life skills at home and school teaches school skills. If we're making sure he's getting things done and he knows that he has things to do during the day in the summertime, It's just like when he knows what he's expected to do in the classroom," Lindsay said.