Maintenance
Any skill you teach your child will need maintenance. The good news is that maintenance is much less stressful than teaching a new skill. Your child already knows what to do and how to do it…you’re just keeping up the skill and telling them they’re doing a great job.
We visit the beach every once and a while and go into the waves holding hands. We let Mikey practice copying drawings. We keep asking Mikey to load the dishwasher and sort the silverware and wipe down the sink.
Everything we teach, we practice. Maintaining the skill is vital to keeping it fresh in your child’s mind. It is the key to holding onto the progress they’ve made so they can build on their skills in the future.
Here’s a post we shared about maintaining bike riding skills.
Keep up the great work, moms and dads! Your kids will be better off for it.
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About the Author
Erica Mauro is a mom to two teenage boys, Will who is neurotypical and Michael with Autism and cognitive delays. She holds a BA in Psychology from Colgate University and a Masters of Psychology in Education from Columbia Teacher’s College. Before staying home with her children, she worked as an elementary school teacher. For five years, she served on the Board of Directors of the Molly Ann Tango Memorial Foundation, a charity dedicated to enriching the lives of children with special needs. In partnership with her husband Dave, she aspires to parent by using daily life as an opportunity for therapeutic intervention, seizing on real experiences as opportunities to build skills and strategies for Michael in a joyful, loving home environment. On the tougher early days, she just tried to get everyone safely to bedtime and start fresh in the morning. *wink* 
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