Can I have one more minute please!

How many of you plead for one more minute when the alarm clock goes off?  This is the feeling that students sometimes feel when their break is over. They want to extend it by a little bit.

We need to teach students how to ask for a break either with a break card or verbally.  A break card is a visual support which can be used by a child to ask for a break from an activity, task or person.  A child may need a break because they are frustrated, anxious, bored or having some other emotion connected with what is going on.  Sometimes we may see a child exhibit a behavior ( tantrum, work refusal etc.) to escape. It is better to teach them to make this request in a more appropriate way.  It is a strategy that teaches some self-management skills.

Break cards can be as simple as the word on a card or some other visual for the child. Here is an example:

Usually in clinic we have the break be two minutes with a timer going off to mark the time. For those children that are more visual we could use a time timer.

As the activity that the child is doing should be really pleasurable then they won’t want to leave it. We then can teach them to ask for ‘one more minute’. You set the timer for one more minute and then when it goes off the activity is done.  Often this is enough to have the transition go smoother.

Here is an example of a visual to ask for one more minute.One more minute