• Replies 2 replies
  • Subscribers 66 subscribers
  • Views 39 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

How do you wake you your teenage girl in the mornings?

EmmaRL

My daughter has not been able to attend school since January; she found the transition to comprehensive school extremely difficult particularly the social side. We are now having a break and reset from school, potentially looking at an alternative way of learning. A major difficulty at the moment is waking her in the mornings (as well as helping her to settle at a reasonable time). We have tried lots of different strategies to helping her settle earlier at night but i think becoming a teenager along with having a very busy brain makes it difficult. This obviously impacts waking in the mornings. I'm trying to encourage a daily routine of waking and sleeping times but have a battle in the morning when waking her before she feels ready to leave her bed. If I let her come round when she is ready with repeated gentle reminders of the time she will eventually wake and is calm (around 10.30am). If I push her with any demands like, its time to get up, and persist with the request, she becomes dysregulated which can then turn into a long meltdown which she finds difficulty calming from. We are trying to keep demands low as I believe she is in a process of recovering from the trauma of starting comprehensive school (and masking for many years). Any advice would be much appreciated? What are your morning routines?

Parents

  • It sounds as if she may still be struggling to get over the exhaustion of the school transition. I know from experience of burnout that during the earlier stages it was not possible to get up at the usual time.

    There is also the difficulty you have mentioned of teens staying up later, especially if in contact with friends. This is something my son struggles with. Changing the time of going to bed has to be something he buys into for his benefit. We have difficulty when he has appointments, although if they aren't too early there is a reason to get up.

    In respect of switching off to get to sleep, that is difficult for a lot of autistics. My son uses a fan as the white noise helps him to fall asleep. He also has blackout curtains. When he needs to get up we turn the fan off and he gradually gets up. Occasionally I might mention the time 10 minutes later if not up, but no more than that. If he has a day he can't do it, we leave it at that. He is at college now and school was a challenge. 

Reply

  • It sounds as if she may still be struggling to get over the exhaustion of the school transition. I know from experience of burnout that during the earlier stages it was not possible to get up at the usual time.

    There is also the difficulty you have mentioned of teens staying up later, especially if in contact with friends. This is something my son struggles with. Changing the time of going to bed has to be something he buys into for his benefit. We have difficulty when he has appointments, although if they aren't too early there is a reason to get up.

    In respect of switching off to get to sleep, that is difficult for a lot of autistics. My son uses a fan as the white noise helps him to fall asleep. He also has blackout curtains. When he needs to get up we turn the fan off and he gradually gets up. Occasionally I might mention the time 10 minutes later if not up, but no more than that. If he has a day he can't do it, we leave it at that. He is at college now and school was a challenge. 

Children
No Data