Back to school cold turkey – I think NOT.

BCBAs should use the start of January to review behavior plans with teachers and support staff. Run some fidelity checks and update preference assessments. Thick schedules of reinforcement will help keep undesired behaviors down.  

OTs and PTs can play games to start their sessions and work on basic exercises to get students back on track before physical education classes resume, and writing tasks pick up. 

Teachers, for your students, you can spend the first week back re-teaching routines and rules like you did during the first week of school. Assign easy tasks like word searches and coloring pages and include videos in your lessons for the first few days after break.  

Include lots of independent reading and brain breaks into your daily schedule. Have an extra recess or game day scheduled once a week for all of January. Have a daily dance party! Keep the fun going while slowly increasing the workload and complexity of lessons.  

Don’t rush to go back to “normal”; keep the joy of December flowing throughout January. Baby steps into January are the best way to beat the post-break blues.