1. Cleaning and Organization
A clean environment is a healthy environment. You can promote a sense of responsibility with a little structure. Cultivating, cleaning, and organizational habits all help to contribute to this.
‍2. Time Management and Planning
Knowing what is going to happen next is an important element for a neurodivergent child. A little forward planning can help to diminish your child’s stress, and your own. You can reduce anxiety by instilling time management and planning skills. Teaching your child to have a good handle on how long things take and in what order they should be done improves overall daily function significantly.
3. Think Of The Lifelong Benefits
‍This one is more for the parents. If you teach your child how to fish (metaphorically) you can feed them for a lifetime. Focus on the daily living skills that your child can use their whole life. Doing that improves independence, confidence, and overall quality of life for children with autism.
4. Meal Preparation
‍Add another cook to the kitchen. Teaching meal preparation skills to neurodivergent children helps them develop a healthy relationship with food. And it can ease up on the parents’ workload as well.
5. Adapted Learning
‍No two children learn in the exact same way. Tailoring teaching methods to suit the individual learning styles of children helps to promote the effective acquisition of essential life skills. Some children are visual learners, some are auditory, and some are more hands-on. Learn what technique works best for your own child.
6. Hands-On Learning
‍Sometimes you have to roll up your sleeves and get down to work to figure out how things are done. Hands-on learning can help with practical understanding, making daily tasks more manageable for children with autism. In other words, don’t just tell them what to do—do it with them.
‍7. Make Use Of Visual Supports
‍Some children learn best by using their eyes to take in what is going on around them. To guide visual learners through daily activities, make use of various visual supports. These include pictographs, schedules, and checklists to spell out your expectations on the child.
8. Hands-On Parenting
Teamwork makes the dream work. Collaborating with parents around the home extends learning development beyond just an educational setting. By working alongside your child as they perform daily life skills, you will be able to create a consistent learning environment.
9. It Takes A Village
Strive to be community-minded. You can foster a sense of purpose in your children’s daily living skills by making use of the real-world settings found in your own backyard. You can sweep a neighbour’s sidewalk, or volunteer at a soup kitchen and help with the food prep there. Sometimes having your child integrated into the community provides more depth and meaning to these tasks. This helps to foster a socially conscious framework into your child’s activities.
‍10. Celebrate The Everyday Victories
‍Every dish washed can be an achievement. Every bed made is a victory. Celebrating small wins encourages a positive mindset and a sense of pride over a job well done. Little rewards, treats, and signs of affection will motivate your child to continue developing their everyday skills today, tomorrow, and for the rest of their lives.

Helping your child with autism in Toronto develop daily living skills benefits your family, the community, and the child as well. It is a pathway to independence and meaningful participation in daily life. Children with autism can benefit from these skills for their entire lives and it will hopefully give them the foundation for a fulfilling future.