Routines That Are Predictable AND Keep Moving

The classic autism advice is "keep everything the same." The classic ADHD advice is "add novelty and movement." Families with both diagnoses hear both and feel stuck. The answer is a routine whose SHAPE never changes and whose INSIDES move.

Keep the frame fixed

Same order, same visual schedule, same words for each transition, every day. The frame is what the autistic side needs to feel safe. Put it on the wall at your child's eye level, pictures first.

Put movement inside the frame

Between steps that require sitting, schedule a two-minute "body break" — jumping, animal walks, carrying something heavy to the next room. It is on the schedule, so it is predictable; it is movement, so it is regulating. Homework becomes: body break → 12 minutes of work with a visual timer → body break → 12 minutes.

Make waiting a step, not a gap

"What I can do while I wait" is a picture card with three choices (fidget, stretch, look at the book). Waiting is the moment both diagnoses struggle with; giving it a job removes the gap where trouble starts.

Warn, then show, then go

Two-minute warning, point at the next picture, then move. Same three beats every time. For the ADHD side the warning is the anchor; for the autistic side the picture is the anchor.

Expect the strategy to fade

ADHD brains habituate to rewards and timers in a few weeks. Rotate what is inside the frame — a new timer sound, a different body break — without touching the frame itself. That is the whole trick.