Smooth Transitions: Guiding Your Child Through Life’s Changes

Life is full of transitions: moving to a new home, starting a new school, or shifting daily routines. While these changes are a natural part of growing up, and are full of opportunities for growth, they can also bring a lot of uncertainty and emotional strain for the whole family. For children, especially those who flourish on structure and predictability, these transitions can feel particularly overwhelming. During this time, providing thoughtful support is essential. With the right strategies, you can help your child navigate these changes with more confidence, making the journey smoother for everyone.

Moving to a new home 

Moving to a new home is often one of the biggest life changes a family can experience. For children, it can mean losing the familiarity of their daily environment, routines and sense of security. Many children heavily rely on consistent routines and familiar sensory environments to feel regulated. Even small changes, such as different layouts, new smells and sounds, can feel distressing. 

As a parent, balancing the logistics of moving, along with supporting your child emotionally, can feel overwhelming. It is completely normal to feel concerned about disrupting your child’s routine, worry about their adjustment, or feeling unsure about how best to support your child. 

Tips: 

• Be honest and clear about the reason for the move, and share the news as soon as you can. 
• Learn your child’s individual needs, and help them identify situations that make them uncomfortable, and strategies to manage those feelings. 
• Slowly move through the transition. For example, arrange sleepovers or visits to the new home before moving, and pack items up gradually(e.g., starting with their favourite books, then packing up their summer clothes). Keep familiar items in place as long as you can. 
• Involve your child in the process by letting them help choose furniture or paint colours for their new room. This sense of control can ease anxiety. 
• Try to replicate familiar setups, such as the layout of their new room being similar to their old room. 
• Create a visual calendar counting down the days until the move date, with pictures of the new house and neighbourhood to build familiarity. 

‍

Welcoming a new sibling

Welcoming a new child is often a very happy event for families. However, for older siblings, it can bring a lot of emotions and challenges. Changes in family dynamics, the inevitable shift in attention from them toward the new baby, or disruptions to their sleep routine are especially difficult for children who struggle with transitions or uncertainty.

Some children process sensory information differently and may become overwhelmed by the noise, unpredictability or physical interactions of the new baby. The newborn’s loud crying, grabbing out for their sibling, or different smells that come with a baby, can feel intense. Others may be under-responsive to the sensory input and seek stimulation in ways that are unintentionally rough for the baby. Communication can also be tricky. Your child may have difficulties verbally expressing their worries to you and may have trouble understanding explanations about pregnancy, birth, or expectations of their behaviour toward their new sibling. These challenges may lead to attention seeking, withdrawal, or even signs of resentment.

Although these challenges may seem numerous and overwhelming, welcoming a new sibling also offers your child the opportunity to develop new social and relationship skills and experiences, such as learning to care for others, becoming more independent, and being patient, flexible and able to share.

As a parent, balancing the needs of the newborn while supporting an older child may feel daunting. With the right support, you can navigate this transition more smoothly. 

Tips: 

• Communicate early and often. When you start to show you are pregnant, you can explain to your child why this is happening, and what it will mean for the following months and years. Explain how you will need to go to the hospital for a few days when the baby is ready to be born, and that your attention may shift toward the baby for a little while but reassure them that you still love them and are there for them too. 
• You can use visual aids such as pictures of the older sibling when you were pregnant with them, or when they were a baby to help explain the process. 
• Involve your child in the process. Giving your older child choices about the baby’s clothes or how the baby’s allocated space will look can help create a more familiar and comfortable environment.  
• Introduce your child to other babies, whether that be those of friends or those in the community, and explain some of their common behaviours such as crying or sleeping, and why this is happening. 
• Create quality time with the older sibling. This may just be a few minutes a day to check in and answer any questions they have. 
• Once the baby is born, try to keep as many of the older sibling’s routines the same as before the birth, to ensure there is still predictability in their lives. 

‍

Starting a new school

Starting a new school is more than just a change in location, it is a whole new set of routines, sensory experiences, and social dynamics. 

The lack of familiar structure and the unpredictability of their new teachers, how the other kids will treat them, or where everything is in the school, can be scary. Without a clear picture of expectations, it can be more difficult for them to mentally prepare and self-regulate. Sensory environments can differ between schools. There may be different layouts, lighting, and seating arrangements. For those with sensory differences, these can be difficult to adjust to, possibly triggering a sensory overload. The adjustment to social routine can highlight difficulties in reading social cues, or adapting to the school culture, leading to feelings of isolation and worry for your child, especially if your child has struggled with rejection or misunderstanding in the past. 

As a parent, it’s natural to worry about how well the new school will support your child’s needs. You may experience your own worries toward the new school, especially if there were difficulties in previous schools. 

Tips: 

• Use a visual schedule with pictures and colour codes to help your child understand their daily routine
• Teach simple mindfulness practices like breathing exercises to help your child self-regulate during uncertain times.
• Visit the school in advance (or take a virtual tour) to make environments such as the dining hall and classrooms feel more familiar to your child, making the first few days feel less intimidating. 
• Track emotional patterns, such as which days seem especially difficult, and share this information with the school. Identifying triggers and patterns can help staff adjust support effectively.

‍

Everyday transitions at school 

It’s not only major life transitions that have an impact on children and young people. All children are also confronted with a range of everyday transitions at school as well as at home. Even small shifts, like adjusting attention from a writing task to listening to a teacher, or transitioning from classroom to playground, can be difficult for some children. For those with sensory or auditory processing differences, noisy or inconsistent environments can feel overstimulating and affect focus and learning. For those struggling with organisation and planning, moving between tasks or classrooms can feel very chaotic. The difficulty for you as a parent  is that you’re not physically there to support your child, so it can be important to help your child build coping strategies to manage these changes. 

Tips: 

• Use a portable visual schedule of the school day, including teacher changes and break times.
• Practice transitions through use of role play at home. For example, having one table with a game on it and the other with a writing task on it. Your child could spend time on one table and then carry a small bag to the next table, changing tasks whilst doing so. This will simulate school changes, guiding them on how to adapt their attention. 
• Model emotional regulation strategies by naming your feelings and showing healthy ways to cope. For example, ‘I felt overwhelmed by all the noise, so I told you that,  took a few deep breaths and stepped away’ 

‍

Helping transitions feel safe

Transitions, large and small, are a natural part of growing up, but they can be tough for some children, especially those who flourish in familiar and predictable environments. By navigating these challenges with empathy, patience and clear communication, and involving your child so they feel some sense of contribution and control in the decisions, these changes can be an opportunity for your child’s growth and development. 

‍

Sources: 

Southbay Parent Coaching. (2024, September 11). ’7 Tips for Transitions with Neurodivergent Kids: Expert Advice’. Southbay Parent . https://www.southbayparentcoaching.com/post/7-reasons-why-neurodivergent-kids-struggle-with-transitions-from-a-parent-coach

Meyer’s, P. (2024, December 8). Navigating Transitions: Supporting Smooth and Successful Changes for Neurodivergent Students. Ask about Inclusion. https://askinclusion.wordpress.com/2024/12/08/navigating-transitions-supporting-smooth-and-successful-changes-for-neurodivergent-students/

Smithies, K. (2025, May 15). Understanding Neurodivergence - Mastering Transitions. Koru Kids. https://www.korukids.co.uk/blog/working-in-childcare/understanding-neurodivergence-mastering-transitions

Sideropoulos, V., Palikara, O., Burchell, E., Ashworth, M., & Van Herwegen, J. (2024). Anxiety during transition from primary to secondary schools in neurodivergent children. JCPP Advances. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcv2.12262

Department for Education. (2025, May 28). More support for neurodivergent children in mainstream schools. GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/more-support-for-neurodivergent-children-in-mainstream-schools

Marsh, A., Spagnol, V., Grove, R., & Eapen, V. (2017). Transition to school for children with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review. World Journal of Psychiatry, 7(3), 184–196. https://doi.org/10.5498/wjp.v7.i3.184

Fisher, M. H., Moskowitz, A. L., & Hodapp, R. M. (2013). Differences in social vulnerability among individuals with autism spectrum disorder, Williams syndrome, and Down syndrome. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 7(8), 931–937. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2013.04.009

Kathryn Pena, K. (2025). The Neurodivergent Student’s Transition Guide. Google Books. https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=RoRVEQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT4&dq=transitions+for+neurodivergent+children&ots=Ouqn1csp9n&sig=RQ6P6hFzzB07SdsZYHB5B6wuzm0#v=onepage&q&f=false

RWA Psychology. (2023, April 26). Transitions; Supporting neurodiverse children -. RWA Psychology - Psychologist in Beecroft & Hornsby Shire. https://www.rwapsych.com.au/blog/transitions-supporting-neurodiverse-children/

9 Ways to Improve Cognitive Flexibility And Reduce Rigid Behavior. (2018, December 1). Raising an Extraordinary Person. https://hes-extraordinary.com/9-ways-to-reduce-rigid-behavior-and-encourage-flexible-thinking

RevPR. (2024, August 27). Supporting Neurodiversity at School: Tips for Parents & Educators. Expert Psychologists | Psychiatrists | Mental Health Professionals | Therapy | the Purple House Clinic. https://www.purplehouseclinic.co.uk/navigating-the-complexities-of-neurodiversity-at-school/