Routines: Why They Matter

Picture this: you have an early morning meeting at 9 a.m., and the house already feels chaotic. Your child is barely dressed, crying over breakfast, and the clock is moving faster than you are. You still need to get them to school and make it to work on time. Overwhelmed, you decide that just for today, your child won’t go to school. At least that way, you can make it out the door.

The next day, your schedule is lighter, yet getting your child ready for school feels even harder. Once again, the morning feels rushed, stressful, and out of control. What started as a one-time decision has quietly made the routine harder to return to.

One of the most powerful tools we overlook in our children’s lives to reduce stress and support development are consistent routines. We will explore what we mean exactly by routines, why they matter, and strategies that can help support your family. 

What Are Routines? 

Routines are familiar activities with a set start, end time, similar schedule everyday during the week. Within a school setting this can look like the following: lunch happens around the same time each day, Math is always on specific days, and school starts and ends at predictable times. 

At home this can look like: waking up at a specific time everyday, having a set sequence of getting ready such as eating breakfast → getting dressed → wearing shoes → going to school. It is all about increasing predictability in the environment with tasks that you and your child knows how to do. You spend less energy worrying about transitions, and can redirect your attention to learning and play. 

Why Routines Matter 

Research has found that routines serve as a protective factor for high risk settings and predicts academic success and long term health (Selman and Dilworth-Bart, 2024). More specifically routines are associated with: 

• Higher cognitive development 
• Better executive functioning skills including improved inhibition, working memory, and self control (16 out of 18 studies) 
• Improvements in social-emotional skills such that children held increased self reliance, ability to cooperate with others, and responsibility (23 out of 24 studies) 
• Exposure to larger vocabularies, and growing interest in school. 
• They are also associated with improved wellbeing for children with chronic conditions such as Down syndrome, Rett Syndrome, ADHD, and ASD. 

Bedtime and wakeup routines are also especially important for a young child’s development. Having a consistent sleep routine predicts improved sleep patterns, fewer sleep issues, improved self regulation, mental and physical health. 

What Mechanisms Are In Play With Routines 

Routines introduce three powerful elements into the child’s life: 

• Structure 

Structure refers to how activities are arranged and organised. It helps provide a framework on how to complete tasks, and make decisions effectively. Introducing structure also helps children learn about expected behaviours in daily life. 

• Predictability 

Predictability is the degree to which a routine can be expected in a regular manner. It allows children to anticipate what comes next. Knowing what to expect reduces overall anxiety and stress, and thus, allows you to free up energy on skill learning instead. Having a predictable schedule also allows children to begin understanding cause and effect. 

• Consistency

Consistency is how routines are carried out in the same way most of the time. This can come down to even small things such as using the same bathroom, waking up to the same alarm sound, and even the timings. Through repeated reinforcement of positive behaviours within a routine, children learn how to regulate their thoughts, emotions, and behaviour within a routine. 

Strategies To Begin Incorporating Routines And Where Do You Start

So how do we begin creating more structured routines? It is important to start small. Don’t try to start changing everything at once, and instead begin with one routine that the family prioritises such as:

• Morning Routines 
• School Transitions 
• Bedtime routines 

Next, while introducing a routine, the use of transition supports and visual cues may aid in developing a sequence, and help your child visually see the expected behaviors. Transition supports refer to transition songs, or the use of countdown warnings, or even incorporating transition spots/zones so that the changes would not be too abrupt (Peters, 2025). 

A great place to start is to focus on the intersectionality between bedtime routines and morning routines. Having a regular breakfast time, meal time, wake up time, and bedtime plays a role in increasing sleep quality. Likewise, with better sleep quality, children are better prepared to start the day (Buxton et al., 2015) 

You can begin doing so by: 

• Incorporating a night routine of ~30 minutes where you help your child wind down, either with a relaxing bath, or reading stories together. Then begin associating night time with a dark cozy room, with no TV or devices inside (Bathory & Tomopoulus, 2017). 
• The use of white noise and regularly scheduled bed time also is associated with reduction in sleep disturbances (Borkowski et al., 2001)
• While doing the wind down routine, incorporate praise each time your child successfully completes a part of his/her routine. 
• If your child wakes up at night, remind them to go back to bed. (Delemere & Dounavi, 2018) 
• In the morning, ensuring a consistent wake up time is important either through the use of an alarm or morning call. Incorporating bright light, and more vigorous exercise during the day may aid in associating the day as a time to wake up. Your child’s body will naturally begin to respond to bright light. (Bathory & Tomopoulus, 2017)

It is important to remember that not all families are the same. Your family’s needs and areas where routines can help may be different from others. Small, consistent changes can help make both you and your child’s daily life feel more manageable. 

If you are not sure where to start, or want more specifics on where consistency can be increased, the Child Routines Questionnaire can help you pinpoint how to improve your daily routines (Wittig., 2005). We have linked the questionnaire for ease of reference. 

References

Bathory, E., & Tomopoulos, S. (2017). Sleep regulation, physiology and development, sleep duration and patterns, and sleep hygiene in infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children. Current problems in pediatric and adolescent health care, 47(2), 29-42.

Borkowski, M. M., Hunter, K. E., & Johnson, C. M. (2001). White noise and scheduled bedtime routines to reduce infant and childhood sleep disturbances. The behavior therapist.

Buxton, O. M., Chang, A. M., Spilsbury, J. C., Bos, T., Emsellem, H., & Knutson, K. L. (2015). Sleep in the modern family: protective family routines for child and adolescent sleep. Sleep health, 1(1), 15-27.

Delemere, E., & Dounavi, K. (2018). Parent-Implemented Bedtime Fading and Positive Routines for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 48(4), 1002–1019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3398-4

Peters, B. (2025). The Power of Predictability: Examining the Impact of Structured Routines on Behavior and Attentiveness in Early Childhood Education.

Selman, S. B., & Dilworth‐Bart, J. E. (2024). Routines and child development: A systematic review. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 16(2), 272-328.
Wittig, M. M. (2005). Development and validation of child routines questionnaire: preschool. Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College.