My energy account

The sheet

For autistic young people: what uses up their energy and what gives it back, in their own words, and a week planned with time to recover.

To fill in together · A4, two sides · Two pages · PDF, 53 KB

How it helps

Many autistic young people use a lot of energy getting through a school day, and it often doesn’t show until they get home or reach the weekend. Writing down what drains their energy and what gives it back makes the pattern visible, so that they can plan time to recover, on their terms.

How to use it

1. At the weekend, somewhere your child chooses, explain the idea in a sentence and fill in the two lists together. At eleven to thirteen you may do more of the writing.
2. Look at the week ahead, mark the heavy days, and ask them where they would like time to recover, and how much.
3. At the end of the week, look at it together for a few minutes: what went well, what didn’t, and what they would change.
4. Let it be theirs, and protect the time they ask for. If your child’s low mood doesn’t lift, they withdraw from everyone or stop going to school, talk to your GP and the school’s SENCo.

How to get this sheet

This sheet comes with a subscription. It is also yours with its chapter, if that is the chapter you read free, or if a teacher or therapist sends it to you. School staff and therapists signed in to their shelf can print it too.

The first chapter you open here is free to read in full, with its sheets. This one goes with Neurodiversity, and the Conversation with the School and When Reassurance Stops Working.

Free to print

These are free to anyone, with nothing to sign up for.

• A plan for a bad dayTo fill in together · A4
• Before you ring the schoolFor a call or a meeting · A4
• What to say: school and friendsCards to cut out · A4, eight cards to cut
• Before the SENCo meetingFor a meeting · A4
• Three reports, side by sideFor a meeting · A4 landscape
• The return-to-school meetingFor a meeting · A4
• The move to secondary school, for a parents’ eveningFor a parents’ evening · A4, five pages
• The last half-hour before bedFor the fridge · A4
• The worry ladderTo fill in together · A4
• Before you see the GP about your childFor an appointment · A4, two sides
• A record of what happenedFor a call or a meeting · A4, two pages
• The people I can tellTo make together · A4, two pages

Every sheet, marked free or with a subscription, is at theparentbook.com/printables.