"Hey I've got a question for you regarding one of your blog or tweet topics. When you say that structure makes people feel secure, doesn't that also sometimes stop people from progressing? Because I have a structured life, Monday is dinner at one of my friend's house, Tuesday I grab McDonald's before going to a church kids club where I'm one of the leaders. Wednesday is dinner at another friend's house. Thursday is with [my daughter] one week and back to the Monday night friend's house for dinner before going to bible study. Friday is squash. My life is very structured but I think in it being so structured, I'm in a comfort zone and not going anywhere."

This is such a great question, and I am so glad that I have been asked this because I have been thinking over the past few days about the difference between schedule and structure and also about disciplines. I have decided that I think that a schedule is what you do, so what the guy above is talking about. For example, at 5.30am I get up and have my time with God, at 6.30am I have a coffee and a chat and a pray with my husband, on a Wednesday we go to toddler group etc etc. There are certain portions of my 'schedule' and my family's 'schedule' that don't change unless for a special event. For example, a non-negotiable in our house is that we attend church on a Sunday morning. A non-negotiable when our children are teenagers will be that they attend youth group. However, we are family that are always changing our location and our activities. I travel a lot, which means my baby (soon to be babies) travel a lot. My husband is self-employed which means sometimes he has a tonne of work, sometimes none. We both study - school schedules change frequently! Sometimes, however, we do get stuck in a rut with doing the same things day in day out because we are in a 'schedule/routine'. Because we never want our environment to limit us, just as we should want to prevent when we are teaching our learners who have autism and developmental delays, we sit down each Sunday evening and review our 'schedule' of the week. Is each portion or activity contributing to our vision for our family and also our goals for ourselves? If it isn't, we may need to review how we are spending our time. If it is a crazy-busy week, how are we going to protect the things which do spur us on, develop us, motivate us, encourage us? For example, how are we going to protect our study time, our devotional time, our couple time. How do I protect my business-development time with a busy family? I take a portion of each week to think these things through and each month my husband and I have a date during which we discuss our loose plan for the month - which disciplines and structures are family? Which do we want to introduce to our lives? So, in short, yes I do think that a reliance on schedule as opposed to structure can debilitate progress and extinguish motivation. Ensuring we have access to new activities and items contiually is really important for the motivation of everybody, not just learners who have autism or developmental delays. It is something to really consider.

Now to 'structure'. Although schedule is something that we are not rigid with in our home, and in our business Shelley and I strive not to tie ourselves up with schedule or our families and programmes up with schedule, structure is highly valued. I feel that structure is just knowing, wherever you are and whatever you are doing, what is expected of you and what you expect of others. Annie has always had a structure to her day - wherever we are she will sleep for certain time periods, eat at certain points. Annie knows the behavioural expectations of her, and I know the expectations that my husband has of me and vice versa. It is so important in relationship to be able to predict one another's behaviour. Boundaries and structure really do provide stability and allow development and motivation to flourish. To me, structure is all about consistency. 

Does that answer your question? I am sure that I can speak about this for hours, and don't want to bore anybody!