Surviving the Holidays

🎃 🎄 🎊 Holidays 🎆 🎉 🍾

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Independance Day, and many other holidays are bright, loud, crowded celebrations that can be very overwhelming for our loved ones with Autism.

💕 Please share your tips for getting through the holidays in the comments! 💕

✨✨ Here are some tips for celebrating holidays with other family members:

🔸️ Talk to your family about what they should expect. Let them know the celebration might be a lot for your child and if you step away you mean no offense. Also help to set expectations of how your child may react to games, gifts and toys. If your family understands your child may not show interest or reject these things before it happens, it'll be easier to deal with when it does.

🔸️ Set your own expectations and be flexible. Set an idea in your head of what might work for your family and be willing to go with the flow. Have a few plans in place, Plan A celebrate, Plan B take a break for an hour and come back, Plan C leave, go somewhere and have your own celebration.

🔸️ Choose the traditions you want to keep, perhaps altering some to adjust for everyone's needs. 🔸️ Don’t force feed holiday foods. Always have new foods and safe foods available.

🔸️ Have a calm down, or safe space. Dedicate a particular room to use if your child is having a rough time. If you're in a public space - maybe use a wagon, stroller, or your car.

🔸️ It's ok to leave if things aren't working!!

🔸️ Bring comfort items for your child. Tablet, fidget toys, drink cup, stuffed toy. Have comfort items ready to use as a distraction from the chaos around them.

🔸️ Using a weighted blanket or weighted or compression vest may be useful to help them regulate. As well as taking breaks away from the activities.

🔸️ Be mindful of noises and bring ear defenders if that's something your child uses. If it's too loud, maybe move to another room or area.

🔸️ If your child doesn't show interest in the celebration or interest in unwrapping gifts...that's ok! Either help them by unwrapping them or don't even bother with wrapping. Use a basket, bin or bag to put gifts into instead.

🔸️ Creating a social story about the celebration or reading stories or books may be a good way to help your little one be prepared.

🔸️ Don’t forget to count your blessings and embrace any amount of time or success. If things don't go well, take them somewhere else and have your own personal celebration.

✨✨ Here's some tips for individuals hosting friends or family with someone with Autism:

🔹️ Social requirements like hugs or kisses might be unpleasant for children with Autism. This doesn’t reflect on anyone personally. Abstain and allow children to come to you.

🔹 ️Eating and diet can be a major issue for children with Autism. Talk to parents and caregivers to learn what kinds of foods the child will like and make sure those are available.

🔹️ Guests or relatives may think a child is misbehaving, not realizing the child can’t help their actions. Make sure all adults know their place and don’t overstep their boundaries. Talk with the child’s parents to learn what is and isn’t acceptable and convey it to all guests.

🔹️ Flexibility and patience are good gifts to have for yourself, They help reveal what the holidays are all about.

✨‼️ Biggest tip for all: Don’t stress about spending money. Don't worry what other people think. Try not to worry about anything! Remember how fortunate you truly are. You are here with your beautiful child(ren) and that's all the matters. You will look back one day at the things you've worried about and realize it was not a good use of your energy. Put that energy into having the patience our children need us to have and love them unconditionally. 💕

🎄 🍭Christmas Specific Tips 🎅 ☃️ 🔔

Decorations:

🔸 ️A change in the scenery around the house may be disruptive. It may be helpful to revisit pictures from previous holidays that show decorations in the house.

🔸 ️For some it may also be helpful to take them shopping with you for holiday decorations so that they are engaged in the process.

🔸️ Allow your child to interact with the decorations and help put them in place.

🔸️ Flashing lights or musical decorations can disturb some children. To see how your child will respond, provide an opportunity to experience these items in a store or elsewhere first.

🔸️ If your child has difficulty with change, you may want to gradually decorate the house. And again, engage them as much as possible in this process.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Guests:

🔹 ️️Prepare a photo album in advance of the relatives and other guests who will be visiting during the holidays.

🔹️️ Go through the photo album with your child while talking briefly about each family member.

🛒 Shopping:

🔸 ️Holiday shopping can be stressful for children who rely on routines.

🔸 ️If you do take your child shopping, allow enough time to gradually adapt to the intense holiday stimuli that stores exhibit this time of year.

🔸️ Bringing their comfort items, using a wagon or stroller may be helpful.

🎁 Presents:

🔹️ If your child doesn't show interest in the celebration or interest in unwrapping gifts...that's ok! 🔹️️ Either help them by unwrapping them or don't even bother with wrapping. Use a basket, bin or bag to put gifts into instead.

🔹️️ Be sure to let your family know what type of things to buy for your child that they would truly make use out of and what your child's preference is for wrapped gifts or not.

💻 Links for additional information regarding Christmas:

https://www.autism-society.org/holiday-tips/

https://bestpracticeautism.blogspot.com/2015/12/holiday-tips-for-parents-of-children-on.html?m=1