Holiday Tips

To help individuals with autism, especially young children, to cope with the holidays, consider some of the following tips. Please add more if you can contribute.

• Use a countdown calendar. An advent calendar might be particularly helpful for those who celebrate Christmas.
• Instead of giving all gifts on the big day, begin giving one small gift daily in the days before and after "the big day." This helps ease the stress of anticipation, the overwhelming nature of getting a bunch of presents at once, and the ultimate let-down after the holiday is over.
• If you are traveling for the holidays, ask the people at your destination to send you photograph that you can integrate into your social stories.
• Create icons/words for schedules that correspond with the events depicted in the social stories.
• Have a conversation with your hosts in order to establish a quiet place for the child to retreat. Also, if you have a trusting relationship with your host, help them to understand how autism affects your child and things that can help. Not only will this help your host prepare (food alternatives, putting dangerous items up, etc.), but he or she may be able to help buffer some of the criticisms that often come from family members who do not understand. Click here to download a customizable letter.
• Consider establishing a pop-up tent hideaway for the young child before the big day. Place comforting and high-interest articles in the tent. When it is time to travel, bring the tent and place it in the location that the host has offered as a retreat.
• If the child becomes overwhelmed by noise, consider bringing headphones and/or soothing music.
• If you can afford it, a motel room is a good investment as an alternative to sleeping at the host home. You will want a retreat for yourselves as well as for your child.

All children love holidays....right?

So many well-meaning people make the assumption that what is fun for "most" children should be fun for all children. It is often the child with autism who most clearly demonstrates how incorrect this supposition can be.

Parents who know their children with autism very well are often burdened with the additional chore of fending off unsolicited advice or criticism from those who do not understand.

Describe a dozen of the worst scenarios for a child with autism, each one challenging enough by itself, and you can bet that most of the items on that list actually occur at the same time around the holidays. In a nutshell:

On the 12th day of Christmas the world imposed on me...

12 guests a-talking

11 doorbells ringing

10 trips for shopping

 9 routines breaking

 8 strangers doting

 7 new foods cooking

 6 new loud noises

 5 "What-the-hecks??"

 4 broken rules

 3 shopping mauls

           2 creepy santas          

                                                        

and a tree growing in the living room

Do you have tips and tricks to help people with autism cope with the demands of the holiday? Are you feeling anxious about how your child will handle the holidays? Do you have some great stories to tell?