Parents Learning Together

The holiday season can be a very hectic and overwhelming time for many of us. Changes in routines, busy places, and disruptions to sleep schedules can make us all feel overwhelmed. Here are some tips to help navigate and enjoy the holiday season!

Prepare your child – Knowing what to expect or what the experience might be like can help reduce stress and anxiety. Using social stories is a great way to help prepare. Visuals and pictures of the experience can help.

Schedules – Our children can benefit from schedules and routines, but these can be hard to maintain over the holidays. One way to help is to go over the day’s events with your child in the morning, discuss any changes to the schedule that may happen that day.

Find ways to keep sensory routines – Does your child typically engage in sensory activities daily to maintain regulation? If so, they will need that input and probably even more so during the holiday season. It can help to have your child engage in calming sensory routines just prior to leaving for or engaging in a hectic holiday event.

Consider the food options – Our kids with sensory challenges are sometimes picky eaters too. This won’t magically stop during the holidays, and a holiday party is probably not the place to try to get your child to try a new vegetable. If you are attending a party and you know there will be nothing on the host’s menu your child will like, consider bringing them a lunch kit full of snacks they will eat.

Check if there is a ‘sensory friendly option’ – There may be a sensory friendly option to many holiday activities. Check to see if there are times set aside for sensory friendly experiences when exploring holiday events.

Watch for signs of sensory overload – No matter how much we prepare for an event; our kids may still experience some level of sensory overload. You may notice signs of your child becoming overwhelmed. They may put their hands over their ears or shield their eyes. At this point, they may still be calm, but if it’s beginning to be too much, your child may become irritable, cry, act nervous/anxious, hyperreactive or overly silly. When you start to see some of these things, it may be a good time to take a break. Remember that when an experience is especially stressful, it is even harder for our kids to communicate how they feel and what they need. Although we are always striving for independence, our kids may need our help and prompting a little more during the holiday season to manage their sensory needs – and that is ok!

Identify a quiet space or plan for escape – If you are in a public place, there may be a place set aside for families to take a break or have a quiet space. If you are going to someone’s house, maybe there is an extra room upstairs that could be identified as a quiet break space if your child needs it. This links back to preparation; it’s always good to have a backup plan if the experience gets to be too much.

Bring tools with you – Try bringing familiar or preferred items along with you if possible. These can include stuffed animals, little toys, fidgets – whatever your child likes and brings them joy. These items can help a child stay calm during a stressful experience. Some children may benefit from noise cancelling headphones or sunglasses to help manage auditory and visual input.

Talk with your family and loved ones – During the holidays we sometimes see family members that we typically don’t see during the year. This can be nice, but also stressful if you have a child with sensory needs. Having a conversation or sending an email ahead of the holiday party may be helpful to give your family a heads up on what your child may need. This way, if your child needs to take a break, they can help identify a quiet space. If your child doesn’t want to hug their aunt or eat the food she prepared, she won’t get offended.

Remember to try and find a little bit of time every day to take a deep breath and relax your body and mind. We can forget to take care of ourselves amongst everything else during a busy holiday season!