It’s That Magical Time of Year Again!

The holidays are here, and it is a magical time of year! However, what is supposed to be a beautiful time with family and friends can often be a particularly difficult time for families with children on the Spectrum. But no worries! We are here to support your family to have the best holiday season yet.

Benefits of Increased ABA Hours During the Holiday Time:

• tructured routine
  • High engagement
  • Skill acquisition and maintenance
  • Work on flexibility & coping with changes in routine
  • Helping Mom out! (get school clothes ready, organize toys, clean out old toys)
  • Helping Dad out! Take out the trash, walk the family dog
  • Preparing for transition to back to school following an extended break
  • Overall calmer & more enjoyable and memory filled holiday

Here are some helpful tips:

THINK AHEAD: Identify changes in your child’s everyday routine that might be affected during the holiday season:

• Different daily routines (no school, parents are home)
• Different bedtime routines
• Less or little structure during daily routines
• Large family gatherings (that are often loud and overstimulating)
• New environments
• More travel
• Less 1:1 quality time

BE PREPARED:

• Start to plan early! Get out your calendar, mark down school vacation days, work with your BCBA to increase services during the holidays so your clinical team can support your family’s needs.
• We can help your kiddo prepare for the holidays by:

• We can help your kiddo prepare for the holidays by:
  • Talking about the fun events that will happen over the holidays, creating social stories to prepare for these events, building out a holiday calendar to set expectations for when exciting/non-preferred events will happen
  • Creating a daily “holiday schedule”; kiddos get to sleep in, more leisure time, chores around the house are still needed, holiday activities
  • Identify calm spaces in the various environments your family will be. Will you be at a cousin’s house where it can get very loud and chaotic? Is that a trigger for your kiddo? Is there a calm, quiet space that can be identified ahead of time, so your kiddo has a safe space to go as needed? Make a visual/map to plan for that outing

Holiday Activities

Allowing your child to successfully take part in holiday preparations will build confidence for your child and create some great memories for you and your family. Some holiday activities our clinical staff can support your child and family with include:

• holiday crafts (which will support fine motor skills, task engagement, and holiday celebration!)
• wrapping presents
• decorating the tree or putting up holiday decorations
• holiday cookies (reading, following directions are all important skills to keep practicing!)
• setting the table
• making place cards for holiday dinner
• organizing old toys, talking about donations to charity, making room for a new gift or two
• making hot chocolate and reading a book
• packing a suitcase
• making a social story for upcoming travel
• picking out appropriate leisure items for a long car ride
• social story for the cousin who is known to not share so well 😉
• clean up (making it fun! Alexa-play our favorite song while we clean up!)
• practicing saying thank you (even for less-preferred gifts)

• Benefits of Increased ABA Hours:
  • Structured routine
  • High engagement
  • Skill acquisition and maintenance
  • Work on flexibility & coping with changes
  • Preparing for transition to back to school following an extended break
  • Helping Mom out! (get school clothes ready, organize toys, clean out old toys)
  • Helping Dad out! Take out the trash, walk the family dog
  • Overall calmer & more enjoyable and memory filled holiday

          2022 Housekeeping Reminders        

And don’t forget, as we head into the new year, there are some important housekeeping items to remember:

• If you have a new insurance plan, please email [email protected] as soon as possible to ensure efficient claims processing
• Towards the end of each fiscal year, deductibles are usually paid off, therefore, take advantage of the additional support your clinical team can offer you to make the holiday a smooth one.
• Focus on a positive and smooth start into 2022 by staying engaged and having fun the week before back to school!