Monday, 03 January 2011

• Did You Make it Through the Holiday Season With An Autistic Child

  

  The end of the year is chalked full of an assortment of holidays, which means plenty of opportunities to reunite with family, loads of festive foods, and more time the kids spend away from school.  Because of the number of holidays that fall during the end of the year, this is also a time of constant change and readjustment.  And having to cope with and care for your autistic child during this time of year can be especially stressful, compounding the anxiety of an already busy time of year.  Since autistic children need regular, familiar routines to insure that they don’t experience behavioral or psychological regression, the holiday season can be an especially trying time.  There are an array of  reasons for regressive behavior in autistic children, and the holiday season tends to test each one.

  Be extra careful and take the extra time to watch what your autistic child eats during the holiday season.  Since they are particularly sensitive to changes in their diet, the heavily sugar filled and gluten loaded foods most popular and common during the holiday season are more accessible.  Teachers pass out candy in school, friends families host dinners with foods your child may not be used to, and these foods can cause a noticeable regression in your child’s behavior.  Make sure you keep your child’s diet strict, especially during this time of year, because if you know that your child is sensitive to things like yeast, then with the extra sugar consumption comes the risk of regressive behavioral patterns.

   

  With the holiday season also comes fluctuations and changes to the normal daily routines.  There are school vacations, family trips, field trips, visits to friends houses for dinner.  Since autistic children progress and function best when adhered to a specific and normalized routine, the holiday season poses another risk for regression.  Daily schedules and appointments are adjusted to accommodate therapists, teachers, and friends holiday travel plans.  Thus, you must take extra care to keep parts of their day routine, even if other aspects of their day have to change.  The more familiar you can keep their daily schedule, the better and less likely you are to risk regressive behavior.  Doing this and maintaining familiar routines will help your child through a period of the year in which they are most susceptible to regression.

  Everything is always pretty up in the air during the holiday season, people come and go through your house, trips are planned while the kids are out of school, doctors and physicians are out of town visiting their families.  But whatever extra efforts you can make to keep your child’s diet the same and daily routines free from too much change, the better off your autistic child will be and the more joy  you and your family will be able to experience during this most joyful part of the year.  Not to mention, the best gift of all is being able to watch your autistic child thrive and progress through the most troublesome part of the year.

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