For many of us, the holidays can be a joyous, yet stressful time. While we may treasure the time with our families, it can also be overwhelming to navigate so many different personalities and there is a lot of preparation that goes into planning holiday meals and activities. On top of the usual stress, families of children with special needs often have the added anxiety that their child may have difficulty participating in holiday activities, may have trouble behaving appropriately and, on top of it all, that their family members may judge them for their child’s behavior. As educators we often look forward to our time out of the classroom, but for many parents, the holiday break is one of the most challenging times of year.

I came across a couple of useful tools that I hope you will consider passing on to the families you work with to help them through the holiday season. First, there is a free downloadable guide offered by AbilityPath.org, which can be found here: http://www.abilitypath.org/tools-resources/links–resources/holiday-survival-guide.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/. AbilityPath is an organization that offers support to families of children with special needs. This guide offers a number of tools, suggestions and strategies for families, including toy suggestions, an example of a social story, and letter/email templates families might use to communicate expectations to their family members or other visitors.

In addition, I encourage educators to help families make social stories to prepare their children for the holidays. While there are numerous templates available, social stories are most effective when they are personalized for the student and the situation. If families can use real pictures of real family members and settings, and describe the particular traditions that their family follows, the social story will more accurately prepare the student for what to expect, thus decreasing the likelihood that he/she will engage in problem behaviors.

Finally, don’t forget to take breaks. This is important for both parents and their children! It’s important to take time to relax and breathe to prevent anyone from getting overwhelmed. And when your child is behaving appropriately, remember to acknowledge and reinforce that behavior! As always, catch ‘em being good!

I hope you will share these valuable suggestions with families. Also consider sharing ideas of activities that parents can do at home with their child to help carry over whatever you have been working on at school. Parents are usually very grateful for suggestions of things they can do to help keep their child engaged when they have so much time off from school!