9 family Valentine’s activities to love and learn from

9 family Valentine's activities to love and learn from

Happy Valentine’s Day from The Behavior Exchange! We love this holiday and not just because of the near endless supply of delicious chocolate. It’s great and all, but what’s even better is helping families spend quality time together, build stronger bonds, and support the development of their kiddos social and communications skills. And the holiday that’s all about the heart is a terrific opportunity to do just that.

So, we’ve gathered together a list of fun and easy activities you can try this Valentine’s with your kiddo and family that will help reinforce important social and communication skills all children need to thrive in school and reach their full potential in life.

If you have any questions or concerns about your child’s social development, please reach out to our team of autism and ABA therapy pros. We’d love to share our knowledge with you and explore how we can help. Our Social Skills Groups are perfect for school-aged kids!

Valentine's fun for kiddos with autism and their families

Family group activities, like the ones below, can help your kiddo learn and practice social and communication skills, such as taking turns, holding a conversation, recognizing emotions on faces, and much, much more. You can even make any of these activities a family tradition that you do every year!

1) Role play giving and receiving Valentine’s card.

This could be something you do ahead of time to prepare your child for Valentine’s celebrations at school. Walk them through the interactions step by step, including what to say. Be sure to praise their efforts and when they do something right. You can also create or use a ready-made social story that you can give to your kiddo as a learning tool and reminder.

2) Valentine’s sensory bins.

You can make them together and have fun watching your kiddos dig into the squishy, gooey, sparkly, colorful creations with hidden Valentine’s trinkets. Here’s some inspiration to get you started.

3) Cook a heart-shaped pizza.

This is all about having fun, cooking dinner together as a family. Everyone can contribute with putting it together and watching it cook. Clean up can also be a family activity. And don’t forget to sprinkle conversation along the way. Here’s an easy peasy recipe. 

4) A Valentine’s Day read-aloud.

Choose a children’s book about love, giving, or emotions that you read aloud to your whole family, then talk about the ideas in the book together. Here are some books to check out:

In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek 

The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond 

Heart Prints

Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch

5) Valentine’s minute-to-win-it games.

Add a little family competition to your celebration that works to teach children the social skill of sportsmanship, while having fun with others. Here’s a winning list of games especially for Valentine’s.

6) Find-the-heart hot or cold game.

Make hearts out of construction paper, write a name on each heart, and tape a Valentine’s treat to the back. Send one family member out of the room, while the rest of you hide the hearts. Invite the family member back in to start searching for a heart based on you telling them “Hot”, “Warm”, “Cold”, “Freezing”, etc. The finder gives the heart to the person whose name is on it, wishing them, “Happy Valentine’s Day!” Be sure to give everyone a chance to find a heart.

7) Make a tree of love.

Draw a tree trunk and branches on a large piece of paper or poster board. Set it aside as you make paper hearts that will be added to the tree like big leaves. Make one heart larger than the other and attach a picture of your child on it. Next, write on each heart something you love about your child/sibling or a name or picture of someone who loves them. Glue all the hearts on the tree and place the larger heart under the branches. Once dry, display the tree where your child can see it.

8) Random acts of kindness jar.

Create a list of nice things you can do for each other throughout the day or week of Valentine’s Day. Each time you do an act of kindness, color a paper heart and place it in the jar. At the end of the day or week, have a conversation as a family about how your acts of kindness made you feel and how it impacted those who were on the receiving end.

9) “I love you because… letters.

Everyone in your family choose another family member to write a letter to. Start the letters with “I love you because…” and then make a list of what you love and appreciate about that family member. Once everybody is done, share what you wrote with the family member either by handing them the letter or reading them aloud for all to hear and enjoy.

Discover all there is to love about early intervention ABA therapy

Did you know that children who start ABA therapy, the gold standard in autism care, in their formative years from birth to 5 years of age experience the best outcomes compared to those who wait until starting school? Research bears this out. The earlier you start your child in ABA therapy the better! So don’t wait. Give your child the best Valentine’s ever. Enroll them in ABA therapy now. Be sure to choose an BHCOE-accredited provider to enjoy peace of mind, knowing your child will receive excellent care.

The Behavior Exchange is proud to be the first provider in all of North Texas to receive the highest accreditation possible for center-based ABA therapy providers. We’ve been helping families for more than 20 years. We’d love to help yours, too.

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Ashvina attended University of Bombay and graduated with a Bachelors of Commerce. She got her Montessori Diploma in 1985 and taught ever since. Ashvina came to TBE in January of 2016 as Admin Assistant. During the years she got the opportunity to learn and work in different departments such as HR, Finance, Office Manager and Executive Assistant. Last summer TBE bought billing in house and her current focus area is Revenue Cycle Management. She is detail oriented and enjoys working with people. Ashvina volunteers to deliver meals to seniors and local shelters on the weekend. She loves to spend time with her family and grandkids. Ashvina loves her job because she enjoys hearing different points of view, and she feels her contributions help fuel the direction of our company.

Working with children comes naturally to Angela. Her mom was a special education teacher for 30 years and often had Angela join her for Take Your Child to Work Day. And in high school, Angela spent every summer as the nanny for a little boy with an autism spectrum disorder. It was this experience where her passion for working with children with autism started to blossom.

From there, she went on to graduate from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Family Sciences. She learned about Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in a non-normative development class and from that moment knew that ABA would be her life’s work.

Angela moved to the DFW area shortly after and began working at The Behavior Exchange as a therapist. She worked on her Master’s in Behavior Analysis at the same time. A year after graduating, she earned certification as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst.

Now, as a Clinical Director at The Behavior Exchange, she brings a life-long passion to her work, holding a special place in her heart for children with limited language skills and working closely with families to develop healthy sleep habits.

Danielle’s passion for working with families is deeply personal and from the heart. Her younger brother has an autism spectrum disorder, and through their journey as a family, she found her purpose in life as an advocate for individuals with special needs.

After graduating from the University of North Texas with a degree in Human Development and Family Studies, Danielle began volunteering at The Behavior Exchange. She saw passionate therapists, meaningful change for clients, and families with hope for the future. After a summer of volunteering, she officially joined the team as Director of Admissions and found her home with The Behavior Exchange family.

With her extensive experience working as a client advocate with insurance providers, Danielle perseveres to help individuals of all ages and abilities receive the services they need to reach their full potential. She feels truly honored by each and every family who entrusts The Behavior Exchange to be part of their journey and is committed to the organization’s core values, mission, and goal of being a beacon of hope for the community.

Adam has always had a passion for helping individuals of all ages thrive and reach their full potential. He’s also an enthusiastic musician, songwriter, leader, and devoted family man, who has been helping children and team members grow with The Behavior Exchange since 2010.

Prior to joining the team at The Behavior Exchange, Adam was a mortgage loan consultant and grad student, pursuing his master’s degree in Education at the University of North Texas. He graduated in 2013 and also earned a graduate academic certificate in Autism Intervention. The following year, after years as a Behavior Therapist and seeing first-hand the power of ABA and the meaningful impact it can have on children and their families, Adam became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. He then commenced from the Stagen Leadership Academy after completing the Integral Leadership Program (ILP), a 52-week practice-based program designed to develop executives serious about transforming themselves, their teams, and their organizations.

Adam is truly grateful to be a part of a dynamic, inspiring and compassionate team, and he’s dedicated to bettering the lives of all children and their families through the delivery of the highest quality of ABA services, while supporting the amazing team at The Behavior Exchange.

Soraya is from South Africa and moved to Texas in 1996. She graduated from The University of Texas and pursued a career, at that time, in Education. Soraya taught at a Montessori school for a few years and then took on a leadership role.

During her time in the education system, Soraya realized her passion was to assist children with special needs. So she joined The Behavior Exchange as a therapist, transitioned into a supervisory role in 2017, and a year and a half later, was promoted to Clinical Operations Manager.

She quickly learned the ins and outs of ABA operations and scheduling and successfully collaborates across departments to ensure The Behavior Exchange continues to provide quality services to clients and their families. She’s thankful to be part of such an amazing organization and excited to see what the future holds.

You could say Walter’s career started when he spent hours as a young child drawing superheroes and coloring maps. This passion, along with extraordinary swimming skills, landed him a full swimming scholarship at Texas Christian University, where he graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Graphics.

During the next 13 years, his design and art direction skills, conceptual-thinking abilities, and marketing-savvy know-how were honed at a few prestigious advertising and marketing agencies around the Dallas area. In the mid 2000s, he helped his wife Tammy Cline-Soza (founder and CEO of The Behavior Exchange) create a unique and concise brand for her new business. From logos and websites to uniforms, brand voice and visuals, Walter has been the main creative force for all things The Behavior Exchange.

Aside from giving birth to The Behavior Exchange brand, Walter is helping Tammy raise two amazing, beautiful children, River and Sierra. In his spare time (the two minutes he’s got per week), you can find Walter illustrating iconic landmarks of Dallas and Texas or looking around for this next open-water swim. Once he gets back in shape.

After 20 years of building The Behavior Exchange, literally from the ground up,
Tammy couldn’t be more proud of the team, culture, and organization that it has become.

As a family helping families, The Behavior Exchanges looks for opportunities that will make the biggest impact and produce life-changing outcomes – for clients, families, and even for team members. Tammy believes that if a team, a family, a community takes care of each other, the possibilities are endless and the relationships built along the way can make life more enriching and challenges easier to navigate. You could say her goal has been to build a kind of utopia full of support, love, and expertise that brings the best services possible to the community and ensures more families have access to those services.

Tammy and her family have dedicated their lives to the mission of The Behavior Exchange and continue to grow, learn, cultivate, challenge, support, and create better models for success. To that end, she is committed to her own leadership development and actively participates in advanced training, mentoring, and deep self-exploration on how to live out her purpose to love and support her family and help others reach their full potential. She takes her position very seriously and tries to serve as a channel for what the universe wants to come to fruition.

She also loves travel, gardening, being creative, MUSIC!, tennis, yoga, meditation, journaling, reading, being in nature, adventures, and more than anything, spending time with her husband Walter and their two beautiful children, River and Sierra.