Parent’s Holiday Helper: 10 Easy Calming Techniques for Children with Autism

Parent's Holiday Helper: 10 Easy Calming Techniques for Children with Autism

All is calm. All is bright.

With Thanksgiving next week, and Christmas and New Year’s waiting in the wings, families might need a little help when it comes to managing all the stressors of the season that can overload kiddos with autism.

The holidays can be a challenge for children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) for many reasons:

  • Holidays disrupt daily routines that children with autism rely on to add predictability to their lives.
  • Holidays involve interaction between family and friends, creating anxious moments for children with autism who lack communication and social skills.
  • Holidays can involve traveling by car or plane and staying in a hotel or someone else’s home, all of which can be difficult for children with autism to process on the fly.
  • The lights, sounds, and smells of the holidays can be overwhelming for children with sensory sensitivities which often go hand in hand with an autism diagnosis.

There’s not much holiday fun in any of that for your child. Or for you. But you can make the situation better! With a little preparation and the use of calming techniques based in ABA therapy – the gold standard in autism care, you can support your child’s well being throughout the holiday season and help make the festivities more enjoyable for your whole family.

How to Support Your Child in Times of Stress, Transition, and Overstimulation

There are various ways a child with autism can show signs of stress and anxiety. They can range from meltdowns, emotional outbursts, and stimming (repetitive behaviors) to withdrawing and avoidance. Signs of stress are a physical response and different from a tantrum, for example, that a child can use to get what they want.

Children with autism are prone to feeling stress and anxiety more so than neurotypical children, because they often lack the skills to cope with it. As a parent, you can help your child by learning to spot the signs of stress in your kiddo and identifying and avoiding what’s triggering the stress.

However, avoiding stressful situations isn’t always possible. It would be great if we could live a stress-free life, but it’s not realistic. Besides, learning to deal with stress is how we grow and increase our self-confidence. The same is true for kids with autism. That’s where calming techniques like the ones below can come in handy over the holidays and beyond. They work to help your child regulate their emotions, reduce anxiety, and manage sensory overload.

Try these easy calming techniques with your child:

1. Tell your child what’s going to happen during the holidays using social stories. Children with autism like routines because routines enable them to see into the future and know what’s going to happen. Routines eliminate surprises. If your holiday plans will disrupt your child’s routines, show and tell them what your holiday plans are. Let them know what to expect each day or with each event – ahead of time. Use simple pictures and words to take them through what’s going to happen and what you expect of them so they can be ready to have more fun than stress. Visual schedules (basically, calendars with pictures) are also helpful to prepare your kiddo!

2. Create a safe space for your child wherever the holidays take you. If you’re going to someone’s house or staying at a hotel, find a safe space or corner away from all the fa-la-la-ing where your child can retreat to when they feel stressed or anxious. Include toys or whatever your child enjoys that will comfort them and help them regain their composure.

3. Practice breathing exercises with your kiddo on a routine basis. The simple act of taking a deep breath through the nose, holding it for one or two beats, and exhaling slowly can help to slow down your child’s heartbeat and lower their blood pressure in times of stress. Breathe with them to model the behavior and praise them for doing a great job.

4. Engage your child’s senses when they are stressed. Start by asking them what they can see, hear, taste, touch, and smell, and respond with follow-up questions about what they tell you. The goal of this technique is to ground your child’s senses, so they can reconnect with their bodies and regain control of their emotions.

5. Turn on soothing music or white noise to distract from stressful noises. This technique is obviously about creating a soothing atmosphere for your child that will help them calm down and de-stress. There are plenty of sound devices on the market to choose from.

6. Make or purchase sensory bottles and sticks to soothe your child. Sensory bottles and sticks provide children with autism stimulating visuals they can focus on when they’re feeling stressed. Sensory bottles and sticks are easy to make with your child, enabling them to choose how they will look based on their preferences and imagination.

7. Take along chewables and fidget toys on your holiday travels. Both chewables and fidget toys provide positive stimulation for your child, while bringing them comfort and reducing their sensory overload by helping them self-regulate. Both are readily available for purchase online.

8. Add yoga and other physical activities to your holiday schedule. Simple yoga poses that kids can do almost anywhere will help your child calm down, while helping them develop their gross motor skills through balancing and flexibility. Just taking a walk or throwing a ball around can help to reduce stress and anxiety and exhaust nervous energy your child might have.

9. Noise cancelling headphones could also be useful for a child with autism. The holidays come with a lot of noises, from the bustling of crowds shopping at the mall to bells ringing and songs blaring. With noise cancelling headphones, your child can tune out and take a break when the sounds of the holidays become too stressful for them.

10. Help your child relax through deep pressure therapy. Deep pressure therapy provides a steady, soothing sensation that can help improve your child’s focus, increase their body awareness, and make them feel more secure. Weighted blankets and vests and compression clothing are popular ways to gently provide your child with the benefits of deep pressure therapy.

The holidays can be stressful for everyone, especially if you’re aiming for perfection. We hope these calming techniques help take the pressure off of you as well. Our team of autism and ABA therapy experts are here for parents as much as for their children.

Contact us anytime for help, encouragement, and to learn about the difference we can make for your child and family. If we work together, the new year can be the best one yet for your kiddo!

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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.