Whatever stage you are at Christmas will mean something different for you if you have a child with special needs. If this is your first Christmas with a child who has additional needs you may be daunted about an extended period without your usual routines and a child who doesn’t understand what is happening. If you’ve got an older child you might be looking to teach your child about some of the magic of the season.
Christmas is generally a chaotic time, routines change and people visit. Here are some tips to help you cope with that:
- Find out the holiday dates for your usual appointments – physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy etc. If your child has medical needs / additional carers find out what cover plans will be in place over the Christmas period.
- Speak to your child’s school to find out their plans and how they are planning on including your child – will your child be able to access the Christmas play / end of term parties and treats.
- Remind visitors of the importance of consistency and the level your child is working at – don’t let them accept lower standards than you would.
- Don’t plan too many visits / visitors – make sure your child gets a break from socialising pressures if they need it.
In the lead up to Christmas children get very excited but maybe your child is missing out on that experience, some ideas to help you excite your child are:
- Use an advent calendar or wall planner to count down the days until Christmas.
- Make sure your child knows the labels of Christmas e.g. Father Christmas, snowman, present; if they can label these things they are more likely to be able to join in with discussions about them.
- Similarly books with Christmas stories will help make Christmas more real. Engage your child in all parts of your Christmas activities, be it Christmas cooking, decorating the tree or wrapping presents (obviously not the ones from Father Christmas himself!), this will help make the ideas stronger.
- Some children don’t understand the excitement of presents, consider practising unwrapping of favourite toys and foods throughout advent to teach this.
- Use Christmas themed activity sheets to develop other skills whilst feeling Christmassy.
- Choose presents that you feel your child will enjoy, don’t worry if they aren’t ‘typical’ presents or age / gender appropriate a happy child will make your day easier. For children who don’t like unfamiliar toys, wrap some of their current favourites for them to open on Christmas morning.
