Christmas - Survival Tips Needed.

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Sunglasses could help.

Or if she wants to go for a complete sight deprivation...you know those strange masks people wear in bed to cover their eyes? She could just sit down in the shade, slip those on and slowly wind down. Made from cloth or whatever.

But sunglasses...very good idea. The sensation may irritate her at first, of having those prongs slipped behind her ears, but it could work quite well.

I will get an eye mask and see if Heidi likes it.

I eventually figured out it was a sensory thing that she always wears her sunglasses upside down.

She is a pretty clever kid and I love her solutions to problems.

It really irritated me that my parents would tell me something and then get mad when I told other children. Like magicians just being a trick and it not being real magic. If I was ruining it for the other kids by telling them this, as I was told when chastised for it, then why did my parents tell it to me before the magic show? unless of course they wanted to make sure the show was ruined for me?

Very good point Triangular_Trees.

When other parents get upset I explain to them that I prefer not to lie to my children about these things. Then I get the whole 'you are taking the magic away' speech.

I've spoken to my NT daughter about how some children still think Santa is real even though he is just pretend and that they might get very sad or angry if she tells them Santa is not real.

Not sure yet what I will say to my AS daughter on that topic. At this stage she has no interest in talking to other children about Santa or Christmas or even at all .

Oh my goodness, I just got that speech the other day. I tried to explain that my sons are very black and white in their thinking, and would have difficulty reconciling my pretending that Santa was real in order to convince them, with the rule about being honest and trustworthy. I prefer to tell the truth too. I told them that I think Santa is just a lovely story, but that most children think he is real and that they are welcome to believe whatever they'd like.

Bump

We made it all the way to Mid November before the Christmas meltdowns started happening and really they've been tear storms that precede a meltdown so myself and her aides know to intervene before a full on meltdown occurs. The only place we are having serious issues is swimming - the pool area echo's badly. So until Christmas is over we are going to suspend the swimming classes.

Woo!! ! Thank you everyone.

Norway Mum over at the Autism PDD message board has put together a list of resources related to Christmas
http://autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts ... 29991&PN=1

She is pretty amazing with the resources she gets together for various things.

I've been noting in my blog what we have been doing to get ready for Christmas
http://leechbabe.wordpress.com/category/christmas/

Mostly it has been about getting visual schedules up about Christmas.

We've started reading our Christmas social story also but I can't put that online as it was done by someone else and I'm not sure about the copyright issue.

Heidi is fascinated by the decorations in the shops, she walks with her head tipped right back staring at the ceiling and all the sparkly pretty things hanging up.

We only visit the shops early in the morning when they first open, so Heidi can see the decorations she is fascinated with but before the crowds of people get there.

Tomorrow is tree decorating day. I'm planning to get the bare tree up tonight and all the decorations out and ready to go. That should hopefully minimize frustration tomorrow when we start decorating.

At Sunday School today they made Christmas cookies and Heidi actively participated in the whole session, only once at the very end going to hide in her tent that is set up in the corner of the room. I know she loves playdough but for some reason it had not really click in my head that cookie dough is similar to playdough and would be a fun sensory experience.

Heidi loves all things pretty and colourful, jewels, decorations and edible cookie decorations. Christmas can be a delight for her if I minimise the painful parts - less noise, less people, less change.

Feeling much more positive about it all this year.

And we've got our the Wiggles "Yule Be Wiggling" DVD to give Heidi a bit of info about Christmas that comes from a not Mummy/Daddy/Church source.

We did the tree thing this morning. I did a picture journal of the event - http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/leechbabe ... CCEvujtzY#

Was lots of fun.

Oldest kept reminding us that we'd promised she could go see Santa today. So at 1pm we walked to the shops, she sat on Santa's knee and charmed him while Heidi hid in her Dads shoulder. Then we walked to the bank, oldest deposited her tooth fairy money and we came home. Heidi was happy the whole time until we got home.

After which Heidi melted down for the next couple of hours.

Not sure if it was going to the shops later in the day or the combination of putting up the tree excitement and then going to the shops? Was I pushing her too hard or just enough.

Thankfully mid afternoon a giant box was delivered which turned out to contain the trampoline we'd got funding for a while ago. That diverted Heidi's attention and she settled down for a fun hour of jumping.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GmTOgYoBVc

I have to say this turning our lounge room into a sensory play / therapy room has been a great success.

trampoline looks like lots of fun ! daughter would love it, but i think the boys would break it ( they're all over the age of 14)

Yeah max age for the trampoline is 8yo.

As Heidi is already at average 6 year old height (she is 3yo and 11mths) I'm not sure how many years/months use we will get out of it. Our backyard is a small paved courtyard and it slopes slightly, all of which makes it a bad spot for an outdoor trampoline.

I so wish we had room to do that.

Darling pictures. Not sure when we'll do ours. Have to clear away a lot of stuff first ... I'm trying to use the tree and advent stuff as a nudge to get the kids to help clean their toys and stuff out of the living room. Yeah, who knows if THAT will work but mine are older than yours and I think it's time they really, fully accept that A requires B.

We had to get rid of all our regular lounge room furniture to be able to do it. The TV sits on a small stand in the corner and is basically only used by the girls for their 1 DVD a day. No arm chairs, no bookshelves, toys are stored in the big shelves in our dining room.

It was a difficult decision to make. But I realised for us it was important to give Heidi space to decompress and be herself at home. She is expected to behave as well as she possibly can when we are out of the house so she needs room to decompress when she gets home. Much the same for my NT daughter, we expect her to behave as well as she possibly can when out and about but once she gets home she is safe to let off steam.