Many of us and our children, are already looking forward to Christmas… “tis the season to be jolly!”. It is a time full of lovely surprises and getting together with family members and friends we don’t usually see. We might meet in larger groups, partake in unusual activities, change our regular routines, and eat foods we save only for this time of the year! For many of our children, it is a time of unpredictable changes to their usual routine, with unfamiliar events and unexpected surprises; children may also feel uncertain of expectations in these situations. All of which may lead to an increase in stress or anxiety for your child, presenting in an increase in contextually inappropriate behaviours. Whatever the cause of these behaviours they are undoubtedly going to lead to an increase in stress levels for everyone in the family home. 

Here are a few tips to help everyone in the family home prepare for and enjoy this years’ Christmas holiday:

With the use of a visual schedule, we can use pictures give an element of predictability to the day. A visual schedule is a vertical to do list of activities or locations that will be accessed. For a schedule to be beneficial over more unpredictable times it will need to be taught and used within more routine opportunities first.  

Begin by teaching your child the instruction that each individual picture symbolises, then these pictures can be listed in turn on the schedule. The child needs to be taught that the top symbol is their current activity, when this is finished, they will re-visit their schedule to move that activity to the finished box and then move the next activity to the top. This process is repeated across the day, helping the child to see where they need to be and what they are going to do.  

It is a good idea to mix preferred activities with non-preferred activities, giving the child a balance of necessary tasks and something to look forward to.   

Once the skill of using a schedule has been established, you can then start to introduce new activities, relating to the festive period. Over Christmas many events happen that are unusual, for example visiting Father Christmas, and trips to and from extended family members and friends. Anticipate these unusual events by creating pictures to depict what will happen. These pictures can then be added to the visual schedule when appropriate. If practical, try to create opportunities to practice appropriate responses before the actual event. 

Within the visual schedule introduce the element of Surprise, by using a Surprise symbol. Initially, build an association between showing the surprise symbol and positive changes to the routine occurring; for example, “surprise, instead of going for a walk we’re going to go to the park”.  The more often these opportunities occur the more your child will think, changes to my routine are okay! Over time, surprise can then be used to show a more neutral change and eventually even something that has a more negative outcome from the child’s perspective. The surprise symbol can be used when something planned, and represented on the visual schedule, is no longer going to happen. The original symbol can be replaced with the surprise picture to inform the child and help them understand what is about to happen.  

 During any activity that has been placed within the visual schedule, it will benefit the child to understand what the expectations of the activity will be. Outlining what they will need to do, how long they will need to do it for, and creating motivation for them to complete the activity are all very important.  

A Visual Reinforcement System  is a useful tool to make a deal with your child. The token board shows what preferred item or activity they are working for, and how much work will need to be completed. Beginning with a very small demand the token board can build over time, up to a maximum of five tokens being earned. Each token is earned over a portion of time, where we can praise the child for different skills, for example., doing a particular task, tolerating new people or places or learning a new skill.  

The visual reinforcement system also lets the child know when they will access their preferred activities, with a focus on reinforcing all of the great skills or behaviours we see.   

Even with all this planning there will be occasions where your child needs to communicate their needs, thoughts and feelings associated with these festive events. If your child is non-vocal this is likely to be difficult for them.  

A key tool to support the teaching and expansion of functional communication is the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS®) . The PECS Protocol can be used to teach a child to exchange a picture or sentence strip to make a request or comment on events in their environment. Being able to ask for headphones to listen to relaxing music when the environment is noisy, or letting you know that they feel tired could support your child to enjoy the festive season as much as you hope they will.  

Requesting and commenting are important communication skills, but there are other elements of communication that are critical for a child to master to enjoy Christmas and ultimately use across all environments and activities. During a busy day with family a child may need to ask for a break or request help when they can’t work a new toy. As the usual schedules are disrupted over Christmas children may need to wait slightly longer for preferred activities. These are some of the Nine Critical Communication Skills  which we need to teach to help children effectively and independently enjoy the many positive elements of Christmas time.  

 It’s never too early to start preparing for Christmas, especially when it comes to teaching communication skills. We hope your preparation goes well and that you have a very Merry Christmas.   

 

by Andy Yates, Pyramid Consultant

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