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There is something really special in giving and receiving gifts during the holidays. Preparing your special needs child with the social essentials in giving and receiving their holiday gift to and from friends and family ensures that your child contacts natural reinforcement during the holiday gifting season. It's all in a simple "Thank you" and "You are welcome".
Giving Gifts-
1) Prepare a social story on the importance of giving during the holiday season. The social story should include why people give gifts to others during the holidays. A social story or video on manners and saying "You are welcome" would be beneficial as well.
2) Help your child make a list of family and friends whom he/she may like to buy or make gifts for.
3) Help your child wrap the gifts or if your child becomes anxious or overwhelmed at wrapping gifts, maybe buy or make fun gift boxes. Put pictures of the recipient on the outside of the gift so that your child remembers whom the gift belongs to.
4) Practice giving the gift. A fun and teachable way to do this is to have an older sibling model giving the gift and receiving the gift and saying "thank you".
Receiving Gifts-
1) Prepare a social story on the importance of saying "Thank you" when others do something nice for someone.
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New Feature on Our Website!
Now you can download charts and visuals that we use at Steinberg Behavior Solutions. This page will be updated regularly with new downloadable charts and visuals to help you and your kids!Click here to visit this new page now
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What Our Blog Readers are Saying...
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Did you know Steinberg Behavior Solutions is an approved practicum site for the Chicago School of Professional Psychology?
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Welcome to the Steinberg Behavior Solutions Newsletter!
Each month features a different topic on behavior and children. This month's topic is Holidays and Vacations. Read on for more on this subject. We look forward to your questions and feedback.
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From Sarah, Our Director:
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The holiday season is a joyous time to spend with friends and family. For some
families, the festive dinners and gift exchanges are more stressful than joyous. As you will read in this month's newsletter, if you feel like one of those families, you are not alone.
Josh's account of how it feels to taste new food at a family meal from the perspective of a child with Autism sheds an interesting light for parents.
Readers will also learn social skill strategies to overcome the undesired "Why did you get me that? I don't like that!" when gifts are given.
I hope the many ideas and suggestions in this newsletter will help reduce some of the stress and put the joy back in to joyous holidays with family and friends.
Sincerely,
Sarah
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Facebook image of the month
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When approaching any break from school, using visual routines is always a good idea!
Click on this image to visit our Facebook page to see other helpful images and to become a fan:
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 The holidays are approaching and there will be lots of tasty dishes on the table. While you may be excited for seasonal dishes and fun new recipes, your special needs child may not be so thrilled to taste the golden deliciousness of grandma's famous apple pie. In order to make the most out of your holiday meal and encourage your child to try at least one holiday food, you must allow yourself two things: time and patience. I encourage you to develop a plan at least a few weeks before your big meal.
To begin, let's make a list. First, what foods does your child currently eat or not eat? Second, are there any particular reasons that you avoided certain foods in the past other than the child's non preference such as food allergies or oral motor difficulties? If possible consult your pediatrician or occupational therapist to rule out health related or oral motor issues. Fourth, choose a food. You should choose a food that is similar to your child's already preferred foods as stated above. Start with generalization across types within the same food. For example, chicken nuggets, chicken strips, holiday baked chicken. Also generalization across same food from different restaurants or different store brands. Then vary within one category while keeping other categories the same - for example, different texture, same temperature, very similar taste - like going from apple sauce to apple pie. |
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From Josh: Trying the Turkey
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 For a lot of people, with autism or not, new things are a trial by fire. One of the biggest changes in a child's life is that of being willing to try new foods. Many children, me included, become rigid in their likes and hates and will often flat-out refuse or even throw temper tantrums at being asked to try a new vegetable, sauce, or even something like a different kind of soda.
It doesn't matter if it's trying to get Brandon to try squash at Thanksgiving, Missy to sample green beans at Passover, or even getting Billy Joe Tompkins to just accept grape juice instead of apple at the family Christmas dinner, if a child feels threatened by a new food, they could end up kicking and screaming while all the relatives are wondering if this is the kind of situation that happens on a daily basis, and if Child Protective Services should be involved.
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We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Steinberg Behavior Solutions Newsletter. Stay tuned for next month's newsletter .
Please forward on the newsletter (link at the bottom) to anyone else who would benefit from reading it.
We look forward to your comments and feedback!
Sincerely,
Steinberg Behavior Solutions, Inc.
6719 N. Sacramento Ave.
Chicago, IL 60645
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