12 Easy Tips To Celebrate The Holidays With Your Autistic Child

The holidays are usually full of excitement and fun. You anticipate sharing them with family, friends and relatives. If your child has autism, you may dread thinking of going or participating in celebrating any kind of holidays.

There are some tips that will help you celebrate your holidays and make it easy for you to enjoy them.

* Take time to plan your holiday in advance. Explain to your child where you are going or the function you plan to attend and what particular day this will be. Sometimes your child does not seem to comprehend what you are telling him or her, does not remember the holiday, or the place. If this happens, take out various photos you have available and show your child some of the people you are going to visit and what their homes look like.

* Think about taking a favorite book, toy, stuffed animal, puzzles, coloring books, crayons or what you think your child will be comfortable doing, for activities.

* It might be wise to bring a change of clothes depending on the weather, such as, shoes, socks, coats, etc. These items can be used, if you decide to take a walk, or if the temperature changes.

* Take into consideration if your child has allergies, how would this affect the preparation of the meals at the destination you are going to be at. Inform the people you are going to visit, when celebrating the holidays, your child has an allergic reaction to certain foods, pets, perfume, plants, sweets, etc.

* You may want to suggest to the host or hostess, who is having the holiday celebration you will be attending, that you will be glad to bring your own prepared food for your child, due to his or her allergies.

* Plan to discuss with the host or hostess, regarding the function, if there will be a quiet place away from the other people who will be present, so your child can have some down time, if needed.

* If your child does not like noises, or loud conversations, whether it be a private home, restaurant, or other large gatherings, bring some headphones, creative soothing music that your child is comfortable listening to. In addition, earplugs are also a useful tool.

* Not all children who have autism enjoy handing out snacks to other guests before they sit down at the table. If your child is comfortable participating in handing out snacks, napkins, allow him or her to do it. This will increase their self-esteem and social skills.

* Another excellent way to help your child be at ease when you are celebrating the holidays, is to practice in advance where you are going, what is the occasion you are going to attend, what will the seasonal weather will be like at the time of the holiday event.

* Stay with the routine as much as possible and the home life that is familiar to your child, who has the disorder of autism. This will help the stress level, so you can enjoy the celebration of the holidays.

* Be creative, patient, understanding and realize your child may not enjoy changes. On the hand, changes will encourage your child to gain self-confidence, self-esteem and adapt to new social skills.

* Are you willing to take the time to celebrate the holidays with your autistic child and make it fun and less stressful?

Bonita Darula runs a popular online Autism web sight that gives you lots of useful updated information about treatments and how to celebrate the holidays with ease and less stress with your Autistic child. Register on her web sight to receive your FREE Weekly Newsletter at >>> http://www.autismintoawareness.com/

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Categories of Autism Signs

Autism is a common psychological condition and neurological development disorder that typically affects a child's social communication and interaction skills as well as being characterized by repetitive or restrictive behavior. Autism alters or changes how the nerve cell synapses connect and organize, therefore affecting the information processing capabilities of the brain. Unfortunately, Autism research still has not discovered how and why this occurs.

Autism signs will typically manifest themselves in three critical areas of an individual's development - behavioral, lingual, and social. Interestingly enough, no two children are alike when it comes to actions and skill levels even when they are diagnosed with the same type of Autism. Though the real reasons is still not obvious how children with the same level of autism display different characterized behavior pattern but symptoms and autism signs differ. Maybe the family patterns of behavior, genetic factors and environmental issues lead to the differences. However, research is being conducted to know more about the inner working of an autistic individual.

Although the different patterns of behavior are broadly similar, they can be put together under three main headings of autism signs of behavior, development milestones and social patterns of behavior. Autistic children seem to be easily disturbed by the slightest change of their normal routine, tend to flap hands, rocking, spinning, and other repetitive movements, light, sound, and touch sensitivities despite seeming nearly oblivious to pain and are extremely restless.

Autistic signs are apparent in the emotional development of the children. Developmental milestones are delayed up to 2½ years. Most of these children do not start talking or make eye contact until 2 years of age. They have no concept of a conversation. Most of them repeat phrases and words without understanding their meaning. Robot-like speech or a sing-song voice when communicating is noticed. Sometimes children regress and there is noticeable loss of previously acquired abilities such as saying certain words or speaking in complete sentences.

However there are social signs and aspect which are visible such as appearing to be unaware of other children's or another individual's feelings, poor eye contact, resisting any form of affection such as cuddling, and hugs are not particularly enjoyed. They prefer to play by themselves.

However, most of these Autism signs are common ones that you want to look for if you suspect that your child is suffering with the disorder. The more severe cases involve the complete inability to communicate or interact with other individuals. Additionally, some signs appear as early as infancy, but in other children who appear to be normal during the first few months of their lives, suddenly change without warning.

Autism signs will typically appear between the time the child has reached the age of 18 months up until they reach three years of age. Additionally, there are two other forms of the disorder in the Autism spectrum, specifically Asperger syndrome and PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified). The bottom line is that the genetics of Autism are extremely complex.

Though there is no cure of autism, research aspects are going on to find a cure but as most of the issues are genetic, the race is on. Children receiving the treatment and behavioral therapy early in life are finding a better chance of being rehabilitated.

For the latest videos and training information on child development as well as books and curricula on Autism please visit childdevelopmentmedia.com.

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Understanding the Autism Spectrum

The terminology that is oftentimes used in order to describe and diagnose disorders that are classified as pervasive developmental disorders is referred to as the Autism Spectrum. Pervasive developmental disorders include Autism, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, and Rett Syndrome. They are typically characterized by cognitive delays, communication difficulties, repetitive or stereotyped behaviors and interests and social deficits.

Despite the fact that these diagnoses have some features in common, the individuals who are afflicted with these disorders are considered as being "on the Autism Spectrum" because of the differences in severity exhibited from one individual to the next.

As we mentioned above, there are five categories of pervasive developmental disorders and are broken down as follows:

Autism - characterized by abnormal functioning or delays prior to age 3 in one or more of the following areas communication, repetitive, restrictive, and stereotyped patterns of activity, behavior, or interest and poor social interaction.

These deficits are all characterized by specific aspects and elements that are unique to each of those three areas.

Most of the developmental delays are distinguished in each child by the deviance of or lack of delays in early language development. Additionally, those individuals who have been diagnosed with autism typically do not exhibit any cognitive delays.

Childhood Disintegrative Disorder - unlike the aforementioned two areas, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder is usually characterized by the loss of functioning or significant regression after the first two years of development. The child afflicted with this might lose their communication skills, motor functioning, nonverbal behaviors, and certain skills that have been learned already.

Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified - a "sub-threshold" form of Autism because of the fact that it is characterized by milder Autism symptoms or those symptoms that exist in a single domain such as social difficulties.

Rett Syndrome - is characterized by numerous deficits that follow a period where functions appear normal after birth while only occurring in females. It is characterized by a loss of acquired language and social engagement skills, loss of expressive or meaningful hand skills, decelerated growth of the children's head and poor physical coordination

The risk of comorbidity tends to increase as the individual ages and may make things difficult for the younger adults. This makes intervention or treatment extremely challenging. Furthermore, distinguishing between Autism Spectrum disorders and other diagnoses is a challenge in itself because they will sometimes overlap the symptoms that characterize other disorders.

So, characteristics of current Autism Spectrum disorders make it difficult for the more standard types of diagnostic procedures to be done accurately. In spite of this, comorbid disorders tend to fall into the following six categories where they can be easily identified as anxiety disorders, behavior-related disorders, intellectual disabilities, medical conditions, mood disorders and sensory processing disorders.

You want to remember that the more you know regarding the Autism Spectrum, the easier it will be for you to learn how to manage your child's symptoms.

For the latest videos and training information on child development as well as books and curricula on Autism please visit childdevelopmentmedia.com.

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