School’s out! As you are aware the school’s broke up for Easter on Friday and won’t be back for a whole 2 weeks or so. Parents across the country will be wracking their brains trying to think of ways to amuse their children for the break but probably none so much as those with children on the autistic spectrum. For families affected by autism, the holidays can be a time of tried patience and stress arising from breaks in routine and a lack of a break for many parents.
Here are a few tips and ideas to help as you plan through the next 2 weeks:
1. Try to keep some kind of routine in place
Falling out of routine can be a real challenge for many people on the autistic spectrum – it sees good habits forgotten about and often a lot of unnecessary anxiety and stress at the unpredictability of the day.
If this poses a challenge for someone in your family it is worth trying to get a “holiday routine” in place as quickly as possible. This can be done in a number of ways:
a) if your planning a relatively relaxing and uneventful couple of weeks then you could look at making a planner for the day with general headings such as meal times, daily occurrences such as bed and meal times and any other little events and times which will make up your day to day life in the holidays.
b) if you have a busy couple of weeks ahead or are travelling it can be slightly more difficult to get a routine in place but one means of limiting the stress for all involved is to make a diary style planner of any major events or activities during the break so that your loved one will know when things will be happening and prepare accordingly. While every day might be different it is good if you can also put some concrete times in for everyday so that even with lots going on the day has some structure and rhythm for all involved.
It is worth noting (and we are sure you all are thinking this!) that it is impossible to plan for everything, and dealing with unexpected events is a life skill as much as anything else but planning what you can and making sure that information flows to a person on the spectrum at the earliest time is likely to help everyone prepare and deal with events better.
2. Activity – Plenty of it!
Stress and bad behaviour can often be alleviated through physical activity – putting all that energy to a positive use instead of storing it up and allowing it to manifest itself in an angry or negative way.
Sporting activities, participating in camps or classes such as drama or art or even just family day outs can really be helpful in this regard and we could not recommend highly enough.
3. Downtime
Living with someone on the autistic spectrum can be really challenging and this is especially true when you are spending whole days of the holidays with them. It can also be tough for other children living in the house who may feel their is constant stress or that they don’t get much attention, in this way it is important to not forget about you and the rest of the family as difficult as that can be sometimes.
Try and grab some time each day where you can relax and do your own thing, be it after the children are in bed or even if it is meeting a friend for a coffee during the day and getting a good babysitter who knows how to deal with AS. Many families also find that if they can get an opportunity to give the other children in the house a break, be it through a trip to the cinema or even arranging a play date, that this can help them to enjoy the holidays more and have some time where they do not feel worried that their brother or sister may be having a bad day!
4. Prepare well!
Many families affected by AS find that they are only getting into the swing of the holidays when it is time to return to school and the stress levels start to rise as the date nears.
As people with Asperger’s or other conditions on the autistic spectrum often dread the return to school and can find the process really difficult it can be useful to begin to get ready early so when “the Monday morning” comes all is as ready as possible. Organisation is a weakness for many people on the spectrum and so sorting out the bag, getting any homework dealt with and trying to establish any worries your child with autism may have before the return to school can make the settling back in process less eventful and stressful for everyone!
As always, these are just some of our ideas and opinions based on talking to others and researching but YOUR views are what’s critical so please feel free to discuss the holidays further at our forum link below.
