Sensory Help Now

In this month’s Our Sensory Family Resources blog, we’ve compiled several articles and guides that will help you navigate the challenges your sensory child or teen may be facing in the run-up to and throughout the festive period. 

Coping with Christmas Sensory Challenges  - this is a throwback to the Sensory Help Now blog we published last year. In the blog we highlight the sensory challenges Christmas can bring – bright lights, loud noises, strong smells and changes to routines, to name a few – and offer up some tips and suggestions to help children and teens with sensory processing differences manage the changes and challenges presented during the festive season.

10 Ways for Schools to Create a Sensory-Friendly Festive Period for All Students – published on our sister website Sensory Inclusive Schools, this is one to share with your child’s school! The festive season can be one of the busiest times of the year for schools, with classrooms decorated, special assemblies and trips planned, and students eagerly awaiting the holidays. However, the flurry of activities can be overwhelming for some children, particularly those with sensory processing differences. In this blog, we highlight 10 ideas schools can implement to help create sensory-safe, inclusive celebrations for everyone.

Autism and Christmas: Things That Can Overwhelm Your Child - autism and Christmas can be tough and in this useful article from Autism Parenting Magazine, Jeremy Brown sheds some light on navigating the challenges surrounding Christmas for his two autistic boys to help make Christmas a more inclusive celebration for them all.

Christmas with Autism and Other Additional Needs: How Families Cope with Sensory Overload at Christmas  – faced with bright lights, crowds, unfamiliar noises, routine changes, and over-excited family members, Christmas can be an overwhelming experience for children with sensory sensitivities. This lovely article from BBC’s Tiny Happy People has a Santa’s sleighful of useful tips from both parents and experts to help steer you through the sensory disruption and overload. From researching and finding  SEN-friendly festive events to making your own festive traditions and identifying and using calming techniques that work for your child, the article highlights how good planning and small adjustments can make all the difference in having an autism-friendly Christmas.

Winter Sensory Bin Ideas - simple sensory bins provide great learning opportunities for toddlers and pre-schoolers and help to promote social and emotional development. This article from Little Bins for Little Hands offers tips and ideas for putting together your own winter sensory bin. These winter sensory bins are made to engage all of the senses with a sensory bin for exploring every sense! From colourful red and green textures to the sound of jingle bells, the smell of hot cocoa, and the crinkle of shredded paper, they are simple to set up and use only a few materials.

22+ Interesting and Fun Activities for Autistic Teenagers  - autistic teenagers have unique requirements and learn better when they participate in activities that teach them specific skills, such as daily habits, behaviours, and so on. Providing autistic teens with an environment that nurtures and values them as individuals can aid their development. This article from MomJunction highlights a number of individual and group activities for autistic teenagers to help them grow and develop. These activities can also help them enhance their sensory, social, and cognitive skills.

What are Sensory Preferences? How Eight Senses Can Explain Fussy Eating - when it comes to feeding your children, especially as they grow into toddlers and pre-schoolers, it can often feel like there’s no rhyme or reason as to what they will eat. In this useful BBC Tiny Happy People article, paediatric dietitian Lucy Neary explains that you need to consider your child's senses and sensory preferences as eating is one of the only things we do in life that uses all eight of our senses at once. As toddlers and pre-schoolers won’t understand their preferences yet and are not able to express them (which can sometimes result in sensory meltdowns), it is down to us as parents to recognise the role senses play and the impact that preferences have on mealtimes.

NB: Sensory Help Now is not responsible for the content on external websites. Sharing a resource does not imply endorsement by Sensory Help Now.