Christmas is that time of the year when you can smell festivity all around you with friends catching up and extended families meeting for brunches or Christmas dinner exchanging gifts over a glass of champagne. All of this does sound like a lot of fun where everybody seems very excited about having the time of their life during these few days. But little did we pay attention to the kids who suffer from autism because they find all this extremely uncomfortable and mostly very claustrophobic. So many people around them with loud music and very few known faces make the situation very difficult for them and they end up being very awkward amidst so much of merry-making.
The Problems that These Kids with Autism Face
If you thought people and the noise was the only reason to make them feel uncomfortable and claustrophobic then you are mistaken because there are several other factors that are big reasons for them to worry. Let us have a close look at some of the issues that they face during such parties and celebrations.
- The problems these kids have in house parties – Parties are all about decorations and fancy lights and loud music. All of this seems to take a toll on them and affects their brain. Even the look and the decor of the house changes so basically everything becomes unfamiliar to them, not just the people but the homes too. In such situations they mostly remain puzzled and clueless about what is happening around them and they try to recoil themselves from all this out of fear.
- For school parties as well they face problems – The decor of the classroom changes drastically making the kids diagnosed with autism feeling extremely uncomfortable adjusting to a new place all withing a day’s time. The kids are allowed to play, shout and enjoy which makes the special kids feel nervous in the fear that they might not be able to be a part of all the fun and frolic.
- The problem of sharing gifts and buying them as well – Christmas is also the time for giving gifts and buying them yourselves. Buying gifts can be a lot of fun for people in general but it is surely not a very pleasurable experience for the kids “on the spectrum” since they fail to relate with this. It is beyond their comprehension to understand what are the gifts that one can possibly buy for gifting it.
Does all these factors imply that you cannot have a Christmas celebration because your child is autistic? Well, the answer is definitely no because even they deserve to have fun so what are the things that parents should do to make sure they don’t face any problem and can be a part of all this fun? Well, the answer is simple, train them with a lot of love and patience, making them understand the situation and fashion them to stay prepared for it but yet to have fun.