Please try and understand.

It’s a very exciting time of year. IT’S THE HOLIDAYS!!! Everywhere you go people are shopping, music is playing, there is laughter and even some car honking from those procrastinators trying to bet the clock, but it’s all a happy, jolly time, but not for everyone! For a child with a sensory disorder the holidays are tortuous. So this year if you have a child on the spectrum visiting you, try and understand a few things.

If you start playing Christmas music and everyone starts singing, and they put their hands over their ears; understand, it’s not because they hate Christmas music, or your singing, and they’re not trying to ruin your holidays; they are trying to comfort themselves. These children can literally hear a pin drop. They can hear the buzzing of the T.V. when the cable box is off. Their hearing is hyper-sensitive; it’s not you, or the music.

If they begin to sing or rock or spin, they are not trying to get attention or disrupt your party, they are trying to comfort themselves. Being in large crowds can be overwhelming to them, and they have to find their space in the crowd. Doing something in repetition helps comfort them. They are not trying to ruin your holidays; they are trying to fit in.

And don’t judge the parents. Believe me they know their children better than you do. So if the parents give their child an IPad, instead of making them sit at the table and converse with everyone else, don’t judge them. That mother knows her child’s thresholds, and she knows when he needs a break. Be supportive, be understanding, be kind. That mother has gone through things you wouldn’t even begin to understand, unless you have walked through it with her. Don’t judge.

Don’t ignore the situation, reach out and try to help, but if the child resist you negatively don’t take it personally. He is not lashing out because he is rude or doesn’t like you, he is overwhelmed with his environment and he is agitated. Don’t take it personally; it has nothing to do with you.

So this season I ask that you be patient, be kind, and don’t judge.

May you all have a blessed season