5 Tips for Celebrating Thanksgiving with your Child

Read Time: 5 Minutes

The changes that come with holidays are typically a challenging time for children with and without a diagnosis. There are changes everywhere ranging from routines, people, locations, foods, etc. We have written 5 tips for you to help celebrate this Thanksgiving Holiday with your child. 

free Visual recipe idea by live love speech

1. Prepare them for the change in routine. If you are going to family or a friends home, inform your child by showing them a picture of the person and their home. You could also show them on the calendar what day you will be headed their way to prepare them for the upcoming change! We love adding a “change” to some of our daily visuals to indicate visually that a change is coming as well.

2. Bring their favorite items or activities. We can help our children feel more at ease if we incorporate some of their favorite items or activities in the new or semi-familiar environment. This is a process we call “pairing” which means we are incorporating things they love to a new environment or people to create a more positive relationship. 

3. If staying at home, involve your child in the Thanksgiving festivities. We can incorporate our children with items like setting up the dinner table, helping with decorating and even helping us in the kitchen. We LOVE this free visual created by Live Love Speech that uses pictures to show the sequence of events for creating a Turkey Cookie!

4. Reduce the Stressors in the Environment. If your child dislikes loud noises or particular foods, prepare for these ahead of time by having noise canceling headphones in close proximity, a designated space the child can go to to remove themselves from these stressors and having an array of other foods the child may be more likely to eat. 

5. Read and practice using a social story. Social stories are a great tool to introduce new concepts or activities. Reading the social story and then practicing what the experience will look like will be key. After reading the story, create a “Thanksgiving dinner table” where the child can see some of the foods they may be exposed to, practice sitting at the table and even practice walking towards their safe zone if they become flustered or frustrated. Here are 5 social stories that you can review. 

We hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday with your family! We are grateful that you have chosen to read our blog and hope these tips will help your family during this time!  

Preparing For In Home ABA Therapy

Read Time: 5 Minutes

ABA Therapy hours were approved and you are ready to get started, YEY!! 🎉 You are probably asking yourself what you may need to do to get your home ready for sessions. Below you'll find a simple guide to setting up your home for success with in-home ABA therapy services.

1. House Rules: Let us know what your house rules are so that we may all may follow them (i.e. any cultural practices, no shoes inside the house, noise levels, etc).

   1. Access to your home: Letting your team know any areas that they can have access to. We love to teach in the child's natural environment and sometimes this may look like playing in the room with their favorite doll house, playing with chalk outside and teaching new skills like riding a bike around the neighborhood!

   1. YOU! We love when our parents are a part of our sessions. We love to teach in the moment when implementing any techniques or protocols and want to make sure you feel confident in them when we walk out.

      • Also note: You know your child best! If you notice your child may be doing something different than usual or may be having an "off day" (i.e. may be getting sick, didn't sleep well), let us know so that we may modify our activities for the day to best help them.

   2. Your child's favorite toys: We love incorporating your child's favorite items within our sessions and teach through play (see Natural Environment Teaching)!

   3. Table and chairs: Sometimes we will complete activities that require a table and chair (i.e. homework activities, teaching trials that require a flat surface, messy items like kinetic sand or slime that we'd like to keep in a contained area and not on your floor (you're welcome 😉)) (see Discrete Trial Teaching).

   4. Distracting Items and/or Activities: Blenders, vacuum cleaners, dump trucks, TV's & siblings! We love teaching in the home because we are able to work through some of the most common distractions however, there may be some that are TOO distracting and should be kept to a minimum when our therapist arrives. Our team will review these items with you and how we can work together to minimize or bring these into sessions.

   5. Code of Ethics: All therapists in an ABA therapy team have a Code of Ethics to abide by. We always recommend that our parents review this Code of Ethics and ask any questions to their child's case manager if any areas are violated. Parents are able to report any violations to the Behavior Analyst Certification Board.

      1. RBT Ethics Code

      2. BCaBA/BCBA Ethics Code

We encourage our families to observe our sessions and ask any questions you may have in the moment. Communication and commitment to our families are part of our values at AMA Behavioral Consulting and we want to ensure we share our knowledge in each step of the way.

We hope this list was helpful and if these services seem like a great fit for you, make sure to fill our contact form here.