Yeah, welcome guys to our channel if you're new this is Joshua Hi mommy and that's pearly whining this is pearly she keeps getting stuck Yeah, we're gonna talk about the holidays. I thought you like talking about Christmas Don't you like talking about Christmas? Yeah, so we're gonna talk about Christmas and The bright lights and the bright sounds and a lot of the things that are out there during the holidays a lot of kids with autism The sounds and the stuff bothers them. You know how Sounds bother you sometimes you have to cover your ears So we're gonna talk about that today guys and some ideas that might help get you ready for the holidays um I have a little extra help because he helps me and he tells me what works and what doesn't work and then I evaluate What seems to work and what seems to not work so hey guys we're back. We're actually Starbucks Oh And then I wanted to play out a couple of things as we're at Starbucks to show Joshua and he has a trouble annunciating Trouble chewing and getting his mouth to move to make The sounds that he needs to make to annunciate correctly into two correctly So it's gonna point that out because I happened to think about it while I was watching him eat I constantly have to remind him to close his mouth But he's doing much better than he used to do So I think with a little bit of therapy that's going to go away Or less than greatly So if you do have a child that have in trouble chewing Definitely if they're younger Sorry, I have my puppy over here And you're wondering if that's going to be something that's gonna get better It's gotten a lot better with Joshua I've gotten lazy with pointing it out to him and really getting making him um chew correctly and and annunciate correctly So that's a lot is my fault So anyways, I wanted to just give a quick chit chat about surviving the holidays because that's coming up Joshua's already displaying a lot of sensory processing disorders from a lot of the holiday items in the stores A lot of the problems that we have are He gets overstimulated with the lights and sounds Anything Christmasy Halloween is big But Christmas is huge So I do have a couple of tips these are things that we do and I've heard a lot of other ideas that are really good that you might want to think about um If you're going somewhere that's going to have you know like stores and things like that that's just very bright and Full of lights and full of sounds and toys where they get very overstimulated um My suggestion is if they're you know obviously this is very obvious, but okay His hands are cold You have to put them in your pocket to warm them up That's what your pockets are for in the car. They're not going to warm up any faster It's not cold out here the reason why your hands are cold is because you just drink a cold freppuccino so i um I like to try to go to stores and there's not a lot of people i eat early morning later in the evening um If we've had a night of no sleep and he is going on sugar or any kind of extra candy cookies with the holidays I am going to forgo shopping that day because that is setting it up for complete meltdowns and breakdowns for mom So kind of evaluating your situation if you know you're going to go shopping and i would suggest getting lots of sleep the night before Getting up early trying to go when it's a non-busy if you're going to places like um Eventually, so just some other things that um that i had read about and that were suggested Let's go this way honey If you're going to an event uh you're going to a Christmas event Somewhere that's having to say Santa Claus is going to be there or um Well for instance oh So if you're doing an event like this, my suggestion and what I always do, I try to call ahead, find out if they're doing something for autism, if they may have a day that you can go in or a time that you can go in where they do just for children with autism. And I'm going to try to find that out for this event and I'll put it in our description box if I do find out that they're going to do something for autism at Adventurelandies Winterfest. I'm not aware of anything right now, but what I would do and what I'm going to do is I will go on a day that is not busy. So I will call ahead of time, let them know we're coming, let them be aware of the fact that Joshua has autism and this could be very, very super stimulating for him, which it will be, but he loves going to it and we actually live right around the corner. So if we have any issues, we're literally like two blocks from here so we can get home very quickly. But we'll come in on a day that is not busy. We'll come in on a weekday, on a Monday evening when there's not a lot of people here. I would recommend trying to find out what day is not busy and go on that day. If you're going really far from home and you've got a long drive, make sure you bring along a sensory bag. Okay. So you're going to have things in it that's going to calm them down. Their favorite blanket. Joshua would have his blanket, he'd have his, his, um, a stuffed animal or actually he'll have his phone, which is his biggest calm down. Anything that pass a fire, anything like that that they need, pack that bag, pack some clothes that is, you know, non-stimulating if they're happened to begin some clothes that they're not, you know, that's overstimulating for them. Joshua has sensory to any kind of design on clothes, whether he's wearing it or if somebody else is wearing it. So we get a lot of overstimulation in a lot of places that we go to. But we just, we deal with it. I don't like. So yeah, I mean, there's things you can do. If your child is, here's my, here's what I wanted to tell everybody because I've talked to a few people and they've said the same thing to me that how I feel. This is not how everybody feels. This is definitely not the way that a lot of people feel, but I want to have, I want everybody to be comfortable around us. I don't want to go somewhere and have a meltdown and then try to have him stay in that situation and it makes everybody uncomfortable, right? I know that I can't pull him out if he's, I know the difference between his meltdowns or I need to get him away and his behavioral issues where he's trying to manipulate. And I don't say that I ain't saying that because I don't, that's a whole other video. My thing is I will pull him out quickly because I don't want to make an uncomfortable situation for everybody. I'm not there to break everybody else's peace and I understand that we can't always do that and that he has every right to be there and that that a lot of times will not help him. And I evaluate the situation and if it's getting to the point where other people are going to be uncomfortable, I'm not there to ruin everybody's time. So, you know a lot of you won't agree with me. I don't agree with me a lot of times, but you know what, it always works out because he actually does not have, he hasn't had in about four years a lot of really bad meltdowns. We used to have him so bad that I mean I had to have people come and assist security guards come and assist me because it would get so bad. So, and just try to get a lot of sleep, a lot of rest, eat really well and be flexible. That's my best advice, be flexible because we're not flexible. We're going to have a lot of moments that are going to really, really drive us insane, right? And that's not good for our children. So, try to enjoy your holiday season and I love to hear your suggestions, comments, what you guys do and yeah, share with everybody because I know a lot of people are wondering about the lights and the sounds and you know, over stimulation during the holiday season. That is it. That's all I got. So, I hope you guys enjoyed this. 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