Gathering Gently: A Guide to Sensory-Friendly Thanksgiving Celebrations
The holiday season is a wonderful time for everyone to celebrate with friends and family. We’re here to help families create a sensory-friendly holiday experience, allowing you to truly enjoy this joyous time rather than just getting through it. Here are some thoughtful suggestions to ensure everyone can embrace the spirit of the season to the fullest! There’s so much to be thankful for, and we believe it’s important to fully embrace the magic of the holidays.
Doing a sensory activity, like a sensory bin with specific items, encourages interactions on the individual’s own terms and broadens their sensory exploration, even beyond their comfort zone. It also helps to identify items that could be potentially more overwhelming in the environment and what a child enjoys to focus on when they go to a gathering..
How Sensory Processing Disorder Affects Children During The Holidays
Sensory processing disorder impacts how a child interprets and reacts to information from the outside world. There can be only difficulty with one or all parts of processing sensory experiences, such as noticing, modulating, comprehending, or responding (Passarello et al., 2022). Their senses absorb the information differently, making them want less or more input. There can be roadblocks in the pathways these messages travel through, with multiple signals telling their brain different things and causing intense and confusing reactions and feelings (Bradford Jones, 2024). When various sensory inputs coming at once are not appropriately integrated into the central nervous system, this leads to an overwhelming perceived sensory environment and causes sensory-defensive behavior in these individuals (Foxe et al., 2020). This is seen as sensory overload and can be expected during the holidays, with routine and environmental changes occurring everywhere.
How to Create a Comfortable Environment
Lights: Bright lights can be overstimulating or distracting for children with sensory sensitivities and can alter behaviors (Nair et al., 2022). When setting up for Thanksgiving, consider your guests and their comfort levels before putting up or plugging in lights. It can also be beneficial to light your home with lamps rather than utilizing overhead lights during gatherings. If you can’t control the brightness, offer lightly tinted sunglasses or an on-the-go item to help them regulate their sensory input and make the environment more manageable.
Noise: Create quiet spaces for relaxation in the midst of a bustling holiday environment, where multiple conversations and various sounds—like timers, microwaves, dishwashers, and the TV—can be overwhelming. The sensory-sensitive population is more susceptible to having sensitivity to external noise conditions (Foxe et al., 2020). Headphones or earbuds can help muffle some of the noise, allowing the child or individual to remain engaged with others while still finding their own moments of calm.
Smells: The holiday season often brings a mix of candles, cooking aromas, and various personal scents, which can be overwhelming for those with heightened sensitivities to smells. For children, strong odors can feel uncomfortable or even painful with overactivity to smells (Mulligan et al., 2021). A suggestion is to ask guests before lighting candles or running the scentsy. If it’s difficult to manage the scents in the environment, consider providing nose plugs or a calming scent they can carry and inhale to help them stay regulated.
Tastes: Provide options for mildly flavored foods or dishes that are universally acceptable at gatherings. Children with sensory processing sensitivity and ASD have oral sensory sensitivity, which causes a refusal of various foods (Chistol et al., 2018). Alternatively, consider bringing a similar item that aligns with the dietary and sensory preferences of the child you’re supporting, ensuring they have enjoyable choices that fit their needs and help them fit in.
Textures: Offering a variety of textures for sitting on, touching, covering up with, and feeling can help everyone regulate their sensory experiences and feel more comfortable in their environment. Seekers of tactile stimuli crave materials with unusual textures, while individuals who have heightened responses to tactile input may avoid materials with unusual surfaces (Powers, 2013). Keep in mind that each person has their own unique sensory preferences, so providing different options can make a positive difference.
Movement: Create open spaces or outdoor areas where individuals can safely move around and release their energy. Movement breaks are shown to help regulate children following sensory integration approaches (The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 2023). Having these areas separate from calming spaces offers options for everyone to choose what they need in the moment, helping to prevent frustration for those who may not require the same type of regulation.
Utilizing corn on a stalk, drawn or printed, tape it down to a surface. Then, in a plastic bag, put beads and soap, and tape it on top of the paper you taped down. Have your child match the appropriate colors to the drawing or fill each kernel and the leaves with beads.
Make this activity harder by utilizing smaller beads or more colors. Provide instructions on where colors can go or write them down.
Make this activity easier by providing less color or giving them a larger drawing and/or beads. In the pictures, color in what beads you want placed there to have them match colors which helps make this activity more supportive for your child.
Other Sensory Supportive Strategies
Utilize Mindfulness Strategies: It is a valuable tool for staying grounded on the go in any situation and can reduce anxiety when overstimulated.
Deep breathing: using a turkey.
Empowering mantras using turkey visual.
Maintain Consistency in Routines: Allow minimal disruptions to ensure their typical and expected routine is intact most days. Security and predictability are something many sensory seekers prefer and keep them feeling comfortable during a sometimes uncomfortable time of year.
Create a Pathway for Open Communication: Discuss what is coming up, using social stories and preparatory techniques to engage them and allow them to be part of the planning. Collaboration regarding the changes that may be coming builds trust with you and can help your child get through the holidays.
Thankful Turkey: Empowering mantras you can do with your child to help them remember what is important. This craft provides an activity and opportunity to discuss mantras with your child and why it is important to think positive thoughts. It can help to refer back to this when there has been a bad day or you are feeling in an overwhelmed state.
References
Bradford Jones, K. (2024, September). Sensory processing disorder. FamilyDoctor.org. https://familydoctor.org/condition/sensory-processing-disorder-spd/
Chistol, L. T., Bandini, L. G., Must, A., Phillips, S., Cermak, S. A., & Curtin, C. (2018). Sensory Sensitivity and Food Selectivity in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 48(2), 583–591. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3340-9
Deron School of New Jersey. (n.d.). Navigating the holiday sensory needs of children with special needs. https://www.deronschool.org/blog/navigating-the-holiday-sensory-needs-of-children-with-special-needs/
Foxe, J. J., Del Bene, V. A., Ross, L. A., Ridgway, E. M., Francisco, A. A., & Molholm, S. (2020). Multisensory audiovisual processing in children with a sensory processing disorder (II): Speech integration under noisy environmental conditions. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 14, 39. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2020.00039
Mulligan, S., Douglas, S., & Armstrong, C. (2021). Characteristics of Idiopathic Sensory Processing Disorder in Young Children. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 15, 647928–647928. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2021.647928
Nair, A. S., Priya, R. S., Rajagopal, P., Pradeepa, C., Senthil, R., Dhanalakshmi, S., Lai, K. W., Wu, X., & Zuo, X. (2022). A case study on the effect of light and colors in the built environment on autistic children's behavior. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13, 1042641. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1042641
Passarello, N., Tarantino, V., Chirico, A., Menghini, D., Costanzo, F., Sorrentino, P., Fucà, E., Gigliotta, O., Alivernini, F., Oliveri, M., Lucidi, F., Vicari, S., Mandolesi, L., & Turriziani, P. (2022). Sensory processing disorders in children and adolescents: Taking stock of assessment and novel therapeutic tools. Brain Sciences, 12(11), 1478. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12111478
Powers, K.M. (2013). Sensory Processing. In: Volkmar, F.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi-org.pearl.stkate.edu/10.1007/978-1-4419-1698-3_1201
The American Journal of Occupational Therapy. (2023). Sensory integration approaches for children and youth in occupational therapy practice. Vol. 77(Supplement 3), 7713410230. doi: https://doi-org.pearl.stkate.edu/10.5014/ajot.2023.77S3004
