Holiday Tips

Holiday Mid December 2023 newsletter

Dear Families and Friends,

Wishing you all a happy, healthy holiday season, whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or another holiday. Our wish is for a peaceful, kinder, safer year for everyone. Please look for our January 2024 newsletter coming soon with new exciting activities.

Stay well, ASCF staff

Buying the Right Gift for Your Child

Five Tips for Picking Gifts for Your Child

By Amanda Morin, Understood.com

Exchanging gifts can be stressful for kids with learning and thinking differences. Get tips for picking out gifts. Learn a strategy that can simplify holiday gift-giving. And find out about ways to deal with outbursts during gift exchanges.

Gift-giving with kids is a balancing act. You want it to be fun but meaningful, festive but not chaotic. Certain learning and thinking differences can create extra challenges for some kids. But these five strategies can help you make choosing and giving gifts a more joyous experience for everyone.

Strategy #1: See your “whole” child.

Strategy #2: Don’t rely on age recommendations.

Strategy #3: Avoid turning gifts into work.

Strategy #4: Limit the gift haul.

Strategy #5: Don’t use presents as a bargaining chip.

For the complete article go to:

https://www.understood.org/articles/5-strategies-for-choosing-gifts-for-your-child-with-learning-and-thinking-differences?

Creating Traditions

How to Make Holiday More Fun for Your Child

The holiday traditions you grew up with may not work for your child with learning and thinking differences. Tweaking family traditions can help make them fun and meaningful for your child.

Family traditions work best when they include everyone and give each person something they can do well and enjoy. When creating new traditions, avoid activities that may point out your child’s challenges.

You can create new traditions that continue the spirit of the old ones.

When you’re creating a holiday tradition, consider the values you want to impart to your child.

For complete article go to:

https://www.understood.org/articles/holiday-traditions-kids-with-learning-and-thinking-differences?

Parenting Tips

Just a few parenting tips from parents.com article by Barrie Gillie : 50 Easy Ways to Be a Fantastic Parent we thought you might be interested in. Go to https://www.parents.com/parenting/better-parenting/advice/ways-to-be-fantastic-parent for complete article

Create Your Own Quality Time

Play with your children. Let them choose the activity, and don't worry about rules. Just go with the flow and have fun. That's the name of the game.

Read books together every day. Get started when they're a newborn; babies love listening to the sound of their parents' voices. Cuddling up with your child and a book is a great bonding experience that will set them up for a lifetime of reading.

Schedule daily special time. Let your child choose an activity where you hang out together for 10 or 15 minutes with no interruptions. There's no better way for you to show your love.

Encourage family time. The greatest untapped resource available for improving the lives of our children is time with their parents. Kids with engaged parents do better in school, problem-solve more successfully, and generally cope better with whatever life throws at them.

Make warm memories. Your children will probably not remember anything that you say to them, but they will recall the family rituals—like bedtimes and game night—that you do together.

Know the Best Ways to Praise

Give appropriate praise. Instead of simply saying, "You're great," try to be specific about what your child did to deserve the positive feedback. You might say, "Waiting until I was off the phone to ask for cookies was hard, and I really liked your patience."

Cheer the good stuff. When you notice your child doing something helpful or nice, let them know how you feel. It's a great way to reinforce good behavior so they're more likely to keep doing it.

Gossip about your kids. Fact: What we overhear is far more potent than what we are told directly. Make praise more effective by letting your child "catch" you whispering a compliment about them to Grandma, Dad, or even their teddy.

A Great Resource

Free Decision-Making Resources

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) must make many daily and major life decisions, just like people without disabilities. This can include decisions about buying things they need, managing a budget, and talking with doctors about their health care. There are many ways people with IDD make decisions, both on their own and with support. But a person’s ability to make decisions can change throughout their life. It is important to have a plan for how decisions are made and to update this plan regularly.

This way, everyone can make the decisions they want. The Arc's Center for Future Planning has created free resources to help.

Download the free documents below to:

Learn about decision-making options for people with IDD; Understand the myths and limits of guardianship; Learn how to make, review, and adjust a decision-making plan throughout a person's life to maximize their ability to make their own decisions.

Decision-Making-Supports-Center-for-Future-Planning-1.pdf

Future-Decision-Center-for-Future-Planning.pdf

http://thearc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Guardianship-Myths-Center-for-Future-Planning-1.pdf

Any Questions? Email ARC at futureplanning@thearc.org

DISCLAIMER:

The Association for Special Children and Families does not provide or give legal or medical advice.

DESCARGO DE RESPONSABILIDAD:

La Asociación para Niños y Familias Especiales no proporciona ni brinda asesoramiento legal o médico.