Thanksgiving with Sensory Processing Disorder

Thanksgiving. A time with family and friends, good food, good times and good memories. I think it's ingrained into the brain of a mom to imagine a picture perfect Thanksgiving dinner. A beautiful table setup with all the food coming out hot, on time and cooked to perfection. The family sitting nicely together, getting along and praising the kids for eating such a wide variety of foods.

But then there’s reality. While we all struggle trying to make the holidays as awesome as we can, different challenges arise when you include sensory processing disorder.

SPD is a condition where the brain has trouble receiving and responding to information that comes in through the senses. There are triggers everywhere that I can't even begin to comprehend. And since my son had a speech delay, he communicated solely through meltdowns for a long time. So imagine Thanksgiving. Being in someone else's home is a trigger. So is the noise of conversation. The weird smells of foods he never eats. Strange rooms, a different color carpet, a pet he's never encountered, family he doesn't see often, I could go on and on. We realized the holidays were strenuous for him instead of happy occasions.

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