How to Help A Loved One With SPD at Thanksgiving
By Jessica Jordan, MS, OTR/L
Understanding SPD & Why It Might Be Difficult For A Loved One
As so many of you know, sensory processing disorder or commonly known as SPD, is a condition that affects how our brain processes incoming sensory stimuli. Stimuli can include things we see, hear, touch, taste, and even the physical environment (i.e. such as how much space an environment may have). SPD can impact one sense or even them all. During Thanksgiving, individuals with sensory processing challenges can be impacted by a variety of the routine parts of the holiday but we have a few tips that can help.
What May Be Difficult For An Individual With SPD?
Here are a few things that many individuals with SPD often struggle with during Thanksgiving.
Noise
During Thanksgiving so many individuals may be gathered together causing a lot of external noise in the environment. It may be hard to continue to engage in a conversation with Aunt Sue when your cousins may be yelling and laughing together in the next room while they play on their nintendo switches, as holiday music is playing on the Bose, at the same time your father is watching football on the tv with Uncle Pat and lastly, Grandma is yelling for someone to get her another stick of butter from the refrigerator.
Smell
The smells of Thanksgiving are appealing to many, it might be extremely difficult for those with SPD to tolerate! Certain smells may remind them or elicit certain feelings (i.e. incoming scents are tied to part of our brain that store memories and activate emotions). And we are not just talking about food here! Think about perfumes from guests, candles lit in the living room, and maybe the frequent passing of hand sanitizer or lavished and fragrant hand soaps to wash away those germs.
Textures
I know food aversion can happen anywhere and anytime, but it’s guaranteed to happen for those with SPD during Thanksgiving. Foods have different textures such as the smoothness from ultra whipped mashed potatoes, and sliminess from canned cranberry sauce. And don’t forget about the rest of the foods!
How You Can Help!
These simple strategies can be conducive in any situation.
Take Sensory Breaks Encourage the individual to remove themselves from the stimuli. Take some alone time, go outside in the backyard or for a walk. Maybe find a separate room without any competing input. If it is your home, create a sensory den that your loved one can escape too.
Set Boundaries which may include going early so there’s time to acclimate to the environment or just attend the festivities for a short period of time/leave early.
Bring Comfort Items such as a bean bag, noise canceling headphones, fidgets, comfortable clothing, or other tools that help your loved one to regulate.
Validate and Discuss Their Feelings When your loved one communicates that their feeling out of sorts, it can help to have support from a parent, or caregiver to offer consistent and firm pressure on your hands or shoulders, or even modeling deep breathing and exhalations to help stay calm.
Preparation Sometimes your loved one is a sensory seeker and is bumping into everyone and getting in their personal space. Provide proprioceptive and vestibular input before arriving (find activities linked here in one of our past blog posts) in order to help your loved one regularly before arriving. If your loved one is more of an avoider, protect their space and provide creative activities that can be completed with structure.
You Are Not Alone
Regardless of your own personal sensory processing challenges and preferences, the ultimate goal for you and your loved one is to be able to enjoy Thanksgiving. We hope these tips will help you and your family be able to cope with the difficulties or changes that may arise during Thanksgiving in order to ensure an pleasurable experience for all individuals!