Key points

Learn to anticipate your child's holiday "sticking points."

Use techniques like social stories, schedules, and comparing new events to familiar ones.

Find ways to stay calm yourself so that you can be there for your child.

Remember to rejoice in any success, big or small.

If you live in an autism family like I do, you may be feeling anxious about Thanksgiving and your autistic loved one. The holidays for Nat promise so many things he loves: favorite foods, especially desserts, his brothers visiting, and ritual. If a holiday involves lighting candles, he's a happy man. He memorizes prayers and holiday songs and fully expects all of them every time.

We try to accommodate Nat in terms of schedules and fulfilling expectations. But we are human, and that means errors, forge

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