Dear Santa…please tell me what to get for my child with autism
In the past few days, like a lot of parents, I've started my holiday shopping for my daughter. Or at least tried to. This is one of those times that the differences between Bridget and "normal" children becomes extremely apparent.
While most parents (especially of children similar in age to her – five) are trying to trim down their childrens' wish lists and get their expectations for gifts from Santa in line with reality, I have the opposite problem. Bridget doesn't make a holiday list. She doesn't seem aware that Christmas approaching means gifts coming soon. And, she barely plays with toys at all. This makes her incredibly hard to shop for at her birthday and Christmas. Shopping for her is a real challenge.
Between the fact that she is an only child and that her grandparents on both sides live locally, Bridget has a good group of people who would love to spoil her with gifts on Christmas morning. But I struggle to come up with even a few ideas that I know she will actually appreciate and enjoy because of her narrow interests, especially her lack of interest in imaginative play.
Yes, I know a lot of parents would be thrilled to have a child who didn't care how many gifts they got under the tree, but you know what? I would love to have their problem because it would be so normal. I would love to be able to shop in a toy department & have to narrow down selections of what I can afford to get my child or what is reasonable to get a child who already has too many toys, instead of having to work hard just to find anything that I think she will be interested in at all.
As a result, to fill out the bottom of the tree, Bridget gets a lot of gifts that other kids would probably consider "lame"…clothes and books. Fortunately she loves both of them (unlike many kids with autism she seems very aware of her appearance) and so they make fairly successful gifts. We all just wish that we could spoil her with toys, though – dolls, stuffed animals, games and all the things that we loved growing up.
This year so far (shh, don't tell!) she'll be getting a robe and PJ's, and a Leapster. I'm also giving her a couple board games (Candyland and Memory) as an experiment to see if we can help her learn to play "big girl" games. I'm hoping to come up with a few more brilliant ideas in the next few weeks. I hope.
And I hope that those parents struggling to talk their kids out of asking Santa for a whole sleigh full of presents appreciate how lucky they are to have to do that, and to be able to participate in this annual ritual with their family in a way that our family can't.
I have two (fairly) typical kids that I have to whittle down the list for, so my Tristan is a relief… though it is kind of hard trying to tell family members what to get him… because they don’t want to get the weird things he likes, like corn brushes and honey dippers, and things he can handle and play with…
I’ve thrown a big hint for Signing Time for my two youngest though this year. All 3 seem to enjoy it.
Actually, what really hurts is to see him and our family excluded because of how difficult he is to deal with (or because no one wants to super childproof for a visit… or come to our house, for that matter…)
My son also loves books as gifts. That is such a sweet photo of Bridget reading her book! Take care.
Great ASD toy site: Got-Autism.com!!!
Great site for ASD Developmental Toys – you need to be sure to type the name correctly so save it to your favorites: Got-Autism.com Please check it out — it will really make you feel like a smart santa’s helper — it is a great site to find toys and practical life products for children with Autism!!!! You will be sooooo excited when you see this site!!!!
I just love it! Lots of stuff I have never seen before anywhere else!