Genealogy, retired library staff, perpetual student, love DWTS, All Creatures Great & Small, The Rookie, Longmire and Boston Blue. Can't see/answer DMs (Chat)
Toronto
Joined September 2013
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JEM retweeted
Autism and the holidays.
🎄🔊 THE HOLIDAYS ARE LOUD. BUT FOR SOME AUTISTIC INDIVIDUALS, THEY CAN BE OVERWHELMING.
The holidays are often described as the most wonderful time of the year. Family gatherings, holiday music, Christmas decorations, excited children, crowded shopping centers, television playing in the background, kitchen appliances running, conversations happening all at once, and fireworks celebrating the season.
For many families, these sounds are simply part of the holiday atmosphere.
But for some autistic individuals, that same atmosphere can feel like being surrounded by a hundred different sound sources with no volume control.
And that’s something we need to understand.
🔹 UNDERSTANDING HOLIDAY SENSORY OVERLOAD
Autistic individuals can experience sound differently. Some may be extremely sensitive to particular noises, while others may struggle when several sounds compete for their attention.
Think about all the noises that come with the holidays:
• Multiple people talking simultaneously.
• Children screaming, laughing, and running around.
• Loud holiday music and television.
• Pots, pans, blenders, and kitchen appliances.
• Doorbells, knocking, and unexpected visitors.
• Dogs barking and unfamiliar household noises.
• Fireworks, party poppers, and balloons popping.
• Crowded stores, shopping malls, and restaurants.
For someone with auditory sensitivity, these sounds can become physically and emotionally exhausting.
What looks like frustration, withdrawal, irritability, or a sudden behavioral change may actually be a nervous system struggling to process too much sensory information.
It’s not bad behavior. It’s not being difficult. It’s not an attempt to ruin anyone’s holiday.
Sometimes the environment is simply too much.
🔹 12 WAYS TO HELP AUTISTIC INDIVIDUALS NAVIGATE HOLIDAY NOISES
1. Create a quiet space.
Designate a comfortable, low-stimulation room where an autistic individual can retreat when things become overwhelming.
Keep it familiar, comfortable, and away from the busiest areas of the home.
This isn’t isolation or punishment. It’s providing a safe place to regulate.
2. Introduce noise-canceling headphones.
Noise-reducing headphones or ear defenders can make an enormous difference.
Allow individuals to use them whenever needed, whether they’re eating dinner, opening presents, attending gatherings, or simply spending time with family.
Remember, headphones aren’t rude. They’re an accommodation.
3. Give advance notice about expected noises.
Unexpected sounds can be particularly difficult.
Before holiday gatherings, explain what noises might happen.
Let them know when guests are arriving, when music will be playing, when presents will be opened, or when fireworks are expected.
Visual schedules, pictures, written reminders, and social stories can help.
4. Turn down the background noise.
Does the television really need to be playing while everyone is talking?
Does the holiday music need to be blasting throughout the house?
Reducing unnecessary background noise can make a tremendous difference.
Sometimes the best accommodation is simply turning the volume down.
5. Avoid forcing participation.
Not everyone wants to sit around a crowded dinner table, participate in noisy games, or join every holiday activity.
Allow autistic individuals to participate on their own terms.
Being present doesn’t mean having to participate in everything.
6. Plan shopping trips carefully.
Holiday shopping centers can be sensory minefields.
Bright lights, loud announcements, crowds, music, and unexpected noises can quickly become overwhelming.
Try shopping during quieter hours, using headphones, making shorter trips, or shopping online when appropriate.
7. Respect sensory breaks.
Don’t wait until someone reaches their breaking point.
Build breaks into the day.
A few minutes in a quiet room, a familiar activity, or time away from the crowd can help prevent sensory overload from escalating.
8. Prepare for unexpected visitors.
Surprise visitors can disrupt routines and create additional sensory demands.
Whenever possible, communicate visiting schedules ahead of time.
Give autistic individuals the choice to greet guests, stay in another room, or join the gathering later.
9. Be mindful of fireworks and sudden noises.
Fireworks, firecrackers, party poppers, and balloons can be particularly distressing.
Prepare individuals in advance, provide hearing protection, and offer a quieter alternative away from the noise.
Never assume someone will simply get used to it.
10. Maintain familiar routines.
Holiday schedules can be unpredictable.
Try to maintain familiar meal times, bedtime routines, preferred activities, and regular breaks.
Predictability can provide a sense of security when everything else feels different.
11. Recognize the early signs of sensory overload.
Everyone communicates distress differently.
Some individuals may cover their ears, pace, become quieter, withdraw, repeat phrases, become agitated, or seek repetitive movement.
Others may experience a meltdown or shut down.
Learn the individual’s communication and sensory signals.
Respond with patience rather than punishment.
12. Let the autistic individual lead.
Ask what helps.
Some individuals prefer headphones. Others need silence, movement, familiar music, a weighted blanket, or time alone.
There is no universal sensory toolkit.
What works for one autistic individual may not work for another.
🔹 A MESSAGE TO FAMILY MEMBERS AND HOLIDAY GUESTS
Please don’t make an autistic individual feel guilty for needing accommodations.
Don’t insist they remove their headphones for photographs.
Don’t tell them they’re being antisocial because they need a break.
Don’t force hugs, conversations, participation, or eye contact.
And please don’t mistake sensory overload for disrespect.
A little understanding from the people around them can completely change their holiday experience.
❤️ THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER
The goal isn’t to make autistic individuals tolerate every noise, every crowd, or every holiday tradition.
The goal is to create an environment where they can feel safe, comfortable, included, and respected.
Sometimes that means leaving the party early.
Sometimes it means eating dinner in a quiet room.
Sometimes it means wearing headphones while everyone else celebrates.
And sometimes it means celebrating a little differently.
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT.
The holidays should be about connection, understanding, acceptance, and making memories together.
Let’s stop expecting autistic individuals to fit into every environment and start making our environments more inclusive for them.
Different sensory needs. Different experiences. Equal right to enjoy the holidays.
♾️ Autism awareness starts with understanding.
Autismhoodmedia
Real experiences. Real families. Real awareness.
#AutismAwareness #SensoryProcessing
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JEM retweeted
NEWS: Trump’s Pentagon has lost track of $31 billion in F-35 parts and the government’s own watchdog says they’ve barely lifted a finger to fix it despite multiple warnings. This administration is too stupid to count its own fighter jet parts and too corrupt to care, as long as the defense contractors keep cashing checks while your Medicaid and food assistance get cut.
JEM retweeted
They All HAD A Name: And then they're reduced to being a yellow tag with a number and bar code to be sold by the pound as meat. Standardbreds by the dozens, hundreds and thousands discarded by an industry that creates them for profit, drugs them to race for profit and then trashes them when no longer profitable. And as a bonus before they die are tortured like THIS ⬇️
@NYDailyNews @nypost @nytimes @racingwrongs
@WSJ @USATODAY @NBCNewYork @njdotcom
@ABC7NY @fox5ny @USTrotting @Harnesslink
@HarnessUpdate @CBSNewYork @wpix
@amNewYork @peta @CNN @MSNBC
@FoxNews @nyclass @Gothamist @chicagotribune
@paulickreport #harnessracing
JEM retweeted
Just had a lovely long visit from the Ravens. Didn’t expect to see them much today as early they were still feeding on the same dead sheep. I say it all the time but I could never have imagined having such wonderful interactions with such magnificent birds 🥰
JEM retweeted
Remembrance Day.
It was twelve winters since the end of the War. To the Doctor, it seemed like an impenetrable thicket of days and months separating his steady, peaceful life now from his existence then. But sometimes those trees thinned and he still heard the guns in the distance over the downs. Sometimes when he was walking with Wolf along the hollow-ways in the autumn twilight, he wanted to call to him to get down, to be careful, to watch his head, but there was nothing to be careful about.
In the Times that morning, one bishop, not theirs of course, had said perhaps everyone should stop laying wreaths, abolish the Silence, let the War be, let the Dead rest in their scarred ground.
Old Fox looked grave when he mentioned it, and at their little ceremony at the village memorial he asked the Doctor to lay the main wreath. And when they stood with heads bowed for those two minutes, the frozen air was speared by the song of a little robin somewhere in the orchard, a sweet, piercing song which the Doctor had heard before in the midst of battle, and for a moment he wondered if he was conjuring it too, like the shells he heard in the thunder or the trench whistles which called at the station or the shuffle and heavy breathing of the ghosts that came at night from time to time, asking for a gasper or resting their packs for a brief moment on their long march home.
JEM retweeted
Just in case you're having one of those days when everything feels heavy and hopeless, here's some chickens playing volleyball.
JEM retweeted
This thread is astonishing. The most puzzling aspect yo me is not even the incompetence and paralysis of the autorities but the resignation and fatalism. It feels like reading some chronicle by a medieval peasant ...
JEM retweeted
H5N1: ANOTHER STATE JOINS THE DAIRY OUTBREAK.
Oregon just confirmed its FIRST infected dairy herd.
Morrow County. Positive milk detected.
Nearby Washington: 43 infected herds, 3 human cases, 1 death.
The Oregon genome is still pending.
The question now:
Is this connected to Washington’s B3.13 outbreak, or a separate introduction?
JEM retweeted
'Speaking with workers, we believe the official case numbers are a vast undercount'.
Damning and informative thread on H5N1 in Washington State.
JEM retweeted
This is not surprising. Since 2024, the US response has failed to contain H5N1 in dairy cattle or adequately protect workers. Reports of sick, untested workers are a predictable warning. Allowing this virus to spread puts farmworkers and global health security at risk.
Free to read: telegraph.co.uk/global-healt…
JEM retweeted
These workers need to be given real information and useable PPE. They need PAID sick time to need to be tested and treated.
Flu shot clinics for dairy workers and their families would provide some protection and prevent commingled infections of seasonal and novel influenza A.
JEM retweeted
It is clear that workers are not being informed of the risks of handling sick cattle and infected milk. They are being given no information on flu shots or avian flu testing.
Workers also report being given conflicting directions on what to do with the cattle and milk.
JEM retweeted
The workers report symptoms that range from mild upper respiratory infection with pinkeye to severe flu symptoms with bone pain, severe cough and high fever.
We do not have reports that indicate human to human transmission, just workplace exposure to infected animals and milk.
JEM retweeted
We have now connected with a number of workers and have confirmed that more workers are sick with avian flu symptoms who have not been tested. Their symptoms range from very mild to very severe.
JEM retweeted
If you think bird flu spreading unchecked in mink is dangerous because of adaptation to respiratory transmission in mammals, wait until you see what happens when it gets to do that in humans
JEM retweeted
🚨 Scientists Warn That If H5N1 Starts Spreading Easily Between People, We May Have Only 48 Hours to Stop a Pandemic
JEM retweeted
There is an active outbreak of avian flu (H5 influenza) in dairy herds in Washington State, particularly the Yakima Valley. A number of dairy workers have been infected, with at least one death. Speaking with workers, we believe the official case numbers are a vast undercount. 1/
