As a parent you look forward to spending time with your child during the holiday season. This can prove to be difficult when your child has trouble expressing their needs and/or communicating with others. These difficulties may become exacerbated during the holidays, due to higher demands to communicate abstract ideas such as what they want on their wish lists as well as following social routines with unfamiliar friends or family members. Furthermore, if your child has autism, other obstacles you may encounter include breaks in routine, sensory overload from increased noise level of music and conversation, intolerable tastes and smells of unfamiliar holiday foods, and increased occurrence of touch due to hugging and kissing by distant relatives. Tips that you can use to stimulate your child during the family festivities: Role-play the situations that your child will encounter beforehand so that your child will be less surprised with what is to come. Expose your child to typical words that they will hear during the holidays so that they play a larger role in the festivities (i.e. Santa, tree, menorah, turkey). Practice some simple carrier phrases. For example, “I like the [food name],” “I see [vocabulary word].” Practice a script for…