Fireworks for New Year’s Eve are a worldwide tradition. I, for one, love New Year’s Eve because the entire world celebrates it, as far as I know. But imagine if you have a sensory sensitivity or get overwhelmed by excess stimulation. Fireworks shows could be completely terrifying. If I put myself in the shoes of someone with autism, I imagine that I could be scared out of my mind, completely confused, and baffled by the reactions of other people.
I wrote a social story to help with this sort of situation. I wrote the book to help kids understand why people use fireworks—people think they are exciting and use them to celebrate various events—and how they can cope around fireworks if they have sensory sensitivity.
[By the way, if someone reacts poorly to fireworks, that behavior likely has an automatic function. To understand more about the functions of behavior see this post.]
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| One page of the book |
What’s in the book?
In the book, I explain what appears obvious to us, but not to a child: that fireworks will not come near you or hurt you. This is important because children could have a very real misconception about what fireworks do.
Some strategies that I mention that a child can use to cope with fireworks are:
- keeping a comfort item with them
- wearing noise canceling headphones
- asking for a break
The book ends with a statement focusing on how celebrations are about spending time with family and friends.
Let’s be realistic
I would not expect this story to be a magical tome that allows a child to go and sit in a park right under a fireworks show. Each child will have their own tolerances. Maybe they don’t even tolerate watching fireworks on TV, but after reading the story they feel better equipped to handle that.
Remember, each kid will have their own starting point with what they can tolerate, and our goal as adults should be to encourage them to broaden their horizons, while not expecting them to become “normal.” (That’s not even a real thing.)
I hope this book can be helpful as we approach holidays with fireworks. What strategies do you use to help students cope with sensory sensitivity?
