Continuing this week’s blogs centered around Halloween, I’m pretty sure that you are all wondering just what a good way could be to celebrate Halloween, but without the fears of neurodivergent children and adults wandering off, having sensory overloads or meltdowns and having the holiday be tailored according to their needs and wants.
In the last blog, I covered on why trunk or treating is a popular alternative to the traditional trick-or-treating, especially for neurodivergent families. But you might be reading this blog and asking yourself what else is there besides trunk or treating? Surely, Halloween is more than just costumes and candy, isn’t it?
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Well, to answer your questions, it is more than just candies and costumes. There are ways to celebrate Halloween that is safe and sensory friendly.
One prime example that I use is about 2 years ago, myself, San Diego based Autism Tree along a chapter of Teen Volunteers in Action all came together and did an event at Point Loma Park where we invited neurodiverse families for a day of Halloween activities and generalized other fun activities such as hopscotch, softball, etc. The kids came in costumes and embraced the activities we provided for them just as much as a traditional Halloween setting.
Now, you might be wondering something else…why were these activities taking place during the day and not at night? Well, the truth of the matter is that you don’t have to wait until nightfall to do Halloween activities. The important fact of the matter is that you must alternatively give the neurodiverse child and/or adult the environment that they prefer to celebrate Halloween in.
Some may not like to be out at night, but the problem is that there are going to be other families and children who might judge those who prefer to not go out for trick or treating or celebrate the holiday as a whole.
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Even Special Education teachers can also bring in the fun of Halloween to a neurodivergent child’s classroom because if the child can’t celebrate Halloween for a variety of reasons, then Special Education teachers can create activites such as reading scary stories, watching classic horror movies (that are school appropriate, of course) and playing games.
Special Education teachers, like their General Education peers, can also bring Halloween to their students by wearing their own Halloween costumes that can relate to the student’s personality or their own personality. I don’t know how many former or current special education teachers/students actually remembering the costumes they wore during the school day (either during Halloween, or the Thursday or Friday before if Halloween was on a Saturday or Sunday).
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But one thing that we all need to remember is the fact that some neurodivergent children and adults can be taken aback by someone in a costume because they aren’t used to seeing them wearing costumes. I remember this from my time in the Brony/Comic Con convention circuit where I would sometimes be taken aback by the fact that there were people in costumes/cosplay. There is a part of my sensory processing disorder that has difficulty processing when such instances occur and there are others like me who are in the same boat.
So, if you come across someone who gets aprhensive about someone wearing a costume, just remember that it’s not that they are afraid. They know it’s you, but they are just having a hard time processing it.
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All in all, Halloween is a holiday that is enjoyed by some and detested by others, particularly involving children and adults who are neurodivergent. But the key here is to be mindful of what goes through the mind of a neurodivergent child or adult and remember that if they aren’t a huge fan of the holiday, then it’s important to bring the holiday to them in spoonfuls, not chunkfuls.
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Catch you all later!!
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