Special Needs Neighborhood.com Blog

Ready, set, GO! Are you ready?? The holidays are here!

With Halloween just a few days away, it’s time to prepare yourself and your family for the upcoming holiday season. Halloween can be a challenging time for children with special needs. There are lots of things to contend with…sugar, spooky costumes, crazy schedules, parties…so planning is key to keeping things from getting too scary.

Here are some tips for making Halloween “a treat”:

• Write a social story around Halloween that explains what people do on Halloween–they wear costumes, they say “Happy Halloween”, they might try to pretend to scare you, they go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, include details on what your family does.
• Plan for schedule changes at home, school, and with extracurricular activities. Some schools have parties and therefore, the school day is disrupted. For many children with special needs, these disruptions are very difficult. Prepare your child for what the schedule will be in advance by creating and reviewing a calendar of events.
• Provide healthy treats to replace sugar candies where possible. Here’s my GF/CF trick for “trick-or-treating”…I carry one bag and my son carries another…when we get to the door, if I see it is something he cannot have, it goes in my bag (that he never sees again) and if it is something he can have, it goes in his bag.
• And finally…accept peacefully if this year’s holiday festivities are too much for your child–they may be ready another year.

These are some of our ideas…

Do YOU have any ideas or tips to share?

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