Your Stories Requested: How Was Your Halloween on the Autism Spectrum?
Since our son Tom, age 11, is homeschooled, we diecided to take him along to our public schooled daughter's second grade parade and party. Tom enjoyed the parade enormously - watching for unique costumes from the sidelines - and was particularly impressed by the little boy dressed as a ... lego!
Inside the school, things were a little more intense. The class had invited the special needs class from next door to take part in the activities, so Tom wasn't too much of a standout - though he was concerned when there weren't enough cupcakes to go around. Overall, I was very glad we weren't trying to administer a GFCF or sugar free diet, since it would have been literally impossible to stop a child from overindulging in that setting.
We were delighted to see Tom's designs for Jack-o-Lanterns: he was very interested in reproducing specific facial expressions. He designed a surprised face (eyes, nose and mouth in the shape of an "O") and a goofy face (tongue sticking out!) - and though they were a bit tough to carve, they were very funny.
Probably the neatest part of the Halloween experience for us was Tom's choice of costume (Superman) - he looked very handsome, and enjoyed posing as a muscleman for applause!
How was your Halloween on the autism spectrum? What worked well? What will you do (or skip) next time around?
Comments
We usually just have a casual Halloween get-together with a couple other kids. Each year my son is more interested and involved in the pumpkin carving, and as long as I don’t fuss to improve his costume, the party goes well.
What I learned this year was that I need to remind him in advance that Halloween is a regular school day. He was so disappointed that he had to go to school that he was angry and uncooperative with our morning routine, and even began to cry after awhile.
Our 5 yr old son with Asperger’s had a great time trick or treating. We had to constantly remind him to wait until the door was opened before saying trick or treat and that he was not to walk in to the houses but he did great saying thank you and keeping up with his twin cousins. He seemed oblivious of the other children walking around in different costumes until he saw a kid dressed up at Buzz Lightyear - my son went as “Woody” from Toy Story. He told the kid “great costume”. I doubt seriously anyone that didn’t know him would have known he as Asperger’s. We were so happy to see him have such a great time.
I’m glad your son had a good time!
we did not do trick or treating this year, and since it was cold I was glad! my son spent the night with his aunt, indoors at her apartment, with it all dressed up scary, and attempted to scare the kids that came to her door. much easier control for him with no real surprises to catch him off guard. this was the first year as well, he was to see the ‘giving’ end of Halloween, which is a hard concept for him. plus the best part of all was conferences landed the next 2 days and no school! what more could I ask for??
Good Morning,
We planned the Halloween day on a scheduled sheet of paper, since my son does extremely well with visual aids. We also made a social story for him to see how the day/evening was going to be.
Each year we schedule 3-4 houses to visit. I tell the neighbors what time we will be arriving at their house. The neighbors are very excited when they see us coming. Preparation for us is very important for the day to be successful.
We have new neighbors and they decorated their house like we’ve only saw on television! It was exciting seeing how much time they put into Halloween decoration. My little guy asked if he could trick or treat at thier house when we arrived at the last house to visit.
So, now the plan changed. The schedule was about to become out of control in my mind. However, I gave him a firm “When we go to this new neighbors house, then we will be going home to give our treats to the kids coming to our house”. It worked out extremely well, and he ended up talking to the new neighbor and introduced me to them. He pointed out where we lived to the new neighbor.
After arriving home, he gave out can’s of pop to each child that came to our house. The kids were so excited to get a drink. My son ended up laying under a blanket at the door. As a knock came to the door he jumped up and tried to scare the kids at the door. He was so excited doing this. He couldn’t stop laughing.
This was really the first Halloween that my son could handle. Every year there has been to much anxiety for him to handle. Almost to the point of being hospitalized. We are very careful to watch his behaviour during the build up of holidays.
We gave him giant praises for doing such a great job handing out treats and going to neighbor’s homes.
Thank you for asking how our Halloween was… We had a great time!!
This was the first year my son, Sam (age 3 1/2) was able to actively particpate in Halloween having been too young prior to this to do much other than tag along in a wagon. We are very lucky in that his favorite character in the world is Charlie Brown…so naturally for the last month he’s been watching (memorizing!) “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” and believe it or not, this little video prepped him for everything from costumes and trick-or-treating to Halloween Parties. We did not actually goout for “tricks or treats” as he says, but instead attended our church’s “Harvest Festival”. We weren’t sure how he would react to the large crowd of about 250 party-goers, but he did great. He was so excited to see all the costumes and just to watch the other kids participating in games - even though he did not - that he pooped out about 8 o’clock and then cuddled on his Dad’s shoulder til his older sisters were ready to go home. We were so happy to see him enjoying the party along with all the other kids!
Also, we had a great costume for Sam. Knowing he would never wear a mask, make-up, or hats or any kind of overdone costume…we went for Charlie Brown! I found a Charlie Brown yellow and zig-zag t-shirt on line and put that on him along with his very own black pants and sneakers. He was so pleased!!! He even wore it the next day! And it didn’t bother him at all cuz it was regular clothes.
He was such a big boy…Halloween was great…thanks for asking!