Halloween is Hard for my Son with Autism, but We Still Celebrate It

Our son loves the idea of Halloween. He loves the decorations and all the gross Halloween bugs on the store shelves. He likes the idea of trick-or-treating and the idea of dressing up.

But it's hard for him. Due to his autism and sensory issues, we realized early on that costumes made him unhappy and uncomfortable. From a lion to the Hulk, nothing ever seemed to work for him. I started choosing costumes that only needed a hat and lightweight outfits that felt just like clothes. And overall, that has gone well. Except now he wants to choose his costumes, and crocodiles and dinosaurs are usually fuzzy, heavy and cumbersome headpieces. So we try to make adjustments (like cutting off the chin straps and the feet). But I'm still not quite sure how it's going to go this year.

I'm assuming trick-or-treating will appear less than successful, too. In the past, he's made it to one or two houses and then gets upset that we're not going into the houses. It doesn't make sense to him that we would walk up to a house and then walk away without going in. This year, we're prepping with social stories and practice runs and hoping for the best.

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