Sensory overload is more common than you think. Every human being is exposed daily to environmental stimulation that can play a negative role in our lives and affect our well-being.

From the very moment of birth, a baby is exposed to excessive noise, dirty air, all causes of urbanization. It can be sensitiveness to some foods or activities. Completely helpless and defenseless. In our adult life, we are bombarded by mass media with tones of pieces of information, technology, advertisements… Nobody asks us how does it feel till we start to notice there is something wrong going on, we have become nervous, anxious, frustrated. The symptoms begin to appear as fast as the saturation of our discomfort is rising.

Imagine a kid on the spectrum, facing different kinds of sensory processing problems, who are ‘forced’ to live in our times. Challenges are massive. And numerous.

I’m bringing it up today because Halloween is coming. I already asked more than once my son if he would like to put a costume on this year and if there is anything special he would like to impersonate for the school dress-up party. As he is finally fine with communication, he is able to judge quickly and give an opinion. Especially when there is his well-being concerned. And also this year, it was a firm ‘NO’.

If you stop and think about it, a common Halloween party is a super-fun for a regular kid. For a kid with autism could be a terrible experience.

Completely out of the routine, everyone looks strange, act strange, sound strange, covering faces masks, scary make-ups. Everything smells, looks, and feels differently.

Loud music, kids screaming and running all around the place, be not able to recognize familiar faces.

There is an expectation that a costume should be worn. Keep in mind that some kids are highly sensitive and certain types of fabrics or commonly used labels or shirt prints could be irritating and easily causing sensory overload.

It is hugely important to do not give for granted that everything fits for anyone. It should be a pleasure, not torture. You can always have a chat with your kid some days/weeks before and maybe you could try to prepare your own, tailored for your needs, Halloween school party costume.

Some non-verbal kids might feel heavily uncomfortable in any of a party-kind situation like birthdays, carnival feasts, Halloween, and other social events. I’m not trying to convince you to avoid it because sometimes it quite impossible, but at least if there is a chance to choose, you should evaluate if it is worth it or not worth taking part in and staying away from sticky situations. And absolutely do not push to dress-up and ‘be scary’ as the other kids do. The risk of meltdowns and tantrums is really high there.

I prepare two printable flyers for you to put them on your front door if you think it could help you.