Front steps fill with pumpkins, jack-o’-lanterns glow with flickering light, and kids — just like Halloween enthusiasts everywhere — eagerly prepare for the festivities. For many of us, Halloween is a cherished tradition filled with costumes, candy and laughter. Yet for neurodivergent children, Halloween can be challenging. Since the whole world is celebrating, it is important that sensory-challenged children feel included in the holiday. Pathways.org, a resource for parents and healthcare professionals that offers free tools for child development, can help.

The organization has a variety of resources for celebrating Halloween, including activities that can help with a child's development. Halloween can be a fun time of year for children. They get to dress up, eat candy, and carve pumpkins! But for a child with a sensory issue these experiences can be stressful enough to make them feel uncomfortable or unable to participate. Learn more.

Preview Halloween for your child

Talk to your child about what happens on Halloween. Explain the process of “trick-or-treating” including what your child will be doing, noises they might hear, and lights that might flash at them. Perhaps read a book where a character celebrates Halloween. If your child knows what to expect for the evening, they’ll be less likely to have a negative reaction. Find a video on YouTube or a movie of children trick-or-treating if possible, to show them what to expect.

Costume Practice Run

Costumes can be uncomfortable itchy and scratchy. For a child with sensory issues, these textures may be unbearable. Have your child try on all parts of a costume while you’re making it or before you buy it. Let your child wear their costume around the house a couple of weeks before Halloween so they can get used to the new sensations and you can find fixes to any parts that may irritate them before the big night. You can also layer the costume over comfy well liked clothing.

Know What’s In Your Child’s Bag

All parents should inspect their child’s candy to check for harmful objects and look for already opened candy (not to mention to snag a mini candy bar or two). Parents who have a child with feeding sensitivities should also talk with their child about the different types of candy, such as candy with “surprise centers” where the texture in the middle is different than the outside, or candy that may stick to the roof of their mouth or teeth. This can help children avoid textures they do not like

Pumpkin Play

The inside of a pumpkin, or “pumpkin guts”, can be a great sensory experience for your child. Help them cut open the top (if they’re old enough) and squish their hands around the inside of the pumpkin before carving it. For children resistant to submerging their hands in pumpkin innards, consider making a no-carve pumpkin by painting or decorating the pumpkin without cutting it open.

Know Your Child’s Limits

For some children, “trick-or-treating” may simply be too overwhelming. If it is too much there are other ways to enjoy the festive holiday. Instead, host a Halloween party with one or two of your child’s friends, play fun sensory-friendly games, or invite friends and family over and have your child “trick-or-treat” from room to room in your house.

Motor Activities

Make a Halloween sock puppet: Using sock and art supplies such as paint, buttons, glitter and glue, make sock puppets of Halloween characters like jack-o-lanterns, Frankenstein, ghosts or witches! Crafts like this help with fine motor skills. Always be safe when handling small items. See if you can tell a story with your sock puppets after you make them!
Halloween scavenger hunt: Get your child moving by having them look for Halloween items around the house. Accompany the hunt with spooky Halloween riddles, and maybe a surprise or two!

Tummy Time Activity

Reach for a Halloween toy: As your child gets better at Tummy Time, you’ll want to start using this time to help them learn how to crawl. One way to encourage crawling is by placing a toy just out of reach and having them reach for it. Get festive with a Halloween toy, and make it extra fun by making sounds with the toy!

Sensory Activities

Spooky slime: Kids love making slime. Add orange, purple, green or black coloring, as well as glitter to make it look extra spooky!
Kettle guess: Fill small black plastic kettles with mystery items, such as gummy worms or cold spaghetti. You can have your child guess what the item actually is by feeling and smelling, without looking.
Pumpkin bag: Create a pumpkin sensory bag. It’s fun and easy! Read how to do this craft here.

Play Activities

Virtual costume party: Dressing up is one of the best parts of Halloween! Set up a virtual costume party with your child and their friends to show off their cute costumes.
Glow in the dark ring toss: You’ll need glow sticks, flashlights and safety cones for this one. Place an illuminated flashlight inside a safety cone. This should give the cone a soft glow and the light should shine out of the top. Then crack glow sticks so they illuminate and connect the ends so each stick forms a ring. With all the lights turned off (and maybe some spooky music playing), you can play glow-in-the-dark ring toss!

Social-Emotional Activities

Have your child paint pumpkins with faces or their own design.

Halloween photoshoot: Gather any items that can be used for “dress up”. Using a camera or camera phone, have your children take photos together in all the different costume combinations they can come up with! Not only is this fun, it teaches them about sharing and taking turns.
Painting pumpkins: Have your child paint pumpkins with faces or their own design. You can prompt your child to think about different emotions while they paint faces, by saying things such as “paint a pumpkin that looks happy”; “paint a pumpkin face that looks scared”.

Feeding Activities

Make Witch’s Brew: There’s no real recipe for Witch’s Brew; just a fun concoction of beverages. You can make a warm witch’s brew using hot cider, or a cold witch’s brew using a lemon-lime carbonated beverage and some green food coloring. If you have a black kettle, you can serve the brew from there to make it extra spooky!
Make Healthy Halloween snacks: Not all Halloween snacks need to be candy! Here are some fun Halloween snack ideas:
- Frankenstein avocado toast; spread avocado on a square piece of flat bread, and use olives for the eyes, hair and teeth of Frankenstein.
- Orange bell pepper pumpkins; carve a jack-o-lantern face in a bell pepper to look like a carved pumpkin.
- Tangerine pumpkins; place a small piece of celery at the top of a peeled tangerine to look like a pumpkin!

Communication Activities

Make a scary story: These can be written, shared, or created as a family. Make sure your child takes part in the telling and listens when other family members are telling their part.
Spooky voices: Have your child talk like their favorite Halloween character by asking things like: “what does a witch sound like?” or “What does a monster sound like?”

Executive Function Activities

Hidden little pumpkin: Leading up to Halloween, hide a small pumpkin around the house every day and have your children search for it. You can even create Halloween riddles that give clues as to where it might be. This requires working memory and problem solving.
Halloween freeze dance: Make a Halloween playlist to play freeze dance! Every time the music stops, your child has to freeze until it starts again. This exercises inhibitory control, an important part of executive function.

other ways one can help sensory-challenged children get the most out of this fun autumnal celebration

Pumpkin decorating
Carving or painting pumpkins can help develop fine motor skills. You can also decorate other produce items.
Corn mazes
Can help kids exercise problem solving, memory, and leadership skills.
Making a Halloween sock puppet
Use a sock and art supplies to make a sock puppet of a Halloween character.
Pumpkin sensory bag
Create a pumpkin sensory bag with the pumpkin goop to help tune fine motor skills and sensory play.
Preparing for trick-or-treating
Talk to your child about what to expect on Halloween, such as noises they might hear and lights that might flash. You can also read a book or show a video of children trick-or-treating.

Halloween can help children learn that scary things are pretend and that Halloween is just for fun. It can also help children manage their reactions to emotions and develop emotional regulation skills.

Pumpkin Sensory Bag

Materials Needed:

• Pumpkin
• Gallon size sealable plastic bag
• Permanent marker
• Tape

Directions:

After you cut open the pumpkin and take the top off, you can have your child look at the contents inside. They may not be too keen on touching the inside, but this bag is the perfect way to introduce the different parts of the pumpkin without having to actually touch the goopy insides.
Draw a jack o lantern face on the bag! As the bag fills up, it will look like another pumpkin is coming to life!
Scoop out the inside of the pumpkin into a gallon size plastic bag.
Once the goop is inside the bag, seal it with some tape at the top for extra security!
Now comes the fun part! Have your child play with the bag:

Play With the Sensory Bag

They can squish around the goop in the bag, which is great for their sense of touch and understanding what the inside of a pumpkin feels like.

You can also have your child count how many seeds are in the bag, push the seeds around, or trace the outline of the jack o lantern face. Pushing seeds around and tracing the shapes of the jack-o’-lantern face helps with children’s fine motor skills!

Many kids will love squishing the pumpkin goop around, but some kids may be hesitant to touch the actual goop. This is a great way to introduce the contents of a pumpkin without them actually having to touch it or getting overly messy!

Halloween Made Easier for Children with Sensory Issues