Sensory Friendly Halloween for Kids of All Needs

For those of you who don't know..our oldest daughter Emmie has Special Needs. She's in a special day class at school with kids in the same boat and they all have many different needs. Halloween can be a scary time for these kids and we wanted them all to have a good time with no triggers.

We also have a 'typical' daughter so I know from both sides of the parenting party world what the challenges are. It doesn't take much extra effort to invite that kid that may seem 'different' to your child's party but honestly it may make a HUGE difference in their world to feel invited (even if they don't come for sensory reasons).

We kept the commotion/noise down by inviting less kids and only had a selection of a few activities.

We ordered Chic Fil A catering to keep the cooking noise down and the kids were super happy with that (so was I to be honest :).

INVITE

I always make it easy to track but sending a paperless post invite out! On the invite for the kids in Emmie's class I included a note about siblings welcome but that this may be a good opportunity for our kids to feel like they had something for just them! I also asked if there were any triggers so we could avoid that! One friend was scared of large spiders so we took that out of the decor....another friend was scared of balloons. We wanted to make it a comfy party with no fears/triggers.

ACTIVITIES

I was going to head down the Gingerbread Haunted House Decorating route but with the tricky assembly I went cookies! Always a hit and easy to do for all kids! The messier the better!

I picked up these BAKERY BLING cookie kits from AMAZON

ENTERTAINMENT

We've been friends with Leesa from Send in the Clowns since the beginning of Teak & Lace and she had mentioned having sensory friendly characters that are a little more quiet and sweet for the kiddos. The normal characters that are a blast for 'typical' kids can sometimes be to much for a child with sensory issues or autism SO we went with a SWEET WITCH. The kids LOVEEEDDD her just sitting on the ground with them doing glitter tattoos and magic! (yes the ice berg lives in our backyard now lol).

CANDY

What's Halloween without a candy bar?! I did a good mix of candy & toys to offer an alternative to sugar!

THE BIGGEST HITS were the GUMMY EARTH WORMS from ORIENTAL TRADING & the VAMPIRE TEETH. I turned the talking eye ball bowl off just incase and added some friendly trick or treating animal ghosts :) Rentals by TEAK & LACE of course!

BLUE PUMPKINS

There are Blue Pumpkins out this year that I hear are at Walmart but I haven't seen yet.

PLEASE keep a look out for KIDS and ADULTS with these pumpkins this year!

The blue pumpkin means that these kiddos may look to old to trick or treat BUT they still love Halloween like a kid and to please keep their spirits up by sharing candy with them as well!