Halloween is right around the corner!

With Halloween coming up, now is a good time to review AOTA's Tip Sheet for Enjoying Halloween with Sensory Challenges. You can also read my Halloween tips here and tips from Sensory Smart Parents by clicking here. Lisa Quinones-Fontanez also shared some great tips on To The Max on Making Halloween Fun For Kids With Autism.

Yahoo Voices has some recommendations for Halloween costumes for sensitive kiddos, using mostly clothing that your child already wears to create a costume. That may make it easier for your child to accept wearing the costume.

Some tasty treats for Halloween:

Simple Pumpkin Cookies from Stephanie at Early Intervention Speech Therapy
And here are a couple of my favorites from last year:
Sweet and Salty Pumpkin Seeds
Dirt and Worms (this recipe helps develop fine motor skills, too!)

Halloween crafts:

Handprint Spider from Housing a Forest
Fall leaf fine motor craft 
4 Halloween Fine Motor Activities from MamaOT
Fine motor pumpkin from Embrace Your Chaos
Clothespin Spiders

Get messy:

Pumpkin spice playdough

Visit Growing a Jeweled Rose to learn how to make pumpkin scented paint or pumpkin scented cloud dough.
If your little ones aren't quite ready to get messy, Miss Mancy has a great Touch, Feel, and Sort Halloween activity, which also works on fine motor skills. Gotta love that!

Get up and move:

Ghost bowling from No Time for Flashcards (works on fine motor skills, too!)
Miss Mancy has a fun spider maze to work on lots of OT skills.
Take those pumpkins outside and do some chuckin' pumpkin painting. I love this idea from Childhood Beckons!

Read:

Sensory Smart Parent recommends reading the book, Go Away Big Green Monster, with your child prior to Halloween, to address fears and how to manage them.



Pam Dahm, of Chit Chat and Small Talk, shared a Trick or Treating Social Story. Social stories are another great way to help prepare your child for Halloween.


What are you doing to prepare your child for Halloween?