Child Sense: Take the spooky’ out of Halloween for your little one

Posted in Holidays & Seasonal
by Lorain County Moms

By Priscilla J. Dunstan, McClatchy-Tribune

Just after the back-to-school sales end, the shelves start filling with Halloween costumes, ornaments and candy. The excitement starts for many children; so also starts many of the hidden fears that accompany the season of scares.

Although all children react in their own unique way, there are similarities to their interpretation based on their dominant sense. Use this to anticipate what will scare them, and how to alleviate their fears, quickly and constructively.

Tactile children will love the whole lead-up to Halloween. So many things to do and help with! Putting up decorations, trying on costumes and running around, putting candy into the bowls and carving pumpkins. It’s the “doing “of things they will enjoy the most, and this will also help them to understand that the ghouls and witches who come to the door are only for a special one-night affair. They may have dreams of trick-or-treating themselves, especially if they have older siblings. Try to remember their age, and organize a daytime young kids neighborhood event, where they can still “go trick or treating,” without the dark, scare factor.

Auditory children would have already picked up on the scary sounds, as they have been walking into shops and various department stores, and it will be these sounds that will scare them the most. De-sensitize them to this by letting them listen to their favorite happy music, while playing in their costumes, or when opening the door to scary-looking monsters. Talk to them about what things have gone into each costume, “Look, he’s wearing those monster feet we saw at the store yesterday” and “How do you think she made that mask?” If they get a fright from one of the costumes, ask the wearer to remove the mask and talk about where they got their costume.

Visual children can be prepared by spending the weeks or days leading up to Halloween by drawing and coloring scary pictures. Show them photos of your own scary costumes, made when you were a kid. A lot of magazines have costume ideas, and scary pictures that can be looked at. Letting them help with the decorations, and asking them to help make them look scarier, will help them understand that costumes are supposed to look mean and nasty. Explain that Halloween is sort of an opposite day, where nice people try to look mean, and pretty people try to look ugly, and then talk and draw examples of this. Encourage them to at least try on a mean looking costume, so they can learn that it is all just scary dress up, and not real.

Taste and smell children tend to be sensitive and easily scared at the best of times. These children will need extra care during this scary season, as they already have a vibrant fantasy world. These children are best sheltered as much as possible, by creating a more pleasant atmosphere around Halloween. Early trick or treating, pumpkin carving parties and perhaps a vetting of who they answer the door to, will help prevent those inevitable nightmares caused by too much stimulation.

Taste and smell children will really feel the fear, so try to be as compassionate as possible, and age appropriate. You might consider even having two candy stops at your house: one for scary monsters and one for Disney characters.

It’s quite normal for young children to be frightened during Halloween, as they developmentally are only just learning to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Try to be as compassionate as possible and have a Happy Halloween!

Priscilla J. Dunstan is a child and parenting behavior expert and consultant and the author of “Child Sense,” and creator of the Dunstan Baby Language. Learn more about Priscilla and her parenting discoveries at www.childsense.com.