Lets start with kids who are more on the severe side. If you child can't put two words together, has a low vocabulary, or isn't understandable due to articulation errors, Halloween can be a nightmare. Pun intended.
Over stimulation, darkness, pressure to say "trick or treat" and "thank you" at every turn, and sugar highs! Sounds like a perfect recipe for a tantrum and crappy Halloween pictures. One great way to reduce the stress is to take the speaking part out. I don't usually recommend NOT talking, but for really young kids with big speech problems, it can really make things go more smoothly.
For my preschoolers who may struggle with this, I made little signs for them to take out on Halloween night. One side says "trick or treat" with a candy bag, the other side says "thank you!" Using a picture card instead of words ensures that your child can participate in Halloween with minimal pressure and prevents a possible tantrum on a strangers porch. Win win.
Sound like a great solution for you? Print off these pictures (that I found for free from a google search) and tape them to a pencil or Popsicle stick and enjoy!
If your child can say "trick or treat" and "thank you," you can do some really great activities to build language and practice speech sounds.
SEQUENCING: Knowing the order of action is an important skill for telling stories, following directions, and retelling events (i.e. answering the "tell me what you did today" question). Halloween is a perfect opportunity to practice sequencing! I nabbed a few pics from google of each step of trick or treating (you can increase or decrease the number of steps based on your child's level. Most preschoolers should do 3-4).
Go through each step together, then mix up the pictures and put them in the right order. Have your child tell you what happens in each picture. Then do a real live practice round.
This is also a strategy to reduce anxiety about Halloween. You give your child a chance to know what will happen at every step, and what comes next. Talk about unexpected things that might happen (What if someone jumps out and scares us? What if it we fall down when we are walking?).
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| Step one : Put on your costume! The first thing we do is get dressed. |
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| Step 2: Second, we go to someone's door and knock or ring the door bell. |
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| Step 3: Third, we wait for someone to answer and say "TRICK OR TREAT" (or hold up the sign). Then we get one piece of candy. We also say "Thank You!" |
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| Step 4: Last, We walk to the next house! |
ARTICULATION PRACTICE: There are lots of ways to practice articulation during Halloween. Here are some vocabulary words to practice based on common speech sound errors for preschoolers
P: Pumpkin, popcorn, porch
B: Bat, baby, black
H: Haunt, house, Halloween
K: Cat, candy, cobweb
G: Ghost, grave, goblin
F: Face paint, fang, fairy
M: Monster, mummy, moon
For more Halloween words to practice, go to this site.
