Ridgewood Therapy

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317 Godwin Avenue
2nd Floor
Midland Park, NJ 07432
201-447-0364
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Kids and Halloween

October 5, 2014 by Susan Donnelly

Outdoor Halloween decorations are getting scarier.  Fake headstones, skeletons coming out of the ground, and huge, lifelike tarantulas are everywhere.  Cute scarecrows, friendly ghosts, and even pumpkins are becoming scarce.  I myself don’t find anything enticing about a sign, dripping blood, which reads “Yul B Next” or a roadside mailbox draped with a massive spider.  However, a quick walk around the neighborhood shows not everyone feels as I do, and enjoy their ghoulish displays.  This is as it should be, except when it concerns very young children, especially those aged 1 to 4.  Young children are not developmentally capable of separating reality and fantasy; they aren’t able to distinguish between what is real and what just looks real.  As much as he might want to, a two year old cannot be convinced that a fake spider which looks real is, in fact, fake.  His brain has not developed to the point where he can make those distinctions.  A trick-or-treater wearing a creepy mask can be truly frightening to a small child, and can precipitate nightmares and other symptoms of anxiety.  Young children may need to be shielded from the more graphic parts of Halloween.  In just a few years, they will be knocking on doors in a scary mask of their own choosing.

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