Ways To Make Your Easter Egg Hunt More Inclusive
Easter is on its way and for millions of families the Easter egg hunt is a tradition loved by many...unless you are a parent of a child with special needs. They can be very overwhelming; the large crowds; the loud noises; and then there's the inaccessibility. Here at SpecialKids.Company we believe Easter should be for everyone!
So we have come up with a list of ways how you can adapt your child's Easter egg hunt to their individual needs. Not only will this help create a calmer more inclusive setting, but you are also creating precious memories for years to come. Happy Easter to all!
- Preparation: Help prepare your child for the experience by using visual aids to explain what will happen during the Easter Egg hunt and whether it will be indoors or outdoors. Also include pictures of who will be at the event, allowing them time to process the information.
- Stay at Home: For children who find social gatherings overwhelming why not have the Easter Egg hunt at home instead and allow your child to go at a pace that best suits their sensory needs?
- Avoid Disappointment: When there are other children involved, avoid the competition and disappointment of them not getting any eggs by colour coding the eggs or writing names on the eggs so each child knows to leave those eggs alone.
- Multisensory experience: When your child has cognitive impairments and other challenging conditions, help them to feel calm and avoid any meltdowns with sensory buckets. Fill the buckets with rice, sand, pasta or shredded paper and let your child dig around and fish out clues.
- Limited Mobility: Keep things easy by placing eggs at eye level and attaching baskets to walkers/wheelchairs. Give your child independence by tying a balloon to each egg. As your child approaches the eggs they can grab the ribbon themselves. When mobility is impossible, bring the eggs to them so they can still enjoy the experience.
- Visually Impaired: Sound-emitting Easter Eggs are great for blind/visually impaired children when hunting for their eggs. They can locate the eggs by following the loud, beeps. Light-up/glow-in-the-dark eggs are another helpful way for your kids to locate their eggs, especially for children with low vision and CVI cortical visual impairment who have a “need for light”.
- Attention!: For non-verbal kids, getting people's attention when they have found their egg can be a challenge. Whistles and flags help grab the attention of everyone around them ready for the next one.
- Chocolate Egg Alternatives: Avoiding that sugar crash around bedtime is something all parents strive for but for parents of children with food sensitivities it is crucial. Then there are the children who are strictly tube fed. So instead of edibles look at putting small prizes inside eggs:
- Fidget toys / Chewies
- Books
- Stickers
- Crayons
- Baff Bomz
- Hairclips
- Bubbles
- Playdough
- Toys