Halloween is a special time for kids to dress up as their favorite characters, go trick-or-treating, and be a part of a unique community for one night. You could argue that Halloween could be one of the most, if not the most, inclusive holiday, as it allows children with disabilities to take part and have fun. For a night, they’re not defined by their disability but by their costume.
A perfect example is my son, who we’ve been encouraging to use his gait trainer more. To further that encouragement, we decided we wanted to incorporate his gait trainer into his costume this year. We found countless costume ideas online. Whether it’s Google, Pinterest, or another website, you can find plenty of unique costume ideas for gait trainers, wheelchairs, and more.
We had multiple costume ideas, including a spider, a dragon, and other outlandish options. However, as he’s still only 18 months old, just like any toddler on Halloween, carrying him was going to be inevitable, so we wanted to come up with a costume that, while incorporating the gait trainer, was not dependent on the gait trainer to make sense.
The door of inspiration was opened to us one day when we stumbled upon a hand-me-down Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles onesie. Things quickly snowballed from there.
We decided to dress our little guy as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and transform his gait trainer into the Turtle’s Party Wagon (Turtle van.)
I had access to the perfect-sized cardboard box, which fit on top of the gain trainer, and allowed him to move around with his hands and arms supported. I made the construction straightforward by prioritizing lightweight design for mobility. Only cardboard, paper, and glue went into the construction.
I am an old-school TMNT kid from the 80s. I had all the figures, the classic Blimp, the Pizza Thrower, and of course the original Party Wagon, so for the design, there was only ever one option! Using my childhood toy as inspiration, I created something I was thrilled with by combining paint, markers, colored pencils, and my home printer. I even took some extra time to take a few creative liberties on the stickers to better suit our Ninja Turtle.
Speaking of the stickers, that’s one thing I came away proud of. While paying homage to the stickers that came with the original Party Wagon, I created stickers inspired by Harrison. I included an “AMC Awareness” sticker, an “On AFO Power” sticker, and a “Toddler Gait Trainer: Harrison” sticker.
Looking back, I wish I had been better prepared for the emotional toll of the process and the outcome.
The emotional effect the costume had on me on Halloween caught me a bit off guard. As we went trick-or-treating, walking down a street in a subdivision with our son, along with a handful of his cousins, I noticed something. As we passed other families going through the same routine as we were with their kids, they didn’t see a disabled kid struggling to keep up. Instead, they saw a kid dressed up as a ninja turtle, cruising in his party wagon. They saw a kid simply trick-or-treating like the dozens of other kids. The lack of arm movement, or that he was wearing AFOs, wasn’t the source of their attention, or what caused lingering looks. They didn’t hesitate to approach him or comment on his really cool costume.
Even after we had to carry him, people that we had passed previously would ask him where his ride was. New people, who had missed out on seeing the party wagon portion of the costume, still knew immediately what his costume was. He was our Ninja Turtle. His gait trainer, Party Wagon, was simply an accessory we didn’t have with us. It wasn’t a requirement. For a night, it wasn’t a therapy tool. It wasn’t anything that defined him, and that was the best thing.
Until he can choose his own costume, I’ll continue to try to include his gait trainer in our plans, as a part of his costume. Hopefully, I’ll be as successful as I was this past Halloween. Incorporating the giant trainer coolly, but not in a way that the costume requires, and that will work and be identifiable with or without it.
On holidays like Halloween, those moments are key. Not only to a kid who might have struggles or disabilities, but to those around them. Halloween opens the door, where a kid who may have a tool or accessory that they rely on, such as a wheelchair or gait trainer, to not be defined by those things, in the eyes of strangers, but to be defined in the same threshold as all the other children around them.