SAN DIEGO —
You may notice trick-or-treaters this year carrying blue buckets for their candy. Parents with children with autism started this new trend to try and make Halloween friendlier for non-verbal children.
Amy Munera has 3 children on the autism spectrum and has seen it first hand: neighbors who tell children they have to say “trick or treat” before they can get a piece of candy.
“If my child doesn't say trick or treat and someone says something to them, I just explain it to them, but we're very open about our diagnosis,” said Munera.
Munera, who is President of Autism Society San Diego, also understands that some families don't want to have that conversation over and over again.That’s why she supports a new trend: nonverbal children carrying around blue candy buckets to let neighbors know that communicating can be challenging.
“There are kids who aren't going to talk because they have autism, because they're shy, kids with ongoing developmental disabilities - there are any number of kids going through things and we don't know what these people's circumstances are,” said Munera. “So I just feel like, just be kind.”
The blue buckets are so new that Amy believes it'll be a few years before people really understand what they're all about and she knows even then they're not the perfect solution, but if they encourage some children who would otherwise stay home to go trick or treating, then she supports them.
More than 1,000 people liked our Facebook post on Wednesday regarding the blue Halloween buckets.
“Everybody wants to celebrate Halloween - who doesn't like Halloween?” said Munera.
News 8 checked out a variety of large stores like Walmart and Party City, but couldn’t find any of these blue candy buckets. However, we did see a number of them available online.