Public Service Announcement for friends and family members: sometimes holidays are really hard for kids with disabilities. There’s the problem of sensory overload, with crowded spaces and special foods and all the hype. And with the 4th of July in particular, there are the fireworks.

Fireworks can be seen as fun and beautiful and celebratory. They also can seem like unexpected and totally unpredictable blasts of terrible and terrifying noise. For all kids, but especially kids with intellectual disabilities or processing disorders, fireworks can be incredibly stressful and frightening.

When Penny was younger, she wouldn’t even go outside to look at fireworks in the distance because they provoked so much fear. She still has no interest in fireworks up close. But now—after many years of camping out in the kitchen—we sit outside with everyone else, at a considerable distance from the fireworks in our town, and we enjoy the show together.

So, if your child (or your grandchild, or your friend’s child) needs to stay inside for fireworks this week, that’s okay. You can just support that decision without judgment or shame, and ideally with some way to make sure that child doesn’t end up alone.

There are lots of ways to celebrate.

MORE WITH AMY JULIA:

• Ableism at the County Fair
• Why Belonging Matters
• How Language Shapes Our Imagination

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