Last year, Halloween was a challenge for Luke Taylor.
His mom, Omairis Taylor, didn’t think he’d need to carry a blue bucket indicating he had autism; he was so little at age 2, she reasoned, that she could just speak for him. But after four or five houses, it was clear that Luke, who is nonverbal, was feeling stressed. Other kids lined up behind him as well-meaning grown-ups waited for him to say “trick or treat.”
The noise, the lights and the crowding left him overwhelmed and clinging to his mom.