The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

A post on the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) website, called “What’s Too Scary,” begins this way:

“As Halloween approaches, Marilou Hyson, PhD, former associate executive director at NAEYC, talks about young children’s fears. Much of Marilou’s research and writing has focused on early childhood emotional development.”

In one part of her article, Hyson provides these tips about handling fears related to Halloween:

“Halloween has become a kind of adult holiday (which was not at all true a few generations ago), and with adults and teens dressing up as figures from horror movies and going to extremes to scare other adults (a harder task than scaring a little kid), we need to make sure there is a firm line against violent/bloody/gory and generally horrific images. Not just because they are ‘too scary’ but because they do not represent the values or images that we want our children to be exposed to.

“Pretend play is children’s main way of making sense of their world. Through play, children can master fears and difficult experiences by reinventing them in a playful way. If Halloween can be another opportunity for children to engage in well-supported pretend play, then it has the potential to support children’s development.”

More support for children’s emotional development and creativity can be found in Exchange Essentials article collections such as Emotional Well-Being, (with articles such as “Valuing Emotions in Children and Adults” by Madhavi Sudarsana), and Promoting Creativity in Children, (with articles such as “How Creative is Your Early Childhood Classroom?” by Vanessa Ewing and Laura Tuthill).