Brittany Cartwright Has a Genius Trick to Help Her Non-Verbal Son Enjoy Trick or Treating
Brittany Cartwright is making Halloween special for her son, Cruz.
The Bravo personality’s four-year-old child is autistic and mostly nonverbal. But she’s not letting that stop him from participating in the time-honored tradition of trick-or-treating. On Sunday, she took to social media to share how she’s preparing for this year’s holiday.
Brittany Cartwright shares ‘great hack’ with other parents of autistic kids
“Non verbal parents,” Brittany, 36, wrote on her Instagram Story. “I was thinking about trick or treating last year and I felt like a lot of people expected Cruz to say ‘trick or treat’ and ‘thank you’ so to prepare for trick or treating this year I found these buttons on Amazon that record for 30 seconds, so I’m going to record ‘trick or treat’ on one and ‘thank you’ on the other so Cruz can push them while he’s out enjoying Halloween!”
“I thought this was a great hack to share and we will be trying it out this year!” The Valley star added. She included a link to the buttons and Amazon and added that she was planning on decorating them with Halloween-themed stickers to make them festive.
In a video, Brittany explained that Cruz does have an AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) device to help him communicate. But he can get “very distracted” by the tablet.
“I wanted to make sure that he had individual buttons so that he could actually fully enjoy the day just like everybody else,” she said.
‘The Valley’ star calls Cruz her ‘partner in crime’
Earlier this year, Brittany opened up about Cruz’s autism diagnosis in an interview with People.
“He crawled early, he walked early,” the Vanderpump Rules alum sad. “He was talking, he was saying, ‘Mommy,’ ‘Daddy.’ He was saying ‘Hot Dog!’ from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Then, as he got closer to 2, we started noticing that he was regressing in his speech. He stopped talking almost completely.”
When Cruz’s doctor told his Brittany and her ex, Jax Taylor, that their son had autism, they weren’t shocked. But it did make the situation more “real.” Brittany stressed that Cruz’s diagnosis hasn’t altered the love she has for her child.
“Our life is going to look a little bit different, but I feel like I was meant to be his mom,” she said. “He is my better half. He is my little partner in crime. He is everything to me, and even though he can’t talk, I know everything that he wants, everything that he needs. We’re just so synced, it’s incredible.”
Brittany added that dealing with her son’s diagnosis could be “challenging.” However, she says she can’t imagine her life being any different.
“It can be sad at times because you want them to live life to the fullest, and he does, he just does it in a different way,” she said. “What I really want people to understand about autism is he sees the world so much more vibrant and amazing than any of us ever will. It doesn’t mean that he’s not going to be the smartest in his class. It doesn’t mean he is not going to work for NASA one day. There aren’t any limitations to what he can do.”
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