A lot of posting about autism

[cabowser]

Hi, I am Jan and I have 6 kids, three of whom are coming with me and my dh in June for a week to WDW. We are staying at FT. Wilderness at a cabin because our son Charlie, who is nearly 5 and has autism, knows and loves cabin camping.

I was surprised to find such a huge amount of information about autism and would like to hear anything about anyone who has dealt with some of these issues even off the board if anyone would like to email me at cjbowser@verizon.net

I am concerned that Charlie will have a hard time with the noise, I am also afriad that once he gets off the ride he will immediately want to go right back on and that will cause a meltdown.

Plus he doesn't eat regular food much, except chicken nuggets from McDonalds while we are out and we NEVER go into a restaurant with him because he just can't stay at our table with us.

Waiting in lines should be awful, we will get the GAC, I have his current IEP with his assessments just in case.

The car ride down (18 hours at least) we are going to break into two days and we just bought a DVD player that will play his movies over and over and will also allow Jon, his 6 year old brother to play his video games. But it is the nights that have me the most concerned. I know that in order to keep him on schedule we will have to be out of the parks by about 6 and back to the cabin, otherwise he will be up until Midnight and then want to sleep until 10 and the next night up until 2 am, sleeping until noon.....it is a wicked cycle!

I will hate to miss the fireworks and stuff, but his sleep cycle is more important.

we are also taking our 14 month old daughter. Our other three kids are in college.

Jan

 

[Nik's Mom]

Just wanted to send a hug your way. My ds will be 6 in May and is also autistic. We chose to stay at AKL because he is an animal fanatic. Don't worry, you will have a great trip. There was a great thread a couple of months ago that gave great tips on going to WDW with autistic children. Try to find that thread. It was several pages long!

 

[Evil Queen]

Well if noises bother him, like my DS9 (Asperger's) than you may not get to see the fireworks, mine won;t for the life of him. If staying more than 2 nights, one night you take him back to Cabin, let the other's enjoy the show, next night swap off. My DS9 is trying earplugs this year for noises on rides, etc. He seems so excited, but he knows what rides he hates due to noises.

Lines, possible gameboys, games (flashcards, I spy). Some folks brings bubbles, I am thinking tattos, but my son goes nuts with those and they will be all over him. Am hoping maybe other parents will let him apply "nice" ones to their kids in line, if not, I'll be the tattoo queen.

Break up the day if possible, with a trip back to the cabin. Then if wanting to try fireworks head back to the parks. You may be able to duck into a show, ride or shop during fireworks too.

 

[cabowser]

It is nice to know that others are facing the same things that we are. I am just thankful that we have Charlie now. I had three kids when I was 18-21. if I had a child with autism then, I don't think I could have handled it very well, esp. because my husband left to marry his boss. So I was alone for 13 years. My Dh and I are in our 40's and I think that the maturity that we have now helps a lot. Also Charlie is sandwiched between Jonathan 6 - and Rachel 14 months. So he needs a lot more care than anyone else does, but I have plenty of time to give him because I stay at home with them.

I am looking forward to Disney in June, but still kind of scared too...

Jan

 

[mbb]

Know why?

You know that sleep is more important than fireworks!!

...we saw our first Night Sparkles from our room at the Polynesian...no loud noises, just oh so pretty Every trip, we find we do a little more and it's as magical the 4th time as it was the first..

Enjoy your family vacation, Jan...our thrill is that we're out there, just like everyone else, doin' family stuff, making our own magic

 

[leise]

...because you are not expecting the magic that you will no doubt find !

My son sounds soooo much like yours, he is 6, and autistic, and we've now taken him to WDW twice, and DLP twice. He loves it, and has learnt so much. Like how to queue for a short time for something he REALLY LOVES! We have used the GAC to get him to try things, because if he has to queue for something he doesn't know, he freaks. But we were stunned to find he is able to queue for 45 mins for his favourite rides.
Restaurants are getting better, but we still are grateful if we get to eat one course. If it wasn't for Mcdonalds he would starve, I'm sure.
Fireworks were the worst thing in the world for him, and we went to great lengths to avoid them. Then in December we got caught out, and we were trying frantically to get out of MK as Wishes started, only to notice that he was sitting in his buggy enjoying them, not screaming with his hands over his ears at all....
And the routine is totally shot to pieces for us anyway, as we have 5 hours of jetlag to contend with (wakes up 3am, goes to bed 5pm for whole first week of holiday). He seems to adapt to his change in routine after a few days, though not the change in hours! He just carries on life as a (very early) morning person...
We've never had a problem with noise in the Disney resorts (other than the noise he makes), although the parks can be noisy. It doesn't seem to bother him , but last time we went we had a camcorder, and watching it back you realise how noisy the parks are all the time. I know some people get ear plugs for their kids, we haven't tried this.

It pays to be prepared for anything really (as always with these kids!). My son makes so many improvements during our Disney holidays, but sometimes that's hard for him to come to terms with. If he tries new things and pushes back his boundaries it's a big thing for him and can be quite overwhelming. Last time this meant he had a few days where he was very hard to move on from one thing to the next, and became less flexible. After one particularly hard day with him when he refused to get out of the pool, we started drawing him up a visual timetable (grand name for some very small simple doodles really), to show him what was happening that day, and that really helped. He started asking for his favourite things, and participating in planning the day.

Hope this helps, the key is to go with the flow, I think....

 

[cabowser]

I am wondering how best to try to introduce some sort of ear protection to Charlie without him just rejecting it right away. Any hints from anyone who has been there?

Jan

 

[MommytoMJM]

My daughter has SID, severe speech delay and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder which give her some autistic type behaviors....anyway, she is also afraid of/doesn't like loud noises....she didn't like the ear plugs that went into her ears, but was ok with ear muffs (she chose so she likes to wear them) they have saved us often!

Let me know if I can help...

 

[Evil Queen]

I wish I had an answer. Maybe start with the wax ones, if he'll let you pull them out.

My son, being 9, is wanting the earplugs and seems so relieved that he will have them.

Like the other poster, my son gets better with every trip, it's simply amazing. It really can be a magical place.

Mine is still not keen on the fireworks, but wants the plugs for like POTC, etc. He loves the ride, hates the cannons.

 

[tinkerbelle22]

Someone suggested using those noise reduction head phones that they use in hunting. (Although I'm at a loss re: finding a hunting store). Apparently you can get a small one suitable for children. I'm going to try it this time. Our ASD DS would never permit ear plugs (even tho they make great ones now). He's not aware that the ear phones may make him stand out - and I certainly don't mind...if it works!

 

[MommytoMJM]

Any firearms store will have the sort of ear protection you are talking about, that is what we use with my daughter...(I used to be a competitive shooter)

 

[ak_pilot_wife]

You may have all the info you need, but I'm new to the board and reading all the Autism-related messages!

We introduced noise-reduction headphones (by Sony) to our 4 year old this year. He hated plugs, and was very reluctant with the head phones. These aren't nearly as large or heavy as muffs, so thought we'd have good luck with them. We hooked his head phones into Dad's iPod, and let him listen to Dad's music! He felt cool (we think, from the slight smirk on his face!) since he sees Dad with the iPod a lot. After this introduction, we tried again with noisy situation: took him on the snowmobile with iPod playing. Next we tried just the headphones, no iPod (diesel truck running, and he had to walk up and get in). He did great! Handed me the headphones as soon as he was in his booster and said "that wasn't so bad." I did the happy dance! Now we just have the headphones, no iPod, and he asks for them when needed.

Pam

 

[SueM in MN]

I just wanted to say that MK is very noisy and irritating for even adults without autism (like me, for example). My DD has cerebral palsy and multiple disabilities, including ADD. When she was little, she spent a lot of time in MK with her thumb in her mouth and her arms/hands over her ears (not easy to do with spasticity in your arms and your thumb in your mouth).
Anyway, this website Pixie Dust Inn, has some good info/suggestions about WDW for people with sensitivities. I noticed that she hass not updated it since Jan 2004, so some of the links don't work anymore. But it has a lot of good info.

Here's a selection of some recent threads regarding autism.
FIrst time going to WDW
Flying with child with autism
Autistic child wandering
Have fun