8 year old with ADHD and Anxiety disorder

[cdamore3]

I am a dad with an 8 year old diagnosed with ADHD, Anxiety, and a couple additional learning disorders. As a child I went to WDW with my family many times and have wonderful memories. I took my son to WDW last year and it didn't go so well. He can not wait in lines and is disruptive to other families when we do try. Thus we were not able to go on more than a few attractions. I have read lots of great information on the posts here but, was wondering if anyone else might be dealing with similar disorders as my sons and what they might have for advice.

Thank you in advance for any feedback.
Chris

 

[1stluvispooh]

Chris I would get a GAC That way you can wait it a quit area. What other problems where you having with his anxiety? Was it he didn't know what to expect so his anxiety was high. If that the case I would go to you tube and check out the ride videos. You might also want to get a map before you leave that way he would know basically the lay of the land. Also get a planning DVD. Prep work seems to work best for my DD's anxiety.

 

[SueM in MN]

In case you didn't see it, there is information about Guest Assistance Cards (GACs) in the disABILITIES FAQs thread.
One thing we found with my nephew who has ADHD was that he could wait much longer and much less dysruptively for things he wanted to see. The line at Splash Mountain was not a problem because he wanted to go on it very badly. He did not want to go to Country Bear Jamboree, so even though the line and wait were much shorter, he was much more disruptive. One thing we found out pretty quickly was that we needed to spread out the things he didn't want to see and intersperce them with things he was interested in.

Using Fastpass helps a lot because when you get to the attraction at your return time, you will have a short wait - usually 5-15 minutes. Also, things like TourGuide Mike that help you figure out what is busy and when helps you to steer away from those things and go on the things with shorter waits. That helps, not only for the lines, but the park in general. WHen it's busy, not only the lines are busy.

There are some past threads that might be helpful to you - links are in the disABILITIES FAQs thread. Some of the thread about autism may be helpful to you too because they have hints about helping with the wait in line.

There is also a thread on this page about a personalized guidebook that a poster is making for her son. Even if you don't put as much time into it as she is doing, it might give you some ideas that would be helpful for your child. Here's a [url="http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1774902']link to that thread[/url].

 

[bookwormde]

Once you have read the FAQ section of this forum, I would look at the Aspergers/ASD threads in this forum and its sub-forum about GAC and the WDW experience in general. While these children additionally have a lack of social skills and sensory sensitivity components to their challenges they do share some of the executive function and anxiety issues that you mentioned.

bookwormde

 

[cdamore3]

I did hear about the GAC but, not until after our trip. I will plan to look into this on this trip in August. We went in August last year also so the heat is an additional factor. My son goes to a summer program and only has a few weeks off in August. He could not handle more than 2 hours a day at any of the parks. He gets overwhelmed/stimulated by the crowds and new experience. I think the GAC with a quiet area to wait will help significantly as it will give him a chance to regroup.

We are also staying at OKW so we will take advantage of the early admission to each park. Also something we didn't do last time. I will take the advice to make a plan of attractions that we are going to go on and then scheduling and mapping them out within the park for efficiency and making sure we rotate with the attractions he wants to see.

It was our first family vacation including flying. I guess I was under prepared. I won't make the mistake again.

Thanks for all your help and advice.
Chris

 

[mamaminnie]

You may want to get one of the planning dvd's and let him watch to see what looks too scary for him. My ds (now 10) will ride any roller coaster but can't ride the Haunted Mansion-- it's just too scary for him.

There are also rides/attractions that may not seem scary but that are very sensory intense (It's TOugh to Be a Bug comes to mind) that it may be better for him to skip.

HTH!

 

[mamacate]

We just got back--my son is currently diagnosed with ADHD, SDI, GAD, and NVLD. I agree with bookwormde--the asperger's/ASD threads were very helpful to me.

One thing we did this year now that he's a little older is that when we showed the GAC to the CM, we asked him or her to describe the ride, and to tell us if there was anything scary. It varied A LOT what he got upset about, and mostly it had to do with unexpected things. Splash Mountain was his favorite ride last time, but this year he got really upset if water sprayed him so he moved on to BTMRR. Another kid told him Stitch was great, so we talked to the CM (because I was worried he'd FREAK), and asked her to describe it. She told us water sprays on you, and he had the chance to think about whether he wanted to go on the ride or not. He decided to do it and enjoyed the ride a lot, much to my surprise. Asking CMs about what the ride was like worked for my NT daughter as well, btw, and with one small exception, the CMs were eager to help and had a good sense of what might be scary or hard for a kid on the ride where they were working.

One other thought is of course to make sure (to the best extent you can) that he gets enough sleep, that he gets the breaks he needs, that he gets into a cool place once in a while, that he doesn't get too hungry...all that stuff that keeps us afloat, but even more so at Disney. Also, at a couple of parks we had a touchstone place or ride that was familiar and I knew he enjoyed. We could go back there to kind of "reset" things as needed when they started to go bad. The GAC made a huge difference in our ability to be flexible.

Cate

 

[SueM in MN]

There are also rides/attractions that may not seem scary but that are very sensory intense (It's TOugh to Be a Bug comes to mind) that it may be better for him to skip.

HTH!

and one thing most of the youtube videos don't show is the waiting area.
For It's Tough to Be a Bug, the waiting area is themed like an underground bug trail/chamber. Low ceilings, everything brown dirt color, music made from bug humming sounds (it's Disney music - like Beauty and the Beast sung by bees).

One thing we did this year now that he's a little older is that when we showed the GAC to the CM, we asked him or her to describe the ride, and to tell us if there was anything scary.

That's a very good suggestion that no one has mentioned before.
The CMs are usually very knowledgeable about their attractions and can describe things like that if you ask.

 

[mechurchlady]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hTWfU29EXek
this is one tape with the sounds

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XRl0bdEKSfI
This shows the preshow area of Tough to be a Bug at Disneyland. It is basically the same as the WDW preshow area.

It is a synthetic type of humming that can get on ones nerves.

 

[bzzymom]

My son is almost 11 and has been diagnosed with anxiety disorder with obsessive manifistations and ADHD. I finally recognized it last summer when he was playing baseball. He played shortstop in the second inning of evey game for 15 games, then the coach changed things around and he had a major meltdown. He is very intellegent, but very fixated on time, numbers, routines etc. He will make "patterns" and it is hard to get him off of it.

As far as WDW, we traveled many times before this. Then all of a sudden , things we noticed at WDW were there and we missed it. For example, he believes that the posted wait time should be exactly the time you get on. He complained throughout the whole ride on IASW that the line took 5 minutes when it said 10 minutes. He just couldn't stop talking about it,. I did not think to go to guest sevices to ask for a GAC. We finally, did have some "down time" to relax, where we would just sit and watch people go by. He hated this and we told him to relax and enjoy the trip or we would go to the room. He got the point and did settle down. It was embarrassing to have him complain and complain in the lines, and on the ride, we had to institute a "quiet zone" so that he won't talk. He loves rides and rollercoasters though, but the only ride he is timid about is ToT because of the lightening special effect.

 

[newtowdw1]

I wonder if it would help to let him plan a day or morning? I don't always subscribe to putting kids in charge, but to control anxiety would this help?

 

[JESW]

The two best things that have helped my ds13 (asperger's) at WDW is his gameboy and pin trading. Both things give him something to focus on other than the lines, crowds and heat. My son NEEDS to be distracted or he makes all of us miserable.

And your son may do better this trip as it is not so "new" to him anymore and he knows what to expect.

We always have to take a break during the day. Either dh or I take ds back to the room for some down time and some days even a nap. The other gets to stay with dd9 and do whatever she wants. Now that we are older, dh & I sometimes disagree on who gets to go back to the room for a nap!

Jill