Aspergers with Teen.

[aimaleigh1]

Does anyone have tips with dealing with a teen boy with Aspergers. Is it hard to get the disability pass?

 

[gap2368]

well it depends on his needs the DAS pass is easy to get if needed. you will need to go to GR and exspain his needs as it has to do with waiting in lines not his DX but his needs

I find just going in and saying I have some concerns about the lines and telling the CM what they are works best.

I also would not really solo on the DAS but on other comping things to help him out while in the park. depending on what he finds hard or his challenges are will depend on what he needs to do to help make the day better.

one thing I do that has really helped me is to take a break every few hours and have what I call a self check. nosies really get to me and some times it take a few minutes to be in a quiet area for me to realize I have been around to much noise ( I also were noise canceling headphones ) and just need a break from it all this might mean I sit on a bench for a bit or go in first aid for a rest or even back to the hotel but just taking a minute or two out of my day to really think what do I need has helped a whole lot.

 

[persimmondeb]

Ours is 24 now, but we certainly took him as a teen (successfully). We never bothered with the DAS (although it had a different name and worked a little differently then), but just planned carefully and worked around things, partly with the idea that waiting in line is a skill worth cultivating, even if it is harder for him than it is for most people.

He did take a school trip where they had it, and was somewhat disgruntled to realize we had known about it all along and wouldn't be getting one. I did explain than for some of his classmates it was a necessity, not a convenience, and that was why the thing existed. He is better about waiting in line as an adult. We still plan carefully. He still loves Disney (and traveling with his parents).

Only you know if a little effort will be fine (with the reward of making lines easier for your teen in the long run) or if it will just be miserable with no measurable gain.

We did find that periodic inside breaks, particularly with food, were a good idea. And that large crowded food courts were a bad idea, especially towards the end of the day/with a very hungy kid.

 

[PrincessV]

My 17yo has High-Functioning Autism - we live near WDW and have visited often since he was born, so we've found lots of ways to make it work. Primarily, it's a matter of limiting overstimulation time - crowds, noise, visual overflow, he just can't take more than a couple ours of it at a time. Meals help give him a break, and we rarely do more than 4-5 hours in a park at a time. Quieter attractions are good breaks, too: the Seas, Living with the Land, wandering around countries in EP, walking the trails or doing the safari in AK. Until Galaxy's Edge opens in DHS, there isn't much there that interests him, so we keep our time limited there, though Sci-Fi is a great spot for a meal to decompress. MK is the hardest park for him, and he's usually done with it after a couple hours. He brings noise-canceling headphones and will wear them as needed.

We used to just skip anything with a long wait, but recently asked about DAS and found it to be helpful: my son was able to do some rides he enjoys that we can't usually get FPs for because they're gone by the time our 30-day window opens.

As his mom, the hardest thing for me is guessing when he's hit "ENOUGH." Heat + crowds + noise + inadequate food and/or hydration is a bad mix, so I just try to remind him to eat and drink, and when he starts seeming agitated, I get us somewhere quiet. If quiet and food/drink don't help, we bail and head out.

 

[clm10308]

We took my daughter many times as a teen before she was officially diagnosed.
We never had any issues with her waiting in lines, but she had more difficulties with the actual rides or shows. Even as an adult now, she absolutely refuses to do Its Tough to Be A Bug. She was very much a rule follower, so she would walk with us in lines and then wait by the exit for anything that she did not want to do. We never had concerns that she would wonder off.

She does run out of steam before the rest of us, so we took breaks as needed (lots of snack stops) and made sure to do some the things she likes even if others might not care about those. Once she was around 16 we would let her go back to the room on her own when ever she was ready.

 

[fabfemmeboy]

I'm an aspie and used to have SO many issues with theme parks, Disney included. The biggest two were a) fear of all rides because I felt like I didn't know what would happen and b) being overwhelmed by the crowd/lines/noise/etc. The first is helped a lot by watching ride videos ahead of time - it means I can know when things will jump out at me or turn suddenly and be prepared. The second is helped by a DAS. It means I spend a lot less time in an enclosed area with people right up on me and talking all around, etc., and for me that dramatically improves the amount of time I can spend in the park without melting down. The process was easier than expected, and I got the feeling that the CMs were used to explanations for DAS having to do with the spectrum. They asked what my concerns were/what would happen if I waited in line, and I told them; they asked how long I thought I could wait in line and I told them; then they set me up with the pass. The way I see it, why not try? The worst that can happen is that they say no or that it doesn't help...but it might do a lot of good for your son.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Keep in mind, with DAS , that is just for ride and attraction lines, not the lines for everything else, the crowd levels, no public outdoor seating, or fireworks/parades. So you need a plan for the other 80% of being in the Parks.

 

[gap2368]

Keep in mind, with DAS , that is just for ride and attraction lines, not the lines for everything else, the crowd levels, no public outdoor seating, or fireworks/parades. So you need a plan for the other 80% of being in the Parks.

They just changed the rules for parade and fireworks ( at the MK) you can use the designated area if you have a disability and need the area I Just it a number of times for both parade and fireworks as did other non mobile disabled people some CM asked if you had a disability some did not ( they never asked me but I did walk up with my nois canceling head phone on and I was stemming too so it was kind of Obvious That I needed the extra room other times the CM just ask if I had a disability and if I needed the area witch I answers yes too. I did not go into any detail on why at all )

 

[lanejudy]

They just changed the rules for parade and fireworks ( at the MK) you can use the designated area if you have a disability and need the area

Thanks for reporting this, @gap2368. I’m curious, though... have they enlarged these areas? I’ve never tried for the fireworks but we have used the HA areas for parades a few times and it was always very crowded. I hesitate to suggest this for someone who needs “space” because in my experience that isn’t necessarily available and no way to guarantee it. We stopped using the HA area with DD’s special needs stroller and simply arrive early for parades and try to spread ourselves out a bit (seems we always end up closer together by parade time anyway but if we start off with more space it works ok for us).

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[gap2368]

The times I used it it was crowded but not as much as outside I did have a little more room then I would have no one was pushing me touching me like every time I watched the parade before ( unless I watched from farther back ). I used the spot in the hub and the CM said they have a large area or a smaller area depending on the needs. It was a few years ago that a CM let me use the area so I am not sure if the area is bigger or not. The black line is where I think the area started the red line is about where it ends if they are using the smaller one and the red line is if they are using the larger area The red and yellow lines where the entrance exit was and the CM had a walk way taped off so no one was to the right I often stood In this spot ( some of the time towards the back ) I used the one close to the fire station for MNSSH parade and it was very empty. The fireworks ones looks to be the same size but still has so much more room then Main Street and no one was turned away that I saw

I will say for people that need more room how much room you need will determine if the area is ok for you for me if no one is directly in front of my vision ( so someone sitting in a wheelchair is ok someone standing would not me ) and no one is tuching me bumping into me ( so a few inches I do not talking a foot radius )

 

[fabfemmeboy]

Keep in mind, with DAS , that is just for ride and attraction lines, not the lines for everything else, the crowd levels, no public outdoor seating, or fireworks/parades. So you need a plan for the other 80% of being in the Parks.

It depends on how crowded things are and what the plan for the day is. For me, I can usually deal with the general crowd levels in the park if we don't go at a packed time and/or I have the DAS pass because it greatly reduces the time I feel penned in and surrounded by people and chatter and whatnot. If I didn't have the pass, then there are days that the noise in restaurants would drive me out of my skin, but if I've not felt like wall-to-wall people the rest of the morning then the amount of chatter at lunch or the crowded parade route usually won't bug me too badly. Obviously everyone on the spectrum is different, what is true for me may not be true for him, but at least in my experience the relief of ride/attraction lines is much closer to 60% than 20% of trigger points of being in the Parks.

 

[gatormom2tots]

14 year old on the spectrum. We use it along with planning. Our son can only last about 3-4 hours in the parks max so we combine with with fps, going later in the evenings (he doesn't handle heat very well), and he uses his phone and earbuds to help block out some of the other sensory overloads. If its really crowded, he only makes it about 2 hours. Without the DAS it would be very difficult for our family of 6 to enjoy the parks together due to his inability to stay in the parks for an extended period of time. We have also finding staying onsite helps tremendously as he is a highly gifted ASD kiddo so he can hang out in the room to escape while the rest of us do the pool, hang out at the resort, etc.