Autism and waiting in lines....

[TheZue]

Our oldest has autism and we went to Disney three times before Kindergarten with him. I used to take him places to practice standing in line because the concept blew his mind. The entire time I'd be talking him through it "we are waiting for everyone else to get their food first then we can get ours!" if we were in drive through. "We are waiting for every one else to pay then it's our turn!" at the grocery store. Even in drive though I'd be talking abut the car waiting in line. Even if we saw somebody on TV we'd talk about it. I basically took him somewhere we'd have to wait at least a minute and up to ten minuted every single day. Tedious as hell. I know it won't work for every kid but it's worth practising anyways.

We were totally unaware of the GAC (predecessor to the DAS) and just stuck with the rides with short lines and followed his lead. We went with zero expectations. He managed anything under 20 minutes at 4 years old and had a great time. When we went back when he was six he was handling the lines really well. At nine he decided that he wanted to wait 2 hours for toy story; I didn't want to but when you have a kid with autism that progresses to that point you do it. I don't think my kid would be have been able to wait in line patiently had we not gone to Disneyland. It motivated me to aggressively work on it and he was motivated by the rides to patiently wait since we pulled him right back out of line if he melted down until he gathered himself.

We've also found vacations good for him in general. It pulls him out of his normal routine enough that he usually makes gains. We had a couple language explosions after trips. It's not always easy. He wasn't potty trained until he was five. He got completely over stimulated on the teacups once and we had to go back to the hotel for a couple hours. Totally worth going though

 

[ClaraOswald]

Yeah, we wait in lines shopping all the time and it's hit or miss. Sometimes he's great...other times awful. He is still behind with receptive language. We tell him things constantly, of course. But we aren't sure how much he's truly understanding. It's hard. He is still essentially non-verbal. Nowhere near ready to potty train.

I will be curious to see how he does in the hotel this time. He did great last time but that was 2 years ago. I know there will be a lot of bumps in the road for this vacation but I think it will be worth it.

At least....I hope so. Ha!

 

[TheZue]

Yeah, we wait in lines shopping all the time and it's hit or miss. Sometimes he's great...other times awful. He is still behind with receptive language. We tell him things constantly, of course. But we aren't sure how much he's truly understanding. It's hard. He is still essentially non-verbal. Nowhere near ready to potty train.

I will be curious to see how he does in the hotel this time. He did great last time but that was 2 years ago. I know there will be a lot of bumps in the road for this vacation but I think it will be worth it.

At least....I hope so. Ha!

Good Luck Just relax and follow his lead. We spend an absurd amount of time at that ball in Tomorrowland and that giant door in Toon Town at that age.

Just to give you hope, our son is now 14. When he was diagnosed at five he was in the 2nd percentile for receptive and expressive language. He has no speech delay now and is slowly catching up academically.

 

[ClaraOswald]

That is good to hear! That is about where he falls right now as well. It's so hard.