Autism, anxiety and WDW rides.

[lucigo]

I'm hoping for some opinions or ideas about what might have worked for others. My DS5 has autism. As far as level of functioning he can get his point across to me for his wants and needs pretty well. We have been to WDW in January and March, and are going back in November and December. I'm hoping to get him over some of his anxiety about the rides and hoping that he can maybe even enjoy them. He does ok with rides where he can see whats coming (carousel, dumbo), but inside rides seem to really scare him and even if he makes it through the ride without crying, as soon as its over he lets it all out and starts crying.

So here are my ideas. I could pick a ride, like maybe the new Nemo ride at Epcot, and take him on it over and over several times until he gets used to it and hopefully will stop crying and realize that its the same Nemo that he loves at home? or.... I can leave him alone and let him grow up a little more and stop trying to push him into enjoying things just because I want him to??

 

[bookwormde]

Sounds like you are on the right “track”. Any U-tube videos are great for familiarization. If you can do swap offs when he does not want to go that is great also. There will be setbacks also but it all part of leaning (we were of all rides for 2 days after we got adventuresome and tired dinosaur).

bookwormde

 

[Hasil72]

Hi Luci!

I think I read around here somewhere that youtube has video of some rides. You could have him watch then make a little scrap book of the ones he liked with a picture to each entrance. Then add some of his direct quotes (or pics) about what he liked on the video.

Just an idea.

My DS wouldn't even go on Dumbo last time. He told me he was "a little too apprehensive" to try it.

Let me know how it works out.

Lisa

 

[lucigo]

Hi Luci!

I think I read around here somewhere that youtube has video of some rides. You could have him watch then make a little scrap book of the ones he liked with a picture to each entrance. Then add some of his direct quotes (or pics) about what he liked on the video.

Just an idea.

My DS wouldn't even go on Dumbo last time. He told me he was "a little too apprehensive" to try it.

Let me know how it works out.

Lisa

LOL That sounds so cute. We have been watching the barnstormer video over and over, I'm really hoping that it helps! I even bought a cheap little video camera to bring in November so that hopefully we can take some ride video and watch before December. We have a scrapbook of his favorite things at disney, but his favorite things don't include the rides! LOL

 

[kaffinito]

I went through the same thing with my youngest when he was 6. The YouTube videos were a huge help to us! He was a lot more accepting once we got there than he was before we left thanks to being able to "see" the rides. I also let him bring his favorite stuffie with him to the parks, which helped enormously, and I also went at his pace.

I did not get the GAC the first time we went since I wasn't sure if I was going to need one for him, but this last trip I did and it was a life saver. He was really out of sorts this last trip!

Sending you for your trip!

 

[SueM in MN]

There is a book called WDW for Kids by Kids that might be helpful. It has ratings and descriptions of attractions from a kids perspective, with ratings of things like "dark" or "scary".

www.youtube.com does have lots of ride videos. Some are better quality than others, so if the first one you find isn't very good, just watch some more until you come up with a good one. The darker attractions tend to be very dark in the movies, so you may find that you can't see anything on some of the videos.

Another suggestion would be to have one member of your party ride things that you are not sure about. That should help you to figure out if your child would like them.

 

[lucigo]

Sounds like you are on the right “track”. Any U-tube videos are great for familiarization. If you can do swap offs when he does not want to go that is great also. There will be setbacks also but it all part of leaning (we were of all rides for 2 days after we got adventuresome and tired dinosaur).

bookwormde

I guess we aren't the only ones who made that mistake then LOL He was so excited to see dinosaurs that we took him on it...after that he kept trying to point his stroller toward the exit and wanted nothing else to do with rides!

 

[lucigo]

There is a book called WDW for Kids by Kids that might be helpful. It has ratings and descriptions of attractions from a kids perspective, with ratings of things like "dark" or "scary".

www.youtube.com does have lots of ride videos. Some are better quality than others, so if the first one you find isn't very good, just watch some more until you come up with a good one. The darker attractions tend to be very dark in the movies, so you may find that you can't see anything on some of the videos.

Another suggestion would be to have one member of your party ride things that you are not sure about. That should help you to figure out if your child would like them.

Thanks, I think we will go back to the youtube rides again and see if I can get him to do more than just watch 5 second intervals or put "sonic the hedgehog" into the search and watch that instead!!

Our problem with inside rides is that they all have something scary in them, and I think for him its more the fear of the unknown that gets him. He doesn't know if its going to just be a silly little ride like Nemo or if we are going over a waterfall like splash mountain!

I'll give youtube another try

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks, I think we will go back to the youtube rides again and see if I can get him to do more than just watch 5 second intervals or put "sonic the hedgehog" into the search and watch that instead!!

Our problem with inside rides is that they all have something scary in them, and I think for him its more the fear of the unknown that gets him. He doesn't know if its going to just be a silly little ride like Nemo or if we are going over a waterfall like splash mountain!

I'll give youtube another try

You may not be aware of this, but youtube has a way to bookmark 'Favorites'. That way, you can watch some ahead of time and pick the best ones to show to your son. That way also, if you need a Sonic the Hedgehog break, you can take it and come back to the video again.

 

[zumbergc]

Just wanted to remind you that some youtube videos. Sometimes the people have bad language. So you may want to watch and pick out the videos before your child looks at them. I did this once, and someone had a lot of bad language. Just depends on the person. You probably already knew that.

Connie

 

[lucigo]

Just wanted to remind you that some youtube videos. Sometimes the people have bad language. So you may want to watch and pick out the videos before your child looks at them. I did this once, and someone had a lot of bad language. Just depends on the person. You probably already knew that.

Connie

Good point, thanks for the reminder! He will watch them over and over and repeat exactly what is said in the video. Thats why video modeling is so good for kids like him...and I'll bet if we watch a girl say "wow" over and over on barnstormer he would say "wow" at the exact same spot when we go on the ride, so need to make sure the language is appropriate!

 

[lucigo]

You may not be aware of this, but youtube has a way to bookmark 'Favorites'. That way, you can watch some ahead of time and pick the best ones to show to your son. That way also, if you need a Sonic the Hedgehog break, you can take it and come back to the video again.

I'm doing this today while he is at school, thanks!!

 

[ireland_nicole]

I second both the you tube viewing, and advice to avoid Dinosaur (we made that mistake too). Also, we made each of our kids a hip pack this year w/ all their "tools". A penlight (they shine it into their hand or on the floor), sunglasses, MP3 players, ear protectors, nintendo DS, fidget, small brush. I think that's everything. Both were much more willing to try "new" things that they had seen on Youtube when they were empowered to reduce the stim to a level they were comfortable with. And over the course of the week, they started using the penlight and ear protectors less. Also, I made sure to rent a big enough stroller so that they could "nest" in it. All in all, the strategy worked really well.

 

[Earstou]

I worked with my child on "scary" things by talking about how scary things can be fun things (ie: it's fun to be scared). With Halloween around the corner, it's a perfect time to do this. Go to the store and look at scary masks or decorations. Then talk about how fun Halloween is. Let them put on a scary mask and "scare" you, then laugh about it. Talk about the fun of trick-or-treating in the dark.
Then use this to talk about the inside dark rides and how it's fun to be scared by things we aren't expecting on the rides.
Once I started talking about the "fun" of being scared, my ds seemed to handle things better!

 

[BeckyScott]

We had just the opposite problem with DS.

If he could see the ride, many of them he'd deem "unsafe" (like he would actually tell me "No Mommy, that ride is unsafe" and would refuse to go on them.

If he couldn't see the ride, and if I told him it was a safe ride, he'd go. I think that was a key thing, he trusted me to tell him if it was "safe" or not, he sure wouldn't trust DH or older DS, cause they're crazy guys, but he would trust me. Maybe you could work something out that way. Take him on a very "safe" ride, and let him build up some trust in you that you won't put him on anything too crazy. And then take it very slowly.

Having said that, we still did have to go on Tomorrowland Transit Authority four times in a row. I guess that's the ideal "safe" ride. We rode it over and over while DH and older DS went on all the good Tomorrowland stuff.

 

[lucigo]

I second both the you tube viewing, and advice to avoid Dinosaur (we made that mistake too). Also, we made each of our kids a hip pack this year w/ all their "tools". A penlight (they shine it into their hand or on the floor), sunglasses, MP3 players, ear protectors, nintendo DS, fidget, small brush. I think that's everything. Both were much more willing to try "new" things that they had seen on Youtube when they were empowered to reduce the stim to a level they were comfortable with. And over the course of the week, they started using the penlight and ear protectors less. Also, I made sure to rent a big enough stroller so that they could "nest" in it. All in all, the strategy worked really well.

I like this idea, we will bring a stroller, but I like the idea of him having his own bag with his tools in it - and I'm glad I'm not the only one to bring a gameboy to disney LOL

 

[lucigo]

I worked with my child on "scary" things by talking about how scary things can be fun things (ie: it's fun to be scared). With Halloween around the corner, it's a perfect time to do this. Go to the store and look at scary masks or decorations. Then talk about how fun Halloween is. Let them put on a scary mask and "scare" you, then laugh about it. Talk about the fun of trick-or-treating in the dark.
Then use this to talk about the inside dark rides and how it's fun to be scared by things we aren't expecting on the rides.
Once I started talking about the "fun" of being scared, my ds seemed to handle things better!

My first thought is he is too clueless to understand this, but sometimes I don't give him enough credit, maybe with some visuals we could talk about it and see what happens, it can't hurt! As far as halloween he has only recent learned to pretend and is either a dog or a cat every afternoon...so we made a simple pluto costume for him for halloween.

We had just the opposite problem with DS.

If he could see the ride, many of them he'd deem "unsafe" (like he would actually tell me "No Mommy, that ride is unsafe" and would refuse to go on them.

If he couldn't see the ride, and if I told him it was a safe ride, he'd go. I think that was a key thing, he trusted me to tell him if it was "safe" or not, he sure wouldn't trust DH or older DS, cause they're crazy guys, but he would trust me. Maybe you could work something out that way. Take him on a very "safe" ride, and let him build up some trust in you that you won't put him on anything too crazy. And then take it very slowly.

Having said that, we still did have to go on Tomorrowland Transit Authority four times in a row. I guess that's the ideal "safe" ride. We rode it over and over while DH and older DS went on all the good Tomorrowland stuff.

I guess that means we have to stay away from Splash Mountain huh LOL You are right, its a good idea, and we are definitely going to have to start slow because any inside ride is going to be scary for him - I think its the unknown factor. Your description of "safe" and "unsafe" describes to a T why my son only eats 10 foods. No rhyme or reason, just happen to be the foods he has deemed safe!

 

[jerseygirl81]

I would be nervous about taking him on the rides he does'nt like over and over because that could become a bad experience for him and he might not enjoy the parks as much. We printed out picture cards that someone on the disboards who is a speech therapist had posted. We laminated them and put them in a couple of small photo books with velcro and separated them by parks so ds could pick the rides and shows he wanted to go on and I also included a picture of our hotel in case he had enough of the parks and wanted to return to the hotel. Linda