Andyjo0930
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2007
- Messages
- 682
We took our autistic son for his first trip when he turned three. It was very hectic and I knew nothing about these tips or the GAC card. All in all, it was a nice trip, but we had a few meltdowns waiting in lines or for parades and stuff like that. This time, (he was almost 6), I had been on these boards and got a lot of useful tips. We had gotten him the GAC card which really helped. We realized that we were not going to be able to to wait for an hour on the side of the road for a parade. We timed things so that we were on a ride, and when we got off, it was just in time for a parade, fireworks, etc. (in MK, we were able to get right in front when the parade was coming by, because they were just roping off one of the side paths as we came up to it, and we were able to stand right there and the parade was just getting to us, so we didn't wait, we were right up front, and we were near fronteirland and not on main street, so we were able to hit thunder mountain again as soon as the parade ended.) Our son loves all of the rides, and the faster the better. He loved rock and roller coaster, soarin, pirates, everest expedition, dinasour, tower of terrror, splash mountain and thunder mountain. I also went on youtube and showed him a lot of these rides prior to going and it helped him understand what the ride was like. I wish I had known the first time that I could have used the stroller like a wheelchair. It was very hard for him to stand in line when he was only 3. He was much better this time, but again, if it was over 15 minutes, he would get very figity and he has a lot of movement and makes a lot of noises. One thing that calms him down is swimming. He loves the water and the pool. We brought his own tube with him and every morning we would let him swim before we went to the parks and every night when we came back, he would also swim. This would relax him and calm him down. Also, he likes to watch the fireworks, but doesn't like the noise. We never watch from right in front of the castle. Its just too close for him. We usually go closer to the exit and watch from there, and a couple of times we actually watched from the bus stop. He just prefers to be farther away from the noise. If you have any specific questions just let me know.
A switch had been flipped and he talked! (still does) He sat in the seat next to me and I cried.... my husband cried in the seat ahead of us along with my then 10 yr old son. When we got back to the deport area the cast member asked what the problem was and how could he help... I blubbered a bit about the "autism and talking" and off we went for another ride... this time with him riding in the seat ahead with his brother. We went 5 more times in a row. My oldest (now 12 said that Splash Mtn and Disney gave him his little brother back. The school couldn't believe this child when we came home a week later. WDW has truely been an amazing place for our family. It flipped the switch that gave my son his voice back. He could tell me he was hungry or tired or happy or sad. 
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