best/worst attractions for autistic son

[jdsm]

Anyone with suggestions on the best attractions for 9 yr old autistic son, as well as the ones to avoid?

 

[momejay]

I have 2 children with autism & take them on almost everything. It depends on your child. Does your child have difficulty with noise? spinning? flashing lights? crowds? wearing 3D glasses?
My dd reads the sign at the begining of each ride & if there is a word she doesn't like she refuses to go on. (ie...sounds dangerous @ studios)

 

[BethanyF]

It all depends on the quirks of your son.
My high functioning autistic son hates what he calls 'spectacular' music. So, live shows are out of the plan for us. However, he is begging to see the Playhouse Disney show.
He is still undecided on parades "I might have to cover my ears, but I want to see the parade" Same with fireworks, he wants to see but not hear them.
Spinning rides seem to calm him down, much to my dismay, so the teacups are a must do.
He also loves BTMR and Goofy's Barnstormer becasue he likes to 'laugh scream' on those rides.

 

[SueM in MN]

You might want to visit this website. it has a lot of good suggestions for visiting the parks with children with autism or sensory sensitivities.

 

[s&k'smom]

Hi, it really does depend on what may set your son off. For my son it was really loud noises. But he is very verbal about what he likes/dislikes. Actually it's whatever will set off his sensory issues. But we found as the week went on and we had a routine going things got easier. One other things we did was to make sure we had "quiet" breaks like eating at one of the resorts for lunch when they tend to be on the quiet side, it really gave him a chance to unwind. I know your son will have a great time.

 

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

My child, who is autistic, loves all of the adventurous rides, much to may amazement. The spinning rides are fascinating to him, as he will sit and "study" how it works. The only attractions that give us problems are the 3-D movies. They scare him to death! So, we're avoiding all of those next week.

Good luck....and have fun.

 

[andijean]

My son(3.5) is not autistic, but has severe sensory issues. One of the things I was not prepared for was how LOUD disney was. I don't mean just the shows, but everywhere. There is loud music all throughout the MK and it changes from land to land. We went during a busy time and even the crowd noise was loud. The attractions were so loud to the point of being obnoxious. He also had great difficulty with the restaurants b/c they had vaulted ceilings and the echo caused him to go nuts. I had brought little foam earplugs for the shows, but there were not enough for constant noise and did not stay in. What we did after the 2nd day was buy these earplugs that were like clay and molded them into his ear. He wore them from dawn til dusk and it seemed to help. We also ate outside in quiet spots as much as possible. It is hard to know sometimes what triggers these sensitive kids.

Also, he did not like the 3D's at all. Totally freaked him out...way to real.

Best of luck and have fun!

 

[MEM]

The only ride my highly functioning PDD son did not like was Splash Mtn -- tried to jump out of the log right after boarding so DH and he got out. He does like to watch everyone else come down the big drop. None of us can do coasters, except BTMRR, so I don't know how he would react there. Tower of Terror is also out because of inner ear and motion sickness issues.

As I have posted before, we try to inch DS out of his comfort zone and not just at WDW. When we saw him look longingly at Test Track, we took him up to the queue. He panicked and pulled away so we left. Later on that day, he looked at it wistfullly again, so we said "First Test Track, then Spaceship Earth (which he adores)." He rode TT holding Daddy's hand in a death-grip, but afterward, his face glowed with the feeling of accomplishment and now it is one of his favorite rides. Most times he just needs assurance that the ride will not hurt him.

He also loves watching fireworks but hates the noise so I buy a pack of foam earplugs at the drugstore before each trip and with Daddy's big hands on top of those, he's fine. We also use the earplugs in Its Tough to be a Bug, Cranium Command and similar loud shows.

 

[landmark]

We took our 5 yr old high functioning autistic DS to Disney this past summer. We really played it by ear, trying not to push him and letting his "mood" dictate what we would do. ie if he was getting stressed we would go back to the resort. We stayed at the contemporary and did MK first to test the water so to speak. Austin LOVED a majority of the rides and actually made a vast improvement in his line waiting skills and overall social skills involved with line waiting.

The only attractions that we could not do were the ones which were 3D as they scared him. We found out on Mickey's Philharmonic. I had to sit with my hand over the water squirter because the combination of seeing something in front of you and feeling sensations really set off his sensory issues. He did want to do the Muppets one at MGM so I did the same thing just covered where any water would come out with my hand and he did pretty good with that one. We did not do Honey I shrunk the Audience or Bugs Life. I figured the large animals would scare him.

Any attractions that convinced you of something such as Living Seas where they tell you they are taking you down under the ocean... this really freaked him out. He believed we were under the water and was in a panic. Huge tears and he was afraid to walk. I asked him if he wanted to go outside and he began screaming. (he thought we would walk out into water) So we avoided anything that would convince you that were in a situation like that... thus another reason we didn't get shrunk.

Overall he did very well. LOVED Test Track, Splash Mountain, Barnstormer, he really liked the fast rides and going on Splash Moutain avoided a couple of melt downs.

Something else he enjoyed was collecting the pressed pennies.

He did get his autograph book signed along with his sister. It's great to look through the photos and watch how much more comfortable he was with the characters as the trip progressed.

Overall it was a wonderful experience so we are gonna do it again!

Oh and throught the entire trip I'd keep asking him "Are you ok?" and at his word we would have slowed down or not done a ride... his reply was always "I'm fine! I'm having fun!" he once did tell me to quit asking

 

[TinkTatoo]

I think it really depends on your child. I have two children with high functioning autism and they are both completly different.

DS (6) loves all the rides especially the rollercoasters - the spinnier the better. The only ones he wouldn't go near was Snow White's scary adventure and this was because of the title - he thought it would scare him and also Alien Encounters - which would have scared him. He under no circumstances did he want to meet or speak to any characters.

DD (5) did not like any of the rollercoaster rides but loved the character interaction.

Go with the flow - you will soon know if your son likes something or not and he may even suprise you.

God luck

 

[mbb]

we just rented the Spy Kids 3D movie, thinking, well, maybe they would like to watch it at home, without the glasses (Our sons are 6) So they want to watch the Special Features first, and voila, "The Making of 3D"...we watched that feature 3 or 4 times, and they were ready to try it with the glasses!!!



"Look mommy, it's not real...it doesn't come into your livingroom..it's all just computer special effects...now you don't have to be scared, mom!!"

Yep, that was me, shakin' in my boots LOL!!

So Mickey's Philharmagic *MIGHT* be in the works for next year...but if it's not, I don't care...the important thing is, we're out there, as a family, doing family things, laughing, smiling, makin' memories...like watching CM's change the Wait Times on the Board at MK, and telling everyone we saw..."There's only a 5 minute wait on Space Mountain!!"

We're a fun group!!
You will be too...good luck with your planning!!

 

[raquel]

We were in WDW 10/30-11/4; stayed in FW (1st time); great place for kids! But DS8 had several meltdowns in WDW (starting w/ one on the plane trip to WDW). That was unusual b/c last year's trip was pretty good--only meltdown on 1st day.
Anyway, purpose of this note is to alert parents of autistic/pdd kids re: Stitch's Great Escape. We got in to preview w/ tremendous assistance from CM. She was terrific! Unfortunately, DS was terrified. He started screaming as soom as the shoulder harness came down & didn't stop until we got out. It's noisy, dark, and frightening.
In fairness, I'm not sure whether he would fare better on a different week; he had daily meltdowns this time unlike last year.
Last year, he even went on Rock-N-Roller Coaster; I'm the one that screamed on that ride!
Just thought I should mention about Stitch.

 

[leise]

My DS (5) is autistic , and he surprised us in DLP this year by really pushing back his boundaries and going on loads of things we thought he would hate, such as Star Tours, Casey Junior and the speedway cars (very noisy). He won't go on anything where he doesn't know what to expect, so we have to use the guest assistance card for the first run, so he doesn't have a chance to get upset in the queue. If he wants to go again, he will queue up.
It helps if we can give him a description of the ride in terms he can understand, ie/ Snow White is like Thomas the Tank Engine's Ghost Train, Star Tours is like a Space Ship trip to the moon with Meg and Mog, Maelstrom is a boat ride. But we have to warn him about what may happen. I got him on Splash Mountain once, and he loved it, right up to the point when we got to the drop, and he got wet. That terrified him, as he wasn't expecting that. Subsequently he refused to get on anything with water that looks vaguely suspicious, such as Jungle Cruise, Pirates etc.
He hates the unpredictable noises of fireworks, but loves the parades. He likes characters he knows, but is terrified of ones that are unfamiliar.
That was last time anyway. Who knows what will happen next time!

 

[kazzie]

My DS also doesn't like 3D attractions!I didn't realise until I read this thread it isn't just a 'quirk' of his

He also won't do any rollercoasters where you go 'upside down' or coasters in the dark, eg Space mountain.

 

[Carrieberry]

My DS (6) is autistic and deaf so luckily we have no issues with the noiser rides! Doctor's have told us that is has some sensory issues (cold foods, bright lights ets) so that is it probably a blessing in disguise that he can't hear. We take a few trips a year to Disneyland, and up until this last May, he would ride on anything, loved the characters, and was an extremely happy camper with his Mickey shaped chicken nuggets (why don't they have these at WDW?). Anyway, we will be making our first trip to WDW with him at the end of January and are hoping for a wonderful trip. We will be at ASMo (for him since he loves Disney) the first two nights, then we will be moving to an OKW one bedroom for 5 nights. The only thing he hates is anything in the dark. Now this is really wierd because he never used to have an issue with it, but when we went to DL in May, he freaked out during every dark portion of any ride. Even the darker parts of Splash mountain. It was awful. He has never cared for the 3-d stuff, but usually he just wants to lay on the floor because he doesn't understand anything about movies. Now I try to look at the fear as progress, because it is a normalchildhood response (he ised to have no fear of anything), which is rare for him, but I am really nervous about how he will react to some of the things at WDW. We will just play it by ear, and skip anything with pitch black portions. At DL he loved the drops of TOT but hated the darkness. His faves are the fast rides and of course the spinning rides! I expect him to love Test Track, but we will skip MS, Maelstrom, Spaceship Earth, all the movie type shows and Haunted mansion and Space mountain. He will be going on Splash mountain since I can sit next to him to reassure him (at DL you sit front to back in single file)and he loves most of that ride.