Parent of a child with a TBA

[ambushangel]

I'm a mom of a 10 year old who had a tramatic brain injury, in about 3 weeks we are going on our second Disney Cruise, which I know is very safe for him, but we are also heading to WDW. Now that I have everything in place I am starting to worry that I will be spending alot of my time saying, "no you can't ride that one.". I feel like I may have made a mistake.

He was never really a "ride person" before his accident, so hopefully it won't be too bad. Can anyone tell me if there is still lots to do if we don't do the rides? I hope that it's just pre-vacation worries that I am having.

Looking for some advice!

Thanks

 

[HappyLawyer]

First, let me say my heart oes out to you, you might want to try a different approach, when i taught special ed the main thing we learned is not to tell what they cannot do but what they can do, so instead of saying no, try not at this time, but we can do this...... also if you get your child excited about the things that can be done, you might be able to avoid most of what cannot be done,

it seems like we never want to do anyting we normally would not do until we are not able to do it.

Enjoy your vacation
ps
if you do ak they have lots of shows

 

[ambushangel]

First, let me say my heart oes out to you, you might want to try a different approach, when i taught special ed the main thing we learned is not to tell what they cannot do but what they can do, so instead of saying no, try not at this time, but we can do this...... also if you get your child excited about the things that can be done, you might be able to avoid most of what cannot be done,

Thanks for the advice. I didn't mean to imply that I was telling my son that he couldn't do things. He has come so far that I think that he could do anything, but we do have medical restrictions that have to be followed.

I guess what I was looking for was to find out if it's all about rides or if there is alot of other activities (shows, character sighting, displays etc.) that go on during the day. I have read alot about the park and have read about the rides but I just don't want to be disapointed if it's all about the rides. That's all.

Thanks

 

[SueM in MN]

There is a lot to see even if you only go to shows. Here's a suggestion for making a "personalized" WDW Guidebook for your son.

If you go to the disABILITIES FAQs thread, there is a link to the official WDW Guidebooks for Guests with Disabilities. Once you get to that webpage, there is a link to a Guidebook for each park.
The Guidebooks have some basic (very basic) information about each attraction. It tells whether it is a show, a turbulent thrill ride or a gentle ride. It also has information about attractions that have warnings for people with specific health concerns not to ride.

Here's what I would do:
Copy the text about the attractions to your computer (on a word processing type program) and save a copy for each park.
Then, read thru the attraction descriptions for each park and delete the ones that you don't feel would be appropriate for your son (If there are some you have questions about, come back here and ask. Between the people on this board, we should be able to come up with a good idea for you of whether or not something will work).

What you'll end up with is a list of attractions at each park that you feel confident are OK for your son. Depending on how much time you have and how handy you are with the computer, you could even get some pictures of the attractions from the internet and make him an illustrated guidebook. (If you have Power Point on your computer, it works well for things like this).

That way, he will only see information about the things you feel are Ok and instead of saying "no", you can help him look in his guidebook for the things he can choose from.

 

[ambushangel]

There is a lot to see even if you only go to shows. Here's a suggestion for making a "personalized" WDW Guidebook for your son.

If you go to the disABILITIES FAQs thread, there is a link to the official WDW Guidebooks for Guests with Disabilities. Once you get to that webpage, there is a link to a Guidebook for each park.
The Guidebooks have some basic (very basic) information about each attraction. It tells whether it is a show, a turbulent thrill ride or a gentle ride. It also has information about attractions that have warnings for people with specific health concerns not to ride.

Here's what I would do:
Copy the text about the attractions to your computer (on a word processing type program) and save a copy for each park.
Then, read thru the attraction descriptions for each park and delete the ones that you don't feel would be appropriate for your son (If there are some you have questions about, come back here and ask. Between the people on this board, we should be able to come up with a good idea for you of whether or not something will work).

What you'll end up with is a list of attractions at each park that you feel confident are OK for your son. Depending on how much time you have and how handy you are with the computer, you could even get some pictures of the attractions from the internet and make him an illustrated guidebook. (If you have Power Point on your computer, it works well for things like this).

That way, he will only see information about the things you feel are Ok and instead of saying "no", you can help him look in his guidebook for the things he can choose from.

HOW CAN I THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What you have suggest is perfect. We have been working on teaching him his limits and this sounds like something that could be worked on by both of us.

We did something the same with the program of the Kids club on the cruise. I looked over the program, gave him a copy and asked him what he thought would be safe enough for him, and the ones that we didn't agree on, we agreed to check it out as the activity started.

Thank you so very much for your suggestion. This place and the people on it are wonderful.

 

[SueM in MN]

HOW CAN I THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What you have suggest is perfect. We have been working on teaching him his limits and this sounds like something that could be worked on by both of us.

We did something the same with the program of the Kids club on the cruise. I looked over the program, gave him a copy and asked him what he thought would be safe enough for him, and the ones that we didn't agree on, we agreed to check it out as the activity started.

Thank you so very much for your suggestion. This place and the people on it are wonderful.

Glad to help you.
Have fun making it and let us know how it worked.

You could even do something like having a page for each attraction with a spcae for him to write (or dictate for you to write) something about every attraction after he has been on it. That way, you end up with a guidebook to use while you there and a memory book for him to refresh his memory or use to share things about his trip with others.

For finding characters, or if you have questions about attractions once you are at each park, there is an Information booth in each park (marked with a green i on the park maps). The CMs there have information about current waiting times, but can also answer questions about different attractions and help with things like locating chaaracters.