Video Modeling/Autism/Resort TV

[lucigo]

So if you have stayed in a Disney resort you probably know about the "Top 7 Can't Miss" activities at Disney world. We just returned and my 5-yo son (ASD) must have watched this show 100 times. I must say, it worked! This was our 4th trip this year and for the first time he went on an inside type ride (Nemo) without crying!! Then he went on the new Toy Story ride..got on, put the 3D glasses on and said "lets do it!" just like Stacy says when she is getting ready to ride one of the top 7's in the tv show. Again...no tears!!! This was just huge for us...in November he cried and cried over all of the inside rides, even its a small world and peter pan...it was just the anxiety of not knowing what was going to happen next.

So....Thanks Disney!

 

[kaffinito]

Yep - it does work! I can''t stand the Top 7 myself, but it worked great for my youngest last trip. My boys have it on all the time - last trip they insisted on watching it in Spanish.

Glad this trip went a lot better for you!

 

[bookwormde]

The familiarity of repetition (especially visual) definitely can work wonders. I am pretty sure my son could pass a college paleontology exam from all the prehistoric videos he has watched and I sometimes worry if he came face to face with a dinosaur he would be to busy analyzing it to be scared.

bookwormde

 

[wendygrace]

We just got back ourselves and my ds, 6, also watched that over and over. First thing in the morning, last thing before bed and any time in between we were in the room. He could recite the whole thing, I think. It did scare him for Expedition Everest (ok, probably rightly so) but got him interested in Toy Story Mania. He tried a lot more this trip, I think, due to this "commercial".

 

[lucigo]

Its so cool to hear that what works for mine has worked for other kids too! I wonder if Disney has any clue how much it helps! I have to say I personally thought Stacy was quite annoying....but worth it LOL

 

[SueM in MN]

I just wanted to add that you can find those videos on youtube (just in case your child wants to watch at home).

 

[mrsbert]

Just returned from our trip from 12/28-1/4. My SID DS7 loved watching the "7 must sees". He watched it as much as we let him while in the room. On our last night, we were at MK walking out and he started crying. My DH was closer to him and I could see they were talking. I thought he was upset because we were leaving but when my DS7 and DH caught up to us, my DH explained that DS was crying because we won't be able to see "the top 7" and we can't tape it and bring it home. DS7 told my DH that this was a sad moment. I mistakenly mentioned that we might be able to tape it off the tv with my DS10's new camcorder but I really didn't know how. He asked me about that around 100 times until I just told he we just couldn't tape it. I told him that when we got home we would look it up on Youtube.

Yes, they do have a few to choose from, but it's not the one they are showing at WDW right now. I'll look some more today.

BTW, we had a great spot for SpectroMagic in front of the Confectionary, facing the train station. We sat the whole time and it was such a different perspective and I loved seeing Spectro even more. Do you know the end part of the parade where all the characters and floats are white/cream color? Well, Peter Pan came bouncing over and asked my DS7 to give him "five". DS7 was a little hesitant but did it. When he slapped him "five" he turned everything to color. DS7 talked about it over and over for the rest of the evening. "Mom, I loved it when I gave Peter Pan five.", "I'm so happy I gave him five.", I liked it when Peter Pan came by me." (And so on and so on)
It was magical to him and I know my smile was a mile wide.

 

[toodycat]

DS became fixated on the top 7 things on one trip to a such a degree that we teased him, saying he must have had a crush on Krista, the show's hostess. The show was so embedded in ALL our minds by the end of the week that we all still occasionally blurt out "Fish n Chips! Yay!" with minimal prompting.