Ideas for Successful Outings/Vacations with AS kids

[SilverLace]

Someone mentioned something in another thread about being able to do outings and trips with her 14 year old daughter who has AS.

This is something we have really not had a lot of success with and we are feeling pretty limited by it as a family.  My step son is 11 and still really struggles with being very rigid about many things.  His behavior in public is mixed... sometimes very withdrawn and sometimes pretty extreme sensory seeking.

He does alright if he gets to choose everything... location, activity, food.... but that doesn't work in a family (and yes, there are times he does get to do that but we can't have a vacation like that).  But if it doesn't very precisely fit his criteria his behavior makes it not very much fun for the rest of us.

So I am wondering what factors people have been able to identify that have helped them be out and about more. And I'd love to hear your successful experiences with outings and trips so I learn from them :)
 

[kittynurse]

My son doesn't have AS but his group of diagnoses combine to appear autistic-like at times.  We have had amazing success with vacations to Disney World.  We get a guest assistance card which allows us to use an alternative entrance so he doesn't have to wait with a large crowd.  Also, using the card means we more often than not, have a greatly decreased waiting time for a ride.

We find that because there is such a huge variety of stuff to do at WDW we can really cater the vacation to our son's needs without shortchanging anyone else in the family.  The staff are also very helpful if you are upfront in what your needs are.  They will even go so far as to attempt to get you in the exact same room on a return visit if you request it.

Disney is also very accomodating to any food allergies or intolerances just in case there are folks reading that have those issues.

I have posted here before with more details regarding the guest assistance card - a search for those words or GAC should bring it up.

Good luck with figuring out something that fits your family!  I remember feeling trapped in our life before discovering things that we could do without too much trouble and it was a pretty dark time for us.  Regular folks with regular families think we are slightly crazy for visiting WDW every year (we are in Canada) but we know what works for us and we just ignore them.

Martha

[Linda on the move]

You might of been thinking of me -- I have 14 year old DD with Asperger's. The big thing for her are sensory issues, so we really have to plan around that. For a while we had trouble sorting out what was bad behavior that we needed to put a stop to and what was related to ASD and we needed to work around. We worked with a therapist on that one.

"He does alright if he gets to choose everything." This quote jumps out at me because there are certain thing that my DD does need to choose, but getting her to realize that she isn't the center of the universe was a process, and figuring out exactly where sn ended and just wanting to boss around her sister began was difficult. We needed professional help with that!

What works best for us is time in nature, as long as it's mellow. Short easy hikes, hanging out on the beach, etc.  We are going to try a cruise this summer, and part of the reason we are hopeful that it will work well is that we don't all have to do the same thing and we can make sure she gets plenty of down time.

We also get nice hotel rooms when we travel because we know that we will spend more time in the room than most families. She really can't just go go go. She needs down time. We are very mellow about her listening to her iPod (with noise cancelling headphones) and bringing her lap top on trips.

You might work on branching out what you do for family fun on weekends first, and ease into vacation.

[FreeRangeMama]

My ds is nearly 10 and what works for us is a lot of preplanning and a lot of visuals of where we are going and what we are doing.  When we travel I spend the months leading up to our vacation showing him pictures of the places we are going so he knows what to expect, how it will look, and what we can do once we get there.  I try to include things he will love during the trip (he loves old fashioned things, so we are going to a museum of vintage cars when we go out of town in 3 weeks, we will visit and old ghost town on our summer holiday).  We eat at the same style of restaurant (Burger King, blech) when we eat out because it is familiar.  We keep our daily routine consistent and our wake up and eating times the same.  We also have learned that vacation cabins make traveling so much easier.  It is like having our own little home so when he melts down he isn't disturbing the neighbors!  Also, we can buy our own groceries and eat familiar (HEALTHY)  food.

I find it easier to give him choices over ONE activity of the day, but not letting him and his obsessions control too much.  I ask him the day before what we MIGHT do tomorrow (not WILL do, no finite words for him) and then plan for that activity the following day.  In the morning I tell him (with pictures when possible) what to expect from the day.  That way he still has the control he needs, but we are not all catering to his desires.  Plus, the delay helps him not get too worked up about it.  He gets upset when we do things for other people if it isn't something he enjoys, but we work through that as it comes.  Usually there is some reward at the end (a treat or a visit to the gift shop) and we do his activity after the undesirable thing.  We are a family of 6 so it just can't be about him all the time.  If he knows what to expect from the day with a visual picture of what to expect it really helps him be more flexible rather than clinging to his familiar favorites. 

I am trying to incorporate more sensory breaks and will have a 'sensory diet' in place before we go away for 3 weeks this summer.

This is just what works for us, or at least what USUALLY works for us  :lol  There are no guarantees!   I hope you find what works for your family!  Good luck  :)