Sunday, 13 March 2011
-
Dealing With The Airport
I think I established in yesterday’s post that our flight has the potential to go pretty badly. Pudding has actually flown quite a lot, though not at all since her diagnosis. She used to love it, and I developed a few tricks for occupying toddlers on a plane. In fact, when we flew from Europe back to the US, people actually congratulated us on how well Pudding (aged 2 1/2) had behaved on the 10 hour flight. We know it could just as easily have gone the other way though!
We’re not the first spectrummy family to take a long flight, nor will we be the last. So rather than continuing to dwell in panic and fear, I’ve decided to take a more proactive approach.
I thought it would be great if we could all share our knowledge about traveling to make it easier. I’m going to create a little series of posts where I ask you to share your tips. We can all benefit from one another’s advice. If you are a blogger, just add your link. Otherwise, write a comment. You don’t have to have children on the spectrum to chip in. Our kids are all pretty different, something that appeals to one can be repellent to another, but you just might have the trick to help a family get through this challenge. And if your tip helps our family, I will lavish you with gratitude.
Travel is a really huge area to talk about, so why don’t we start with just the airport? The lovely DQ sent me this link which is a guide to Manchester Airport (UK) for children with ASD. It is really useful, I would LOVE it if every airport produced something similar, but this would be pretty useful as a guide anyway. We live less than 30 minutes away from the airport, so we plan on taking a drive out there one weekend to watch the planes, and take photos for a social story. We also have a Fisher-Price airport playset to role play. Cubby was only 4 months old on his last flight, so he really doesn’t have the concept down yet. Playing helps him to prepare for what will happen.
After our last flight, we purchased a trunki ride-on rolling suitcase for Pudding at the airport. We haven’t flown since, so I can’t vouch for how well it works, but it might alleviate boredom, and is cute enough for kids to want to pull themselves. My plan is to put her weighted blanket in there, so she could get some good proprioceptive input as she walked around the airport.
Alright, there you have a couple of tips from me about airports, but I’d love to hear some more. Does anyone have any sage advice for dealing with airport security? How do you make waiting in queues more bearable? What helps prevent sensory overload in airports? Anything you can suggest to help pass the time at the airport?
I’d love your help. So would Pudding and a lot of kids like her.
RecommendRelated Posts
Post a Comment
- Back to autisable's Autisable Site!
- Note: your comment will appear in autisable's local time zone: GMT -05:00 (Eastern Standard - US, Canada)
About the Author
-
- From: spectrummymummy
- Name: spectrummymummy
- About Me: Spectrummy Mummy is a loving English wife to an American Diplomat (not as glamorous as it sounds), and stay-at-home mummy (just as glamorous as it sounds) to Pudding (3) and Cubby (1) our global nomads. Of course, we are not using our real names to protect the kids’ identities. If you know us in real life, please don’t use our real names in the comments- these are precious people we have to protect! Around a year ago, we discovered that Pudding was an Aspie Princess, and we’ve been learning ever since. Join us on our crash course to all things spectrummy, and enter the brave new world of bizarre food allergies.
Stats: This Week All Time Posts: 0 43 Views: 0 28580 Comments: 0 81 View all posts by spectrummymummy
Comments (5)
I have a 18 years old sister.
What we always do is that we bring her as many things as we can that make her feel "at home", although we still want to make her tolerant to the "new" environment, as much as we can. That´s part of her therapies.Things that work for her is bringing food and snacks in a back pack that she carries herself, when se eats somehow she relaxes and focuses on that more than on the externalities that might exasperate her.
Also, my sister loves music, she enjoys listeing to her favourite singers (it´s not any random music she likes), so we try to bring an iPod with such songs.
Go to near the check-in queue and look for a supervisor or ask at First or Business Class and explain the situation re queues and how your child is likely to make a lot of noise (exaggerate if necessary) but if you can keep her calm, she's likely to stay that way. Ask if they can they help you out by either a) letting you wait till the last person has checked in, or b) check in first. Mention security queues too, they can send you through the VIP one where you might have to wait, but not so long. Don't go to Customer Service, you might find someone helpful there but they aren't concerned with the flights particularly, check-in are. When you get to the gate, ask to board first or last according to what you feel is best. Preferably carry a doctor's letter with you stating your child's issues and show this to the supervisor or First Class before they find you one.
I don't know which airline you are using, but I've found AA the most helpful and BA by far the least helpful.
@Oriana Torres - Great tips- we can't go anywhere without her favourite things, and these days she is much better at telling us what those are. Thank you!
@SavonDuJour@xanga - Really useful- I would have gone to Customer Service for sure, but of course Check-In would be better. We're flying with Delta, and don't have any option to change, sadly. Thanks!
I travel a lot & I've been to 7 different countries. (passing through 1 airport & actually going through 6) I would say it always passes the time to make random convo with strangers in the airport. You're never gonna meet them again (most-likely) but it is nice to meet people from all over. People are interesting. :) To pass the time in the airport, I love to mill around & look at stores, esp. if I am overseas - I love buying stuff for my family. To get through security faster, I just have all the things I need out & ready before I get to the actual place I'll set them down.