Friday, 10 June 2011

• Tackling the Movies with Autism & Sensory Processing Disorder

  
  
  

  Going to the movies with Heidi has always been a challenge; the sensory aspect of it is overwhelming. 

  Thank goodness with my Carer Card the ticket price for me is only $1 when I’m taking one of the girls, because Heidi and I have more often than not left the cinema before even getting 15 minutes into the movie. I think the longest we ever made it in the past was seeing “The Tooth Fairy”. It is great that Hoyts cinema helps out Carers in this way.

  Still it has been a frustrating experience going to see a movie as a family, having to run out after Heidi because she simply bolts for the exit and then entertain her in the foyer whilst my husband and Annie enjoy the rest of the movie. Feeling somewhat resentful about missing out on the movie myself certainly didn’t help and for the longest time I just stopped even trying to take Heidi to the movies. After all it wasn’t a priority and there was plenty of other fun things we could do together as a family.

  At the Aussie Bloggers Conference in March, Disney (through Porter Novelli) was handing out free tickets to Mars Needs Mums and I took one, thinking maybe Annie and I could go together. When I got home from the conference and was talking to Annie about going to the movies with her Heidi asked if she could go to. The decision was made to give the cinemas another go, as we had a free ticket it wouldn’t matter financially if Heidi decided to leave 15 minutes in once again.

  Heidi is now 6yo and getting to the age where school friends invite each other to the movies, so it would certainly be helpful to desensitise Heidi to the movie going experience before hand, rather than have to decline all invitations to the cinema that she may receive.

  So my husband and I decided to try seeing Mars Needs Mums early one Sunday morning, when the cinema would most likely be quiet… and quiet it was, we were the only family there. Heidi ran up to the very back row and got herself settled in for the movie, headphones on to reduce the noise, fluffy hat over the top to further reduce the noise. Popcorn and drink to chew on. We were set. Then the lights dimmed and fascination with the lights began… because we there was no-one else in the cinema with us I let Heidi wander as she pleased, up and down the stairs, up and over the chairs, staring at all the lights, especially fascinated by the emergency lighting along the steps.

  Both girls enjoyed Mars Needs Mums (thank you Disney and Porter Novelli for the tickets), although there was one scene where the older boys mum died that the girls both found distressing. Thankfully I was able to talk up the happy ending and the sad scene was forgotten. The girls especially enjoyed the dancing dads from Mars

  

  Having the cinema to ourselves made a big difference and for the first time Heidi stayed through the entire movie! That was brilliant.

  Following that success I took Heidi along to see Hoodwinked Too! on a weekday, hoping for another quiet movie session. This time the cinema was about a quarter full, but I had learned a few tricks from our previous successful visit.

  - Heidi chose front row seats near the exit corridor which was handy as this enabled her to run up and down the walled off corridor when necessary.

  - Buy crunchy popcorn and bring a bottle of water.

  - Bring blankie, even though blankie was very dirty, as a friend on facebook said, it is dark in the cinema so no-one is going to see how dirty blankie is anyway. With blankie there Heidi had something to hide under during the scary bits.

  - Be prepared to sit on the floor – that for me. I spent a fair portion of the movie seated on the floor at Heidi’s feet as she asked for lots of squishes. I was able to rest my arm/head on her lap which seemed to provide the proprioceptive input she was seeking.

  - Noise cancelling headphones are a godsend

  I wanted to get there a little late to avoid all the advertising at the beginning, Heidi had other ideas and was frantic we would be late and ‘miss da moofie’, so to avoid distressing her further we got there on time and sat through the ads.
  And yay, another movie successfully watched till completion and Heidi really enjoyed herself, she is a very visual kid, so movies really do appeal. I think we’ve got a long way to go before she would be okay going to the movies with a group of friends, but that is okay, we can keep practicing together and for now it can be a special family outing.

   

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