- Joined
- Aug 23, 1999
There are folks with autism that fixate on specific rides and will only ride that one ride. They can't help it it's just the way they are wired.
umm NORMAL 3 year olds are like this. hell normal 8 year olds are like this. being antsy and fidgety and generally whirling dervish-y is not a behavior limited Spectrum individuals.
The differences are, with many of these children that have issues where they will flap, hit, take off their shoes and bite them (or bite others) or throw them at people, etc.. they aren't often able to be prevented by usual discipline and reasoning because they often don't understand what is wrong and why. They just do it. So you're constantly on the offensive and it's utterly exhausting because all "behaviors" are new at some point and they love to happen at the most inopportune times. Other than our autistic son's extremely low muscle-tone and endurance, we keep him in a wheelchair for a few more reasons, he's safe in his mind when he's in it and we are protecting other guests FROM him. I can' tell you how often iv'e had to apologize for something he's done very inappropriately to someone else. Even in a stroller or cart while shopping. I do my best to catch him, but they can be fast. Also, some things you simply don't have to tell you 6 years old. Like, don't lick the bottom of your shoe or don't scratch that little baby's face or smell that little girl's hair. Not the case for some of these kiddos. So many of us have become very adept in offensive defense if you will.Exactly. I have to admit, I'm somewhat confused by people that want accommodations, but don't want to explain why they need them.
So rather than trying to diagnose someone by what you can see, and what your personal experiences w/ a certain disability are, how about some compassion and respect for that family knowing what works and doesn't work for their child?
Disney isn't "required" to do half of the things they do. But "compassion" has been a hallmark of their in the past and it's not unreasonable to be upset that that compassion is being almost entirely taken away. I can't speak for everyone of course, but in our experiences, even w/ the GAC, we were able to accomplish only half of what a "normal" mobile family can and that made us super happy because prior to that, we'd been able to do all of 2 rides in 3 hours (we were there at opening and it was very off-peak) and I still had to leave by noon because my guy couldn't do any more I fear this new system is going to squash that miserably.
That said though, I have zero problem initially explaining what our needs are, but having to do it over and over again even though it was printed on a card before and our stroller was marked as a wheelchair, we'd still get glares and judgements.
Man, I know what it's like. I can soooooo relate!We were there in December of Xmas and New Years; waits were heinous everywhere but we expected that to be the case. We use the DAS for our 2 sons with very different needs. My oldest has low tone on his right side so walking & standing especially are hard on him. Our 3 yr old wa recently dx with autism. Standing in lines for him is brutal. We used his stroller as a wheel chair and that helped immensely he could play his iPad while waiting which was a huge blessing. *snip*
My 3yr old (2 then turned 3 in January) however was with me at the counter at the MGM GS and was in line waiting form. Hand flapping, removing and throwing his shoe, climbed out of the belted stroller, was jumping and running in circles then attempted to climb the counter to get the things in my hand the CM was giving me the entire time I'm thinking are you serious????? Common sense and maybe some sensitivity training may be in order. I just looked at the guy and said well -this-this is why he needs his stroller cocoon for lines unless you want to try to hold his busy 38lbs of pure muscle without getting in other peoples space go gettem tiger. Aye yi yi.