Jperiod
I am the rebel spy!
- Joined
- May 20, 2008
My DS with ASD is 12 now and is doing fantastic at the parks compared to how things were a few years prior. His behaviors have mellowed out a lot. I think a large part of his success in line is due to distraction with game devices (started with a 3DS and now he has a cell phone). Prior to having those devices, he would have outbursts or become really intrusive to others around him in narrow queues with switchbacks or slow loaders. He also would flat out refuse to wait for *anything* longer than 15 minutes, including parades/shows (we used the stroller as a wheelchair tag for many years to help with that).
I've stretched him to 20 minutes now, but frankly, he could probably go longer since he has a game device always with him. Though I'm not sure if he'd tolerate this multiple times throughout the day. I just haven't wanted to test him. On our last couple trips to DLR, I felt bad and wondered if I was enabling him by getting a DAS. We managed through 2 weeks of WDW without the DAS last fall because of FP+. We utilize FP at DLR fairly well too. I have to admit, I like the ability to get a return time for something after the fastpasses have run out as well as waiting elsewhere. And so does he. At one point on our recent trip, they sent us through the new FP line for TSMM which was next to the regular line and made it look much longer. DS started to panic at the sight of a long line. But truthfully, I'm not sure if he was panicking because he didn't "want" to wait or because he didn't have the ability.
So I guess I'm wondering, should the goal always be to get my child off the assistance? This is what we're working toward in "real life," but it's nice to be on vacation from that at disney. I also don't want to burden the DAS system and ruin it for others that can't function without it, where we were at a few years ago. I guess I'm looking for others' experiences at transitioning as their kids got older and gained more skills.
I've stretched him to 20 minutes now, but frankly, he could probably go longer since he has a game device always with him. Though I'm not sure if he'd tolerate this multiple times throughout the day. I just haven't wanted to test him. On our last couple trips to DLR, I felt bad and wondered if I was enabling him by getting a DAS. We managed through 2 weeks of WDW without the DAS last fall because of FP+. We utilize FP at DLR fairly well too. I have to admit, I like the ability to get a return time for something after the fastpasses have run out as well as waiting elsewhere. And so does he. At one point on our recent trip, they sent us through the new FP line for TSMM which was next to the regular line and made it look much longer. DS started to panic at the sight of a long line. But truthfully, I'm not sure if he was panicking because he didn't "want" to wait or because he didn't have the ability.
So I guess I'm wondering, should the goal always be to get my child off the assistance? This is what we're working toward in "real life," but it's nice to be on vacation from that at disney. I also don't want to burden the DAS system and ruin it for others that can't function without it, where we were at a few years ago. I guess I'm looking for others' experiences at transitioning as their kids got older and gained more skills.