For autistic children who are into repetition

Thank you for writing that. I know all too well that so many people don't understand autism in children or adults. Your son has a wonderful role model in you!
I'd just like to take a moment to explain that there is a big difference between a temper tantrum and an autistic meltdown. Their brains are wired to do things repetitively and obsessively. Over ruling the brain is not an option. It's not that they want to get their way, so have a tantrum. It's not even necessarily something they enjoy that they get stuck on. This is why it's impossible to predict. They don't even know what objects, rides, pictures, or whatever that their brain will grab hold of and demand they become all encompassed by whatever it is. It's hard on them as well. They don't WANT to obsesses over things, it's like a fight within against their own instincts. They are not just spoiled brats acting out to get their way. They are humans involved in the fight of their lives, against their own brain.

Now that my son is an adult and has given me some insight into what makes him do the things he does, it makes more sense to me. What I always knew is that my son had low self esteem and certainly didn't think he was entitled to have things others couldn't. He fought a good fight, every day of his life. He is the strongest man I know.
 
I'd just like to take a moment to explain that there is a big difference between a temper tantrum and an autistic meltdown. Their brains are wired to do things repetitively and obsessively. Over ruling the brain is not an option. It's not that they want to get their way, so have a tantrum. It's not even necessarily something they enjoy that they get stuck on. This is why it's impossible to predict. They don't even know what objects, rides, pictures, or whatever that their brain will grab hold of and demand they become all encompassed by whatever it is. It's hard on them as well. They don't WANT to obsesses over things, it's like a fight within against their own instincts. They are not just spoiled brats acting out to get their way. They are humans involved in the fight of their lives, against their own brain.

Now that my son is an adult and has given me some insight into what makes him do the things he does, it makes more sense to me. What I always knew is that my son had low self esteem and certainly didn't think he was entitled to have things others couldn't. He fought a good fight, every day of his life. He is the strongest man I know.

10000000 times this.

Is your son at a point where you could establish a rule before the trip that you had to ride a new ride before he could re-ride the one he just rode that he wants to ride again? That way you could just book a DAS return time for that ride, focus on something else for a little while, and then essentially provide him with a reward for his patience by getting to ride the ride he loves again? Sometimes even when you obsessively want to do something, having a fixed window of time you can count down and focus on while waiting is extremely helpful to preventing meltdowns.
 
They offer nothing for repetitious behaviors. You can plan ahead and book FP+ and try the DAS to see if that helps. If you are going with a large group and people don't mind not riding certain things, book the FP+ at staggered times and share the magic bands. But if you don't know in advance, then there's pretty much nothing you can do. WDW is a very busy place - most people only get once chance to ride an attraction while they are there, and sometimes some people don't get to ride at all, as the FP+ are booked, and the waits are too long.



I hope so too - waits for FoP can be over three hours long at times.



Many 'temper tantrums' are also based on a form of emotional upheaval - I've never known one person who felt good about having a temper tantrum. The person having the tantrum may not even know what the root of the issue is. I'm not talking about the child who has been taught that being demanding, kicking and screaming gets them to have their way (that's an entirely different behavioral issue, based on poor parenting) but the true emotional breakdown of losing one's inner calm and having no way to pull it back in. So while you may say there is a big difference, I disagree. There's emotional release, lack of emotional control, and a sense of distress in both.

Most of my meltdowns as an adult have absolutely nothing to do with my emotional state and everything to do with the circuitry in my brain being logged jammed from too much information too fast that results in an outward manifestation of the lack of processing by trying to displace some of the log jam in an energy release and free up the brain circuits again for processing.

Can it have something to do with emotions? Sure. But let the person experiencing the meltdown qualify what is going on before judging it as a temper tantrum.
 
According to the info about das if you try the system and it isn't working you can go back to guest services and discuss the issues still occurring and they MAY be able to help.
Note: I said may they don't have to and may have no way to help.
 
Many 'temper tantrums' are also based on a form of emotional upheaval - I've never known one person who felt good about having a temper tantrum. The person having the tantrum may not even know what the root of the issue is. I'm not talking about the child who has been taught that being demanding, kicking and screaming gets them to have their way (that's an entirely different behavioral issue, based on poor parenting) but the true emotional breakdown of losing one's inner calm and having no way to pull it back in. So while you may say there is a big difference, I disagree. There's emotional release, lack of emotional control, and a sense of distress in both.

Temper tantrum = lack of emotional control
Autistic meltdown = fight for survival, controlled by instinct, not emotion until people get in the way of them trying to follow their instincts.

Regardless of what anyone ever says, I will firmly believe the description of it given my by now 28 year old son, who hasn't had an autistic meltdown since he was six years old and has no reason to not be truthful about his feelings.

He tells me that when things would grasp him, it was very similar to the instinct to survive. It was as if someone had covered his face so he couldn't breathe, and as he fought to remove it, the outside world fought to keep it there. Can you even begin to imagine what these kids are going through? It must be sheer hell to have everyone giving you dirty looks, making fun of you, yelling at you, and physically restraining you to keep from following what feels like an instinctive urge.

Every autistic person is in a different place on the spectrum, therefore will be able to establish control at different ages. Obviously, early intervention is best for every case, but results can not be expected to be the same.

I guess it bothers me a bit that people are telling the OP to "practice" and "prepare" with her child like she didn't already think of that. Any parent of an autistic child lives life that rotates around trying to help their child adjust to society. That's what life IS 24/7, stressing, working, praying, and doing everything in your power to get that child to adjust to a world that will never adjust to them. Depending on their level on the spectrum, this may never happen for some kids. It's very, very brave to tackle Disney with a child that is still in the meltdown stage. I personally am not strong enough. I couldn't have done it.
 
I guess it bothers me a bit that people are telling the OP to "practice" and "prepare" with her child like she didn't already think of that. Any parent of an autistic child lives life that rotates around trying to help their child adjust to society. That's what life IS 24/7, stressing, working, praying, and doing everything in your power to get that child to adjust to a world that will never adjust to them. Depending on their level on the spectrum, this may never happen for some kids. It's very, very brave to tackle Disney with a child that is still in the meltdown stage. I personally am not strong enough. I couldn't have done it.

I can guarantee you that not all parents of autistic children are doing whatever they can to work with their children they help them work within society as best they can. There are parents who are still trying to sue Disney because their child can not get the immediate access they used to get. Sadly, not all parents actually try to prepare their child for the road ahead but instead they rage against the injustice they see in the world.

As a parent of a child with autism who took that child to Disneyland a mere 3 months after he was diagnosed when he was almost 6, I will continue to tell parents that the need to practice and prepare their child for something as challenging as a Disney trip. We had no clue about what to expect for our first trip with him and I would have loved to have any and all advice about how to navigate.

All I am saying is that obvious advice is not always obvious to everyone.
 


I'd add that not all parents of autistic children know of "how" to prepare them. Each child is different and while each parent thinks they know their child best, sometimes it takes a third party to make the suggestion that "clicks." And other people sharing their experiences and how they helped prepare their child can be extremely helpful. Not everyone knows that there are full ride POV videos on YouTube for almost every ride. Not everyone knows that there are POV videos of just walking in the parks. And lets face it, a lot of the preparation is trial and error. The first trip we took, we watched videos to prepare. We bought books about going to the airport and through security. We prepared to have "known" foods on hand. What we didn't prepare for was use of a stroller. We knew he'd need it (he was 5) but we hadn't used a stroller for him in years. He balked. Big kids don't use strollers. Thankfully, his 11 year old aunt was there and crawled into the stroller and made it "cool." Now we can't get him out of the stupid thing.

There's nothing wrong with offering suggestions on preparations. We've also found that Disney is a weird place. Behaviors we see in normal every day life disappear there. Others pop up. Things that work in the real world, don't work there and vice versa. We are always looking for suggestions on what could help our kiddo, especially in these weird, one off, situations.
 
So far my son was very receptive when I tried to explain that at least some rides will be so long waits that riding more than once may not be possible. And he seemed ok with it. So let's hope that continues. I agree prep makes a huge difference. I think he will be okay. I was just wondering if they would possibly work with us if he really wanted to ride something more than once in a row if it had a long wait. But I am just going to heads up him for the ones like Pandora that we may not be able to ride it again or at least not for another hour or two
 
So far my son was very receptive when I tried to explain that at least some rides will be so long waits that riding more than once may not be possible. And he seemed ok with it. So let's hope that continues. I agree prep makes a huge difference. I think he will be okay. I was just wondering if they would possibly work with us if he really wanted to ride something more than once in a row if it had a long wait. But I am just going to heads up him for the ones like Pandora that we may not be able to ride it again or at least not for another hour or two

It sounds as though you are doing a wonderful job at preparing your son!

Because we had used the GAC a number of times and DS was used to it, When the change from the GAC to the DAS was announced, we started talking to our son as far in advance as possible and kept talking to him about it right up to our next trip. We found that repetition of information was really helpful and by the end of it, he was very well prepared and handled the change far better than we could have hoped.
 
Firstly big love to all the Autistic parents, I don't think people can say enough you're all doing a wonderful job.:love:

As with the OP: Not sure if you used this before but what about a "now and next board" - basically a bit of cardboard with now and next at the top a line separating them and a bit of Velcro underneath each area to add pictures.

So we're in the very early stages of looking at these, with DS, but it would say something like now Dinner/ next Ipad.

Thinking it might be worth seeing if they would work for you and your family. As you could have Now- Space Mountain/ next-Mickey Bar - so it can reinforce the verbal conversations as they've seen it just before they go on the ride and can be easily whipped out at the end; if they say the want to go round again as a reminder of what you're doing next.

Also could be a fun arts and craft activity before you go making all the little cards to put on the board - I know I'm going to have a great time doing that before hand
 
I have a 10 year old autistic son that loves to ride a ride over and over and over if he decides that is his favorite ride

1) Disney does not have provisions for this.
2) It would be unfair to other guests to have a person or group ride over-and-over.
3) If they allowed it, I am sure anyone with a DAS would claim they wanted/needed to ride again quickly.
4) Abuse would be rampant.

NOTE: At one time, they used to allow people to ride again, and again, and again is rapid succession. Sometimes, the guest would walk off the Exit door/gate and right to front-of-the-line. It caused so many complaints they had to stop the practice.
 
Last edited:
1) Disney does not have provisions for this.
2) It would be unfair to other guests to have a person or group ride over-and-over.
3) If they allowed it, I am sure anyone with a DAS would claim they wanted/needed to ride again quickly.
4) Abuse would be rampant.

NOTE: At one time, they used to allow people to ride again, and again, and again is rapid succession. Sometimes, the guest would walk off the Exit door/gate and right to front-of-the-line. It caused so many complaints they had to stop the practice.

This is essentially what the Universal resort express pass allows for. You must get back in the express line, but on certain rides there is very little, if any wait. I can understand that people wish Disney had a similar option, but based on need rather than ability to pay. I do not have a child who is focused on repetition to that degree, but I sympathize.

OTOH, I know that there was serious abuse of the GAC that ruined it for everyone else. Most people don't want to just ride the same ride over and over, but I can see this being a serious problem on certain rides that many people might want to ride multiple times in a row. That's one reason the Universal express pass can't be used on Harry Potter rides. However, if I was a ride CM, I would want to allow it on a case-by-case basis. I've seen CMs grant fastpass pixie dust for much less convincing reasons, e.g. the child is finally tall enough to ride something and the parents didn't book a FP.
 
The rides my ds wanted to do repeatedly were very few in the overall scheme of things. You might be able to predict those ahead, by watching youtube videos of them and considering what types of things he likes.

What you can do is try to get him onboard with the idea of a total number of times to ride it for the TRIP or the DAY, to see if he can flex and view it as a day, not right now, right now.

So if there's a ride you want three times of, you'd go early (say to Toy Story Mania), get in one because it's early in the day, one with FP, and one with the DAS. Your DAS won't expire, so you could even get in 2 before kicking in your FP and DAS.

Some rides are such that you wouldn't ride them again, back to back, even if you could. FoP is awesome, but it's kind of overwhelming. You could just talk through it ahead and go ok, we're gonna use the DAS and ride, eat at Satuli Canteen, FP Navi, then do FoP again.

Yes, if you can predict the ones he's most likely to want to do many times, that will help you have a strategy. For 7DMT, our fav is to stack it with eating at Be Our Guest. If you're lucky, he'll want to do over rides that have shorter waits or easy 4,5,6 FP. :D
 
The rides my ds wanted to do repeatedly were very few in the overall scheme of things. You might be able to predict those ahead, by watching youtube videos of them and considering what types of things he likes.

What you can do is try to get him onboard with the idea of a total number of times to ride it for the TRIP or the DAY, to see if he can flex and view it as a day, not right now, right now.

So if there's a ride you want three times of, you'd go early (say to Toy Story Mania), get in one because it's early in the day, one with FP, and one with the DAS. Your DAS won't expire, so you could even get in 2 before kicking in your FP and DAS.

Some rides are such that you wouldn't ride them again, back to back, even if you could. FoP is awesome, but it's kind of overwhelming. You could just talk through it ahead and go ok, we're gonna use the DAS and ride, eat at Satuli Canteen, FP Navi, then do FoP again.

Yes, if you can predict the ones he's most likely to want to do many times, that will help you have a strategy. For 7DMT, our fav is to stack it with eating at Be Our Guest. If you're lucky, he'll want to do over rides that have shorter waits or easy 4,5,6 FP. :D

the problem is there is zero predicting what he will be obsessed with. One trip he hated Spiderman and the next trip it was his second favorite. So there is no real planning that can unfortunately help us besides just telling him ahead of time over and over that we may not be able to jump right back on this ride so keep that in mind.
 
the problem is there is zero predicting what he will be obsessed with. One trip he hated Spiderman and the next trip it was his second favorite. So there is no real planning that can unfortunately help us besides just telling him ahead of time over and over that we may not be able to jump right back on this ride so keep that in mind.

Depending on the time of day, there is a slight chance of repeat on some of the less popular attractions. If repeating is a must, plan to stay late in the parks, until closing. We've been able to repeat on Splash at the end of the day - like very, very late at night!

I would not say 'may not be able to' - I'd word it much more strongly, as in 'we will not be able to',as may means there's a pretty good chance you may or may not - like 50/50, and that's just not a realistic scenario, IMO.
 
This is essentially what the Universal resort express pass allows for. You must get back in the express line, but on certain rides there is very little, if any wait.

That's one reason the Universal express pass can't be used on Harry Potter rides.


I was at Universal last week.
All Harry Potter rides have express pass lines now. Hurray!!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!










Top