Resource Suggestions?

dreamer17555

DIS Veteran
Joined
Dec 17, 2007
Hi!

I am traveling to Disney in May 2018 with my (will be) 16 yo DD and (will be) 11yo DS. My son has autism. He has grown in leaps and bounds in the past two years (can verbalize wants, can adjust better to plan disruptions) and I am hoping will have a wonderful first trip. (I have also spent the last year battling cancer and I am finally in remission so this is our celebration trip.)

Can anyone point me towards any resources or reading (I have read the DAS info from Disney) that might be helpful to planning a trip with an autistic child? I know there is a lot of roll with the punches with good days and bad but I find the more insight I have going in the better I can help him cope.

Thank you for any guidance. I am excited to have him take his first trip but very nervous. I want it to be a wonderful experience for him. We are staying at the Poly if that info helps in anyway.
 
This forum has a wealth of information including how to use the DAS in a more real-world way than Disney literature. Almost every ride has a video on youtube. We watch a lot of them before we go just so he has an idea of what to do.

And everyone here will have suggestion. It's really useful.
 
I can sympathize with your situation, we have a 12 year old son who is autistic and I was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 34. While most of our Disney and DAS experiences are at Disneyland, we have taken DS to WDW and have some advice if you want to chat. Feel free to send me a private message with any questions I might be able to answer!
 
For WDW, a YouTube poster named BigFatPanda has very good attraction videos. He usually includes what it looks like from the outside, some of the queue, boarding and then the attraction.
That's very helpful - a lot of other people's videos only show a quick shot of the outside and then switch to the start of the attraction.
 
Hi!

I am traveling to Disney in May 2018 with my (will be) 16 yo DD and (will be) 11yo DS. My son has autism. He has grown in leaps and bounds in the past two years (can verbalize wants, can adjust better to plan disruptions) and I am hoping will have a wonderful first trip. (I have also spent the last year battling cancer and I am finally in remission so this is our celebration trip.)

Can anyone point me towards any resources or reading (I have read the DAS info from Disney) that might be helpful to planning a trip with an autistic child? I know there is a lot of roll with the punches with good days and bad but I find the more insight I have going in the better I can help him cope.

Thank you for any guidance. I am excited to have him take his first trip but very nervous. I want it to be a wonderful experience for him. We are staying at the Poly if that info helps in anyway.

What kinds of things set him off? What kids of things calm him down? Is he a morning person, night owl, has he ever slept anywhere beside his own bed? How is he about bodies of water? Is he drawn to them? Is he an eloper?

These are questions to get you started thinking about how to set up your days, where the best place to stay would be, etc.
 

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