Airport Security

[ahw92]

My DD is 3 and we don't have a diagnosis but suspect she may be autistic, or at least highly sensitive.

She usually manages pretty well in most situations unless there is a lot of noise/people, or she can't be physically near us when she feels she needs to be. We fly a few times a year and airport security is getting harder as she has to walk through on her own, can be pretty stressed by the time we get there, and can't wear ear defenders or have her comfort toy.

Has anyone any tips or tricks to make this easier? We had a meltdown on the way home from Tenerife and are keen to avoid it again! We felt the staff weren't very understanding and we're rushing us through while DD stood there in tears.

Thanks!

Get the sunflower lanyard

Could you role play it before you go. Make it into a game and turn your house into an airport. To get through the front door they need to pass security.

Go to the extra assistance lane. Most U.K. airports have them.

Holiday somewhere that you don't need security?

yeah this. Don't understand why you're repeatedly putting a 3 year old through a stressful situation that could be avoided. Plenty of years ahead to holiday abroad.

Sunflower lanyard.

With both children we send one adult first and then tell the children to run to their other parent.

UK airports do consider Sunflower lanyards. When we went in a recent holiday half the plane seem to have them. The Spanish airports however don’t seem to care about them which led to one 10ish year old girl having a meltdown as she assumed they would by pass the queue. I know it’s hard with her age but I think the best prep is the social story route leading up to any event. Give it a go with something simple but different you’re about to do as a test.

Google also says that a handful of airports do familiarisation visits.

My daughter is autistic and also has Tourette’s so we’ve used passenger assistance. Airport security is great fun with someone ticcing about drugs in their bag.

They’ve always been fab. They take us all the way through security to the gate, we’ve used a sensory room in a couple of places. We’ve also been met by passenger assistance the other side

She also has a sunflower lanyard - we’ve found most staff to be pretty clued up when they see one.

Ear defenders are a godsend as well - DD is a young adult and uses Loops now, but in the past she’d had standard ones.

Not a very helpful suggestion, unless the op wants to be stuck with UK holidays which are not everyone's idea of a holiday!

Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for your disabled kids so you are not distressing/ causing pain to them unnecessarily for an adult want. Might only be for a couple of years til she can cope.

It's one option. If you can't find a work around.

Northern France, Belgium, Netherlands, all easily driveable/ferry/eurotunnel. We can leave the home counties at 7am and be on the beers in Brugge by lunchtime via the Eurotunnel, and can have all our own snacks and drinks (and scissors and toothpaste over 100ml) with us the whole journey

Not easily accessible from Scotland though! The op doesn't say where she's travelling from? Quite likely an autistic toddler would also struggle with a lengthy car journey.

Definitely sunflower lanyard. I used them with my kids last summer and it was great. I put their access cards on it (they have no queuing symbol) but nobody checked.

Whenever we were waiting staff would wave us to the front and when DS had to have extra checks they let me go down that path with him. He still had to walk alone, but within a couple of meters of me, and he watched them do each step (pat down, through scanner etc) on me first, then I waiting and verbally reassured him while they did it on him.

Overnight ferry from Newcastle is a good option for us Scots.

Not a very helpful suggestion, unless the op wants to be stuck with UK holidays which are not everyone's idea of a holiday!

I don't know. Both of our DC are neurotypical but hate heat so we stuck to the UK until they were older. There is lots to do and NHS services for when they inevitably get poorly.

@TartanMammy everyone will be different, but thinking was if they can just about cope with an airport which is the height of hustle, bustle and over the top officious procedure, and then a flight trapped in a single seat then suggesting accessible places by car is probably not outside the realms of possibility. And if it’s not for the particular OP’s DS, that’s OK, it’s just a suggestion, and it might work for someone else. It was in response to the fact that someone said not flying restricts them to the UK, though there are plenty of lovely holiday places in the UK too.

There is usually a separate check in section for families with small children and special assistance. It's brilliant.