Any tips on flying with ASD child?

[BialystockandBloom]

Any tips please on how to occupy/distract/pacify 4yo ds (ASD) during a four hour flight, plus the two hours in airport beforehand, security check-in queue etc.

First time abroad for the whole family together and not relishing keeping ds calm/waiting etc as well as trying to stop 18mo dd creating havoc. Dreading it!

First tip: phone the airline well in advance if you need to make special arrangements. We did this last year and they let us pre-book seats and arranged for us to take buggies to steps of aircraft if we needed to. I also went to the front of all queues & told them DS1 (3:1 at the time) had autism. We queue jumped at all times!!

I am not sure how it happened but time waiting in airport seemed to go really quickly and fries at burger king went down a treat for DS1. We had booked the VIP lounge (not as expensive as you think) but actually wasn't that great for kids so DH took DS1 to burger king!!

For the flight: I took miniature versions of all the things DS1 liked at the time - tiny train track (£5 from next, they still do similar one), little trains, sticker books, reading books, chocolates. When I felt I had exhausted my collection of new gifts I presented him with an ipod - result! He had only used it once before so was a novelty. DS1 even ate the plane food - which actually wound me up a teeny bit as he would never eat macaroni cheese when I made it!!

The flight was only two hours so was easier than 4 hours I know. We had DS2 who was 11 months at the time and it was harder keeping him settled than DS1.

Hope it goes well. We not going this year as know it will be more stressful now he bit older. We went last year as had to really - family event!

Oh, not sure if your DS has sensory issues but maybe headphones if you think it will be too noisy?

We flew from manchester and they have a step by step guide for children with autism - pictures of airport, security, cabin airport lounge, runway etc etc. We made a similar one but tbh DS1 didn't need it at the time. I would definitely take it if your DS1 likes visual schedules/needs to know what happening next.

marking place - need to put the girls to bed, but will return

Not sure what your DS likes but we found that a Trunki filled with various toys and small vehicles kept DS happy in the departure lounge and is just the right size for hand luggage. He is obsessed with ride on toys and transporting things.

Flight itself was a nightmare......

right.

things that have meant we have survived flights

make sure you and dh are clear on what jobs you are each doing at the airport. It will be stressful enough anyway, and trying to answer questions while hanging on to stimming/over excited child is not easy.

I tend to leave dh to do all the check in stuff, and literally sit down at the foot of the check in desk and read a story to the dds. yes, we get gawped at. but hey, it works for us.

Trunkis are great - the dds have one each. one for toys/books/wipes/change of clothes and one for food (both are multiple food intolerant, and you can never book special meals for children - even if you manage it, it's not somehting they are likely to eat! - so we have to take all our own food. if you have this problem too, I have furhter tips for you). The trunkis give children somewhere to sit other than the floor, and can be used as entertainment while waiting to board the flight, without unpacking all the toys you brought. also an extra toy at destination - always a bonus.

you cannot beat an ipod touch or ipad for battery life and entertainment value - music, films, apps in whatever form you like - worth its weight in gold. and, if using an itouch, easy to pack, and doesn't weigh a tonne.

a good magazine or two (for the children!) also useful - usually have a load of different htings to do, with stickers, colouring etc. I found some brilliant ones in Sainsbury's I think last year - they were mosaic-by-numbers sticker books. kept dd2 quiet for a good hour.

for airport familiarisation - I thik it is Manchester airport that has released an ASD familiarisation guide - amberlight has linked ot it before. There is an Usbourne book - a big chunky one, wiht a wind-up aeroplane, which describes everything that happens in the airport, security etc, and you run the plane around the tracks on each page. might be useful for talking things thorugh beforehand this is it

if you need ot take extra liquids through - a particular cup, or because of a certain juice etc, this is possible. you need a letter from your doctor stating it is a need (we have to take dd1's juice with us - she cannot drink apple or orange, and will not drink water. on a 10hr+ flight, this is a problem. we have had exemption form the 100ml rule because of this)

is your 18 month old still small enough to go into the car seat extra that straps onto the bulkhead table bit? we used ot bung dd2 in there, with something new and shiney/exciting (she spent the whole flight to California clutching a new squirty bath toy in the shape of a dinosaur when she was about 16 months old!) - leaves your hands free if so.

Wow, thank you for the great tips everyone

We're actually going on Saturday, so have left it too late to get anything new really (was on the verge of buying a trunki when dp talked me out of it, bugger it).

Rang gatwick who can't offer a huge amount but have arranged a 'meet and assist' to hopefully speed us up through security. I'm pretty worried about the queuing aspect.

The manchester airport guide is great! Very forward-thinking of them. Will definitely go through this with ds.

Sadly ds isn't remotely motivated by anything calm and quiet like stickers, vehicles, colouring etc. Think shouting loudly, jumping off sofas, racing up and down, and chopping with swords and you get the picture. Bodes well doesn't it

silver great idea re dd, but she is a bit of a bruiser actually, dread to think how much she weighs but in 2-3 yo clothes, so would probably break the baby seats

oh, the flight where dd2 sat calmly clutching a dinosaur, dd1 paced up and down th ecabin reciting the gruffalo

coudln't stop her - she moved out of people's way nicely enough, but was in perpetual motion... when she did finally come and sit on me, she made me sing. non-stop.

if all else fails - feed them non-stop. nice chewy, sticky things, to keep mouth occupied

have a good holiday!

ah, does he do ipod then? like silver says, take lots of food that takes a long time to eat to keep him occupied. My little man doesn't do sweets but he will eat things like pom bears and chocolate buttons!

Good luck!

Yes hopefully the ipod will do the trick (actually iphone is the most mod-con we have but will have to do). And of course there is always the stuff-them-with-food-till-they're-sick option. Sticky sweets definitely good. Pom bears and choc buttons wouldn't last more than a minute, I have the greediest children.

Going to Sicily - club med late deal. Our treat to ourselves for having spent the last 6 months doing statutory assessment/statementing (sent back our comments on proposed statement today), and a breather before we gear ourselves up for the next round

silver out of interest, what did dd1 make you sing?

that was in her Musicals phase so things like: somewhere over the rainbow, any dream will do, doh a deer etc . I was the inflight cabaret

it was that, and reciting Julia bloody Donaldson books non-stop - if I never set eyes on Day Monkey Night Monkey again, I will be a very happy bunny. That and bloody Tiddler (which dd2 managed to find form it's stuffed-down-the-back-of-the-sofa-and-hope-she-forgets-it position...)

oh, and just remembered - in between all that, I had to read Dinosaurumpus to dd2 constantly (who was in her dinosaur phase!) oh the joys of transatlantic flights

most those tricks also work for asd adults :P

silver - how did you keep sane? Good on you for doing the trip!

oh, it was just my everyday life, but transferred to an aeroplane

seriously, dd1 learnt to talk by studying the sounds I made when I read to her - she used to examine my face intently, and then try to copy the shapes herself in a mirror/reflection in glass etc.

so, all her life, I have moved from book-of-the-moment to book-of-the-moment. The first one was Maisy's Pool. which I read, oooh, about every 5 minutes throughout the day. every day. honestly, I must have read that book hundreds of times each day. dd1 was about 16 months old. no other book wuld do, as she was trying ot narrow down the associated shapes/sounds, so wanted a predicatble, narrow subset.

then it was Rumble in the Jungle and Commotion in the Ocean. Then The Lion who Wanted to Love. Then Giraffes Can't dance. Then the Gruffalo, and so on. with htese, she learnt the stories herself, too, so she could practise the articulation etc.

Each book lasted months - and I had to read it over and over.

it was soul destroying, but at tthe same time heartening that it was somehtign we "shared" - even though she was just using me to learn the different words/mouth shapes etc.

and singing has always been as obsessive with her - for the same reasons. she was learning how to talk.

so, it was just my (then) everyday life but taking place on an aeroplane.

That flight was over 3 years ago now, and we have since been to Australia, and back to the USA again, plus other shorter internal/Europe flights. looking back, I think I must have been insane to tackle the flights, as it was such hard work, but hten if we hadn't, we woudln't have had the holidays - and dd1 still talks about each of them, they really have a marvellous effect on her.