Autism and difficulty with car journeys - advice?

[SpinningTopps]

DS is 5 and hates travelling in the car. He gets really worried about how long it will take and it's really restricting what we can do as a family.
Anything over half an hour means a really stressful journey.
We can't avoid car journeys, we have another child and it's nice to go out for the day.
So any tips on how to make it more tolerable? He has audio books but gets car sick so can't have visual distractions like an iPad.

Have you tried anything for the carsickness? If that could be improved journeys might be easier.

Yes, we do give him medicine but he doesn't get carsick anymore really unless watching something. I definitely think there's a bad association though even though the sickness has more or less stopped.

Possibly planning and a social story might help. Barring unforeseen circumstances we know roughly how long the journey will be and what happens when we get there etc. A little visual plan and/or story may be all it takes to relieve his anxiety. You can add in something to cover the fact that unexpected delays or problems can happen and that if it does mummy & daddy will know what to do.

I'll try drawing up a social story for him. We can talk fairly rationally with him before and after but in the moment he's very anxious and needs a minute by minute countdown with frequent 'have we traveled further than it would be to get to X or not?' Questions. He keeps his eye on the sat nav countdown but it doesn't really help with the anxiety. He will ask 'is 32 minutes to go more or less than half way?' Etc.

After an hour of it we're ready to tear our hair out!

We have a 4 hour journey coming up and I'm not sure it's doable but it does have to happen.

Factor in all of the things you know he typically asks about - quarter, half-way, three quarters of the way there etc. You could try a sort of scavenger hunt type check off list or similar. Tell him when you get to these points rather than waiting for him to ask.

Just remember that he’s not asking to wind you up, it’s anxiety driven.

Would a little timer help that he can hold that counts down so he has a visual? We had a similar situation and we had a special Bear that had a rucksack that he had to pack things for the journey in, helped a little to distract. I had knitted jam sandwiches and all sorts for the rucksack

I saw this comment and thought it was really useful. Thanks. I have no idea why it broke guidelines.

Thanks for the tip. I have downloaded the app. Will probably help with the school run too.

Probably because the poster was posting on threads, not just this one, advertising their app which is against MNHQ’s rules.

Ah, I see. It seemed like a relevant one for the problem I had.

I used to keep a selection of fidget toys just for the car.