Q&A with Alysia Butler – Autism Blogger
“Keeping as much of a routine as possible while still enjoying the free time makes our vacations that much better.”
My name is Alysia Butler, and I’m a stay-at-home mom and blogger living in Massachusetts.I have the honor of being the mom to three incredible boys, ages nine, six and three. My two youngest kids are both on the autism spectrum.
All three of my kids attend our public school system. My six-year-old is in an inclusion classroom for kindergarten with a full-time, one-to-one ABA tech helping. Both my six-year-old and my three-year-old receive home ABA services as well.
Traveling with my boys is a challenge for many reasons.
Since we’ve become a family of five, we’ve stuck to travel by car, mostly because of the high prices of flights.My six-year-old has an intolerance to all corn products (corn syrup, corn starch, high fructose corn syrup, etc.) so we have to travel with all of his food in addition to all the “comforts” of home (books, iPad along with about a million hot wheels cars.) Our car trips are no more than 4-5 hours away, and we stay in the same places each time, whether it be at my mother’s house in Vermont, or the same hotel in New Hampshire near Story Land (our favorite amusement park), or a house we rent on Cape Cod.
We prepare our kids for the trip, sometimes with social stories, but mostly with calendar countdowns and photos from our last adventure.
All of our car trips are no more than 4-5 hours away, and we stay in the same places each time, whether it be at my mother’s house in Vermont, at the same hotel in New Hampshire near Story Land (our favorite amusement park), or a house we rent on Cape Cod.
We always plan our trips ahead and prepare the kids with social stories, calendar countdowns, and photos from our last adventure.
Probably the best tip for parents is to become more flexible.We always have a backup plan for our travels by adding flexibility into our schedule.We only stay at hotels that have the same day cancelation policy in case we just can’t go. We also make sure we build breaks into our schedules and practice a lot of “divide and conquer” in an attempt to make sure that all three kids are enjoying the trip.Like most parents with children on the spectrum we’ve learned that keeping as much of a routine as possible while still enjoying the free time makes our vacations that much better on most if not all fronts.
I look forward to the day when my kids are older, and we can spread our wings a bit and experiment with traveling farther by train , by plane or both.But until then, we’re quite content to explore destinations in our lovely New England, spending quality time together.
Until that day arrives, I’m happy to say we’re quite content to explore destinations in our beautiful New England, spending quality time together.
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