Q&A with Jenny Herman of Homeschooling Convention
“Even though traveling with spectrum children can be a challenge, it is still worth trying. Be patient with yourself. If you can manage five minutes at a location, that’s ok. Next time it may be ten, and eventually a whole afternoon. As your children grow comfortable, their tolerance will expand.”
Many times moms of spectrum kids are nervous to take their children out.
I know I was, and still am on occasion. After all, we never know how things will go!
I have two boys, four and six, and my oldest is an Aspie which can make his behavior somewhat unpredictable at times
Things have gotten easier as he gets older and learns new ways of controlling himself, but we still face challenges.
There are a few things I have learned to incorporate in my travel planning to make it easier and ensure a positive outcome most of the time.
Now that they are both old enough to wear backpacks, I use those to my advantage.
For starters; I make sure we have snacks, and if we’re going somewhere that will require a lot of waiting, I try to remember to include something to do. Hunger and boredom aren’t any parent’s ally.
Until this year, I still brought the umbrella stroller with us in the case my son would be too tired and start fussing about walking around.
I usually carried ‘the family stuff’ around, but my load often doubled to contain my aspie son if he experiences a meltdown.
And I soon came to the realization that there was no way I could carry a thrashing five-year-old and conduct my three-year-old safely out of an area. I’m hoping now that I won’t need to do that and that my son can experience less behavioral issues that would necessitate me actively removing him from any venue.
Another thing I do is I try as much as possible to frequent the same places so my kids learn to recognize the spots and feel comfortable enough so I can teach and reiterate social skills in those safe and familiar arenas. For example, we have a membership to a local museum and go there often.
One last thing I do is take a picture of my boys with my cell phone camera and store it on my phone when we get to a location. That way, if my son wanders off and is lost, I have a very current picture to show first responders and law enforcement so they can distribute it quickly. I learned that from Margalit’s autisticglobetrotting travel blog.
I firmly believe that even though traveling with spectrum children can be a challenge, it is still worth trying.
My best advice to date is that you need to be patient with yourself.
If you can manage five minutes at a location, that’s ok. Next time it may be ten, and eventually a whole afternoon.
As your children grow comfortable, their tolerance will expand. You need to start by believing that you can do it to get there!
Share this:
