10 Tips for traveling with autistic children
For families with children with autism, traveling to unknown places, with unfamiliar routines, faces and things, requires extra planning. Our Autism Response Team has tips to help make that easier so everyone can enjoy their trip.
1. Practice makes progress
Becoming familiar with what sights and sounds to expect during a new experience can help reduce anxiety for an individual with autism. A good way to prepare your child with autism with the idea of travel is to use of teaching stories.
Recommended: Taking an airplane: A guide for people with autism is good
If possible participating in a realistic “dress rehearsal” can help your child become used to the sights and sounds they can expect, providing an opportunity to walk through their upcoming travel experience.
Recommended: Autism Flies and Autism Stays practice events by Autism Double-Checked
2. Contact guest services in advance
Many families are unaware that they can contact guest services at airports, their airline, train stations and hotels for support. Often this simply involves calling their main customer service line and explaining your family situation.
Recommended: Amtrak's Accessible Travel Services
There are also many travel-related companies that provide a variety of accommodations like advanced boarding times, special meals, rental equipment, travel companions and pre-registering service animals.
Additionally, when staying in a hotel, call ahead and explain your child's particular needs. For example, if they follow a specific diet, tell them you could use a room with a refrigerator to store their food. You can also ask them to take things out of the room that may be unsuitable for your child, like a spinning chair that could be a safety risk, or fragrant complimentary soaps that could trigger any sensitivities.
Recommended: AutismTravel.com
3. Provide choices to your autistic loved one
Give your child opportunities to have some input into your travel to provide them some sense of control, help ease any anxiety and get them excited.
For example, involve them in packing their bag. Have them make a choice between pairs of pajamas or t-shirts. Let them select a few of their favorite things to bring such as calming toys, books, iPads (or other devices). Don't forget snacks. Let them pick one or two for the trip. Not only does involvement help them feel closer to the experience, but these familiar items will come in handy to reduce stress and boredom.
4. Prepare for sensory concerns
Pack ear plugs, noise cancellation head phones or music players to help with unfamiliar noises that will certainly come up during travel.
If your child has difficulty handling crowds or standing in line, it is important to make use of guest services, as stated above. Or if you are flying, ask the gate attendant if you can either board early to get settled in a seat quickly, or board last so you spend less time waiting before departing.
Also, for plane and bus trips, you might want to try to obtain seats toward the front, where your child might not feel as cramped and crowded as they would in the back.
5. Safety first
Changing routines and new environments during travel make having a safety plan even more important. It is important to make sure you have a plan in place with you as you travel, in case your child gets confused, lost or wanders.
Recommended: Family wandering emergency plan
Consider additional safety products such as wearable ID tags to make sure your loved one has a form of ID on them at all times.
Recommended: Safety and wandering prevention tips
6. Prep your environment
When staying in a hotel, consider asking for a quiet room, like a corner one away from elevators.
If your child needs a night light, bring one from home or make sure your place of stay has one.
Always scope out safety policies and procedures of places you're staying at and visiting. If you can't find them, be sure to ask about them, especially door alarms and access to pools and bodies of water. If your child tends to wander from safety, provide copies of your family wandering emergency plan to staff of hotels or excursions. The same goes if you’re staying with a friend or a relative.
7. Family watch system
Set up a family watch system so that one person is always available to provide one-to-one supervision for your child. For example, maybe one parent takes breakfast every day, a grandparent takes nap time, another parent or guardian takes pool time, etc. This type of teamwork will allow everyone to navigate smoothly throughout the entire trip and help diminish stress. It will not only add routine for your child, but it will also give the adults breaks.
8. Follow standard routines
Try keeping standard routines the same when you travel as when you are home. For example, if your child likes to do activities in the morning and then have quiet time in the afternoon, you should try to follow that routine when you travel. Or if you eat dinner at 5pm every night, do that on your trip, even if you are on in route or participating in an activity. If your child needs certain items for standard routines, like a cup they have to use at dinner, pack it. Make sure your child know they will have these daily comforts even when away.
9. Create a daily schedule for the trip
You can best manage the disruption to your normal daily routine by creating a schedule of your trip and sharing it with your child. Call it your "trip schedule" so they know it will be different and make sure to review it with them. Point out where they will be doing their normal daily activities, like eating and sleeping, so they can see where home life and trip life will be the same. A full schedule can be something simple such as 8am-9am breakfast, 9-9:30 bus ride, 9:30-12:30 sightseeing, 12:30 lunch, 1:30 break, etc.
Recommended: Visual Supports and Autism Spectrum Disorder Tool Kit
10. Reinforce good behavior
Consider having your child earn a special reward at the end of a successful drive, flight, or excursion. This can be done with the simple reward of praise, a sticker, a small toy or anything else that is reinforcing for your child. These positive behaviors might include simple things they would do at home like sitting with their seat belt, reading quietly or sharing. This can help your child realize that even though they might be in a different place, they still are doing the same things they should be doing at home. That could be a source of comfort and stress-reducing for them.
Additional resources to manage travel:
Additional Resources & Tools
