Air Travel with an Autistic Child
Oct 08 '00 (Updated Oct 16 '00)
When I accepted this position in Georgia, I knew that it would be necessary to send my younger son who has autism back and forth to his father's home at least four times a year round trip for visitation purposes. Not knowing exactly how he would react to this type of change in his environment because of his sensitivity to changes in sound and touch, I wondered if he would be able to tolerate such change.
Because of this, I had to find out ways to prepare my son for an experience such as this so that traveling by air would become just a normal part of his life which he could adapt.
The first thing that I did was to go to the airport in my old home town and walk him through there. Since there was no reason for any of us to travel before this time, we had never been there before. I wanted him to understand locations of the parking lot, the luggage check in, the metal detector process and how the gate area worked. We met the attendants there at the counter and he was able to talk to him and ask questions. Then we sat there and watched individuals go in and out of the airplanes as well as seeing the airplanes land and take off.
Since I had to drive my car to my new place of residence, he did not have to travel by air until a month afterward. Each day we discussed that on April 2nd that he would go on the airplane and go fly to see his daddy. Because this was his first flight I decided to go back home with him to help him with this transition on his first flight. We arrived at the Atlanta airport about two hours early so that he could see that even though the airport was bigger that it was basically the same as the Baton Rouge airport.
I explained to him the tram train and that you could ride the train or you could walk to get to the gate. Since there was not that many individuals there at that time, we road the tram, but I've found that when things are busy that he prefers to use the moving sidewalk instead. The important part is to keep your child calm and relaxed because the airport like any other place which is not usually a part of your child's regular environment can set them into an anxiety attack.
In addition, I filled my son's booksack with things that he liked. We chose gum for him to chew on take off and landing as well as other snacks. I also purchased additional cold drinks for the kids on the plane so that they would not have to wait for the serving cart to come.
Also, I put books and some of his favorite toys in his booksack for him to read and play as we were flying. This included some of his zebra and other animal books, but also included books about the airport and flying.
One of the most detailed and interesting books that I found that explains airports and flying is a book that is now apparently out of print called The Airport - Our Link to the Sky by Robert Sidney Brown. There's sections in this book that answers What is an Airport?, Who Runs an Airport?, The Air Terminal Building, The Hangars, Making Ready for Flight, Runways and Lights, The Weather Station, The Flight Plan, The Control Tower, and Happy Landings. There's real people photographed doing every activity at the airport so that when your child sees these individuals, you can explain to them exactly what is going on.
Our first flight together really went on rather uneventful. My son's only "gripe" or level of impatience was when the serving cart for drinks didn't come as fast as what he would have liked. That's why I pack things now so that this wouldn't happen.
On the way back that first trip he traveled alone with his older brother who is now sixteen without any problems and they arrived without incidence safe and relaxed. So, I feel that my preparations that I made for him worked well.
In addition to actually preparing my son, I have tried to do the following concerning flights. I have tried to choose the same airline every time for us to fly on. Since there are only four major airlines which fly into the Baton Rouge Metropolitan area, I had very limited choices. Because Delta is the only airline that flies direct from Atlanta to Baton Rouge, that's the one that we've flown most.
This coming weekend, we are flying again to Louisiana. However, because the LSU football season is in full swing, we're not able to fly into Baton Rouge because the flights are sold out. Now we are having to fly Air Tran to New Orleans, get a rental car and then drive into Baton Rouge from New Orleans. This will present additional challenges to my son on this trip. We will not be parking in the same lot; We will be on a different airline; We will be arriving in a city he's never been in before; and we will be driving a car that he doesn't know anything about until we get there. Adaptation for him will be a key on this trip and I am curious to see how he will handle all of these things.
I've done all that I can to prepare him for this trip though by explaining to him what is going to happen in advance and will probably have his Polaroid I-zone camera with us on the trip to take current pictures of the new scenario with him in order to make an Air-Tran / New Orleans picture book for him to review and use on the return trip. I feel though that with continuous preparation, that this trip will be just as pleasant and do not anticipate any problems.
Update-- Well, we just got in from our trip and I am happy to say that the experience went well. However, I found that these were the things that caused the problems on this flight and I"ll remember those when I schedule flights again.
*** The Time of Day -- Because the flights were mostly sold out, I had to book a flight that was two hours earlier than what my son was used to being on. This caused us to have to eat breakfast at the airport instead of going to McDonald's before.
*** Lack of Seating Area -- In the terminal for AirTran, there were not near enough seats for the passengers and we had to sit on the floor to wait for boarding. This also caused my son problems.
*** Area of Seating -- Because the flight was oversold and there were no reserved seating arrangements until you checked in at the gate, we wound up sitting at the back of the plane on the outbound flight and my son wound up sitting at a window next to the engine. This wasn't too bad until near the end of the flight where he started to self-stim at that time.
*** Overloading on Return Flight -- I suppose with everything that happened these past three days, that it was too much for my son this evening and he started to overload with self-stimming behavior, loudness, disruptiveness, and so forth at their airport in New Orleans. Fortunately, I was able to get a seat upgrade to first class for $25 a seat tonight so we were all able to sit in comfort and because of this my son calmed down and really had a nice flight.
However, I will say that one thing that I "thought" would be a problem with our trip was not. Getting the rental car and then driving 1 1/2 to 2 hours to Baton Rouge from New Orleans wasn't really a problem at all. Other than the first fifteen minutes where my son wanted to know where we were going, he was actually QUIET on the entire trip. This has given me a lot of encouragement that we will now be able to make the trip from Atlanta to Baton Rouge and back via car without any problems.
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