How to Plan your Flight With a Child with Autism
Taking a flight for business or leisure or to visit family can be quite overwhelming for most people particularly when traveling with an autistic kid. Airlines and airports are filled with all sorts of triggers, you know the loud announcements, bright lights, security checkpoints, crowded places to mention but a few. These are few of the many things that can worsen anxiety attacks on a child with autism. Luckily, there are simple measures you can take before, during and after the flight to help make the process less stressful to you and your child with autism. Here are a few basic tips put together for you to get you started into preparing for and travelling with a child with autism. The following are some of the measures most parents have had a huge success with when it comes to flying with children with autism. Here are more or less effective strategies you can implement to get you started in the process.
For starters, you might want to choose the shortest flight that you can get for your specific route. Even better is if you found a short route that has no stopovers along the way with connecting flights et al. Long flights often comes with multiple stop overs and this can make a kid impatient. When you take a long flight, it means you will minimize the two worst experiences for an autistic person during flight: takeoff and landing. See, the turbulence that comes with landing and takeoff can trigger a very bad anxiety attack on a child with autism. Of course, nothing much can be done about this but cutting down on multiple stopovers can save the situation.
The other important measure you should take when travelling with an autistic child is to help them prepare. For example, helping your autistic child pack their backpack for the flight ahead can go along way in helping them prepare for the flight ahead. Some of the must-have items in the carryon bag of an autistic child include chewing hum, noise cancelling headphones or earplugs, and some calming objects that they are used to. Using chewing gum has worked for many in the past when looking to ease pain in the ears as the altitudes start to change. By the same token, ensure you pack some non-technology items with you to use during the flight. If you have flown before you know there will reach a point during the flight when the attendants will call for the shutdown of all technology stuff so its important that both you and your kid with autism are fully prepared. Of course, this is best achieved through non-technology items that your autistic child has associated with emotional stability and calming effects in the past. And when all is said and done, positive words of affirmation along the flight journey will go a long way in keeping your autistic child calm.