Air travel for a child with autism...advice pls

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Hi all,

I'd like to take my family on a short trip by airplane to see extended family. The flight will be about an hour and a half.

When we first tried to board a plane whith our son who was 3 years old at the time (now 4 1/2 years old)... He was terrified of the noise of the plane and said something about the engine spinning too fast... he absolutely freaked out...(we had no idea at the time that he was on the spectrum) We saw how frightened he was and immediately turned around and went back home...

He was so dissapointed that he couldnt go and see his cousins last time and often mentions that he'd like to try again and seem's so keen to do it...

Now, we can see that part of his fear would have been due to the noise sensitivities... which we can help using ear muffs. I'm certain part of his fear was seeing the engine spinning too fast as well... but I'm not sure how we could help him with that particular fear.

I'm also very worried that he may get terrified during take off or mid flight or landing...

I'd love to do this trip with him, but I'm really worried sick about how he will feel during the journey... I dont ever want him to feel terrified to a point we cant console him.

Does anyone have any advice on how I can prepare him to (possibly) take a plane flight?

I'd also like to hear experiences of members here on the spectum who are terrified of flying. (in particular what makes the flight difficult for you)

Thank you in advance for sharing your experiences and advice

If you can choose your seats, pick ones that will not let you see the moving parts of the engines. On many jets (except commuter jets) these will be seats over the wings.

Get him to listen to music or read with earmuffs/ear plugs, just keep him preoccupied.

I don't kow if his ears are big enough to fit these, but I use "marshmallow earphones http://www.amazon.com/JVC-HAFX33A-Marsh ... gy_e_img_c that I get for about $20/pr locally, and they do a decent job blocking outside sounds. I use these at work, the environmental system is noisy, and several of the florescent balasts have that annoying buzz. MP3 players are great, and when I have traveled, they are easily concealed so that you can use them durring takeoff/landing (even when the flight attendents are required to say they must be turned off and stowed.)

Ear muffs and music may help; but they won't help his fear. The intensity of the sound coupled with the unknown are the problem.

Try explaining airplanes and gravity to him, why the engines are loud, and why you are not scared. He obviously won't understand everything or maybe much at all, but truth and assurance will get you in the right direction. Set a good example of emotions. Try not to show worry or anxiousness that a meltdown may happen.

There are some great books with pictures of the airport and airplane to explain flying to children. Maybe your library will carry some or you could order at a bookstore or online. I can't tell you exact titles and publishers because I already sent the books to Rwanda elementary schools in Butare.

Have you tried taking him to the airport a few times? That way he could get used to seeing everything there before actually boarding a plane. You can take him in the observation decks and let him watch the planes from there. Talk about planes as much as possible, point them out when you see them on television, cheerfully point out a book about them at a bookstore. Be really cheerful and positive about airplanes and airports. Tell him stories about families who have fun on their flight to grandmother's, kind of like an "over the river and thru the woods to Grandmother's house we go" song.
My mom and dad used to take me on roadtrips to visit my dad's family, they were quite a distance, of say, a thousand plus miles. That might be why I like driving and traveling by car so much now, because of those early trips before the age of four.
This experience might be molded into a positive one if it's approached the right way and there's lots of talking about it and anticipation. "Everybody is thrilled to be getting on the plane" type of atmosphere, and "look at what we can do on the plane to make this trip memorable and fun for everybody". I believe there's a way to turn this into a pleasant experience.

On Jetblue, I know of an in flight entertainment system where he can watch movies, play games and so on. This is a great distraction from the noise.

On other airlines, bring your own games and play with them (Hey, it will keep you occupied!) Maybe bring some coloring books, one of those color by numbers books, and so on.

Of course, you should invest in earplugs if his noise sensitivity is that extreme as to be utterly encompassing but it is your choice.

Good ideas here

Would it possibly help any if you could find someone kind enough to show him a smaller general aviation type plane, switched off of course!, and show what the parts are, how they work, and what kinds of noises each part makes.
And how those relate to the larger plane you will be flying on?

And maybe even let him sit inside (pilot's seat) for a bit?

Hey, it's an idea.

On that thought, if you don't know someone, most smaller airports (like the niny ones that typically fly Cessnas, and similar planes) will give tours, and show things off. These are the same airports that typicaly will train pilots. here's a link to help you find the ones that are affiliated with cessna. http://www.cessna.com/learn-to-fly/lear ... ools.html# You should be able to find one in your area, and if you give them a call, they may be able to help you with this. Who knows, you might spark a new interest in the child, as well.

Which has me wondering if this plane was jet where he saw the front of the turbines, or a propeller job (either piston or turboprop)?

Yeah, that prop doing who knows how many tens-of-thousands RPM can be pretty loud as its blades approach sonic speeds at their tips.

I come from an aviation family but do not remember how I got over the inherent small child's fear of something so large and so intense, with either planes or trains.

There are CDs of airplane sounds sold for aviation fans - get one of those to get him accustomed, maybe?
don't know where they'd be bought in OZ, but here's where I get mine: http://www.historicaviation.com/index.po?product=home
Expect there's something similar over there.

do make sure he understands and expects that sometimes the plane can get a bit bouncy without warning in flight from the air currents the plane flies in.

(with that, it just occurred to me, no wonder flying is so intimidating and overwhelming to the small set)

Last edited by southwestforests on 25 Sep 2009, 12:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Of course we have no ulterior motives here, do we

none whatsoever, beyond getting the kid comfortable around planes. I simply suggested that site as an easy way to find airports that would likely be willing to help show a kid what airplanes are all about.

Others have made good suggestions for noise issues (noise-canceling headphones might help as well, if not already mentioned).

As for the engines running "too fast"--is that a noise issue as well, or a visual one?

If visual, I'm guessing you're talking about a turboprop. If so, maybe watch some videos with him of turboprop engines starting up and explain that they are supposed to run fast. Might help condition him to the noise, also.

I've spent hours watching them, but I've always had a fascination with fans.

Here's one of my favorites:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swhSLbQHL74[/youtube]

Thank you so much for your replies... They are all so very helpful!!

We managed to get him to wear some ear muffs today (was a problem getting him to wear them in the past) and he was able to go outside with his dad and watch him mow the lawns... huge breakthrough for him... so the ear muffs are a success!

We have a book about planes...how you check in at the airport, take off landing etc etc... this book always got him excited about flying... but i think we need to get a book that is more detailed, as you mention .

I must work on my emotions before flying as mentioned also.. as I’m not so worried about our son having a possible meltdown, but my nerves about flying lol. I don’t want him picking up on my fears.

We took our son to the air port open day before we attempted our trip... hoping this would make him feel more at ease.
The only problem with that was the planes were grounded and turned off so the turbines were slowly spinning with the wind... and being that there was no noise I think he thought that was how it should have been when we boarded the plane. He does have a visual sensitivity with fast moving things, so will get him to watch dvd’s that hopefully may help with that.

Also, I’d love to be able to prepare him for the “feeling “ of take off and landing, turbulence etc... Would be great to have access to an aircraft simulator!

Thanks so much for the websites... I showed our son the small aircraft utube video....and he loved it! Got so excited over it, so I’m going to look for more on the 737’s taking off and landing... hopefully i can find some close ups of the turbines going... as this is the plane we will be flying in...

We are also going to have a look at the video stores and abc shop to see what documentaries are available... If anyone can recommend any?

We’re going to see if there is something that the airlines can do for us as well to prepare him and just talk alot in general about flying, to hopefully relieve some general fears.

Thanks again!