6 Tips for Taking your autistic child on the train
At the start of the summer holidays I had to take Edward on a four hour train journey by myself. I knew this was not going to be for the faint-hearted so I had to prepare myself and Edward. I thought it would be useful to share with you 6 tips for taking your autistic child on the train.
1. Social Stories
Ok, I didn’t do this with Edward but each autistic child is different and I’ve found that Edward doesn’t always need social stories.
If you are unfamiliar with social stories then they are a series of pictures and words that make it easier to explain something to an autistic child. Click on this from The National Autistic Society explaining about Social Stories.
Below in an example of what a social story looks like. These can be created and adapted for any child and any situation.
2. iPad/tablet
Edward does like watching YouTube on an iPad so I thought that would be a good idea to keep him entertained. It did keep him entertained but not for as long as I was hoping. He won’t wear headphones and the train was very busy and noisy so there was far too much going on around him.
3. Blanket
Edward has loved fleecy blankets for years so of course we had to take on with us on the train. Ironically, I nearly didn’t bother but I picked it up at the last minute and I’m so glad I did. When he started to get a bit tired on the train or when it was a bit chilly waiting on the platform he was able to snuggle under his blanket.
4. Cuddly Toy
if you’ve followed our Instagram or read previous posts, you may have noticed that Edward loves the Teletubbies. However, for this journey, he decided to take Beni the Orangutan 🦧. One of Edward’s current obsessions is watching Orangutan documentaries and he loves to pretend to be an Orangutan, so this why he wanted to take Beni instead of the Teletubbies.
5. Lunch
I think it goes without saying that when you’ve got an autistic child, you bring your own food for them. Edward had his usual lunch of bread and butter sandwiches on white bread with the crusts cut off, fruit slurpers, Quavers and Tesco Cosmic Whips. Even then he wasn’t too sure that he wanted to eat it on the train so I told him that he was allowed to eat food on the train.
6. Sunflower Lanyard
Launched in 2016 the Sunflower lanyard scheme was developed to create awareness of hidden disabilities. To be honest, we haven’t used it very much, mainly because I felt the lanyards were hijacked during the COVID-19 pandemic and people saw it just as an excuse not to wear a mask and not that help may actually be needed.
However, I thought it might be a useful item to wear on this train journey even if it was just to stop unhelpful comments and disapproving tutting. This was especially helpful when we got on the train to find someone else sat in our reserved seat and Edward threw a tantrum, no one said anything.
I hope you found my 6 tips for taking your autistic child on a train useful. Do you have any other tips that have helped you? Please share in the comments below.
