Autism and Disney Parks

Without getting into too much background, my work deals with studies in Autism and Autistic behavior, and I've come across something curious.

Autistics, while they are usually bothered by crowds and loud noise, LOVE the Disney Parks. They say the parks feel safe, so the crowds and noise don't bother them.

I'm looking to see if there's anyone out there, you or someone you know, who has Autism and finds peace and happiness at the Disney Parks.

I have no follow up questions. I'm not looking to make a personal study out of this. Just curious to know how common this is.

FigmentImagines said:

Without getting into too much background, my work deals with studies in Autism and Autistic behavior, and I've come across something curious.

Autistics, while they are usually bothered by crowds and loud noise, LOVE the Disney Parks. They say the parks feel safe, so the crowds and noise don't bother them.

I'm looking to see if there's anyone out there, you or someone you know, who has Autism and finds peace and happiness at the Disney Parks.

I have no follow up questions. I'm not looking to make a personal study out of this. Just curious to know how common this is.

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My son is autistic...we have been to Disney once and plan to return again this June.
I can only speak for us, but the Disney property is so large, with so much going on, that there are a variety of places to take our children to if they become overwhelmed with noise and/or crowds. Our son had no fear of the characters, and I believe he enjoyed meeting them because they would 'talk' by gestures and head movements, therefore he could relate to the nonverbal aspect. Since our trip, however, he has made great strides in becoming more verbal, which makes us anticipate our upcoming trip with great excitement.
As far as noise/crowds, you can't really say that ALL autistic kids are not bothered by noises or feeling crowded - as you know from your studies, there is a whole spectrum of autism. Some children would find it easier, I think, to tune those things out, where others wouldn't be able to focus on any one thing, because they would be taking it all in. :shrug: In our son's case, we found it very helpful to bring along soundproof headphones to muffle the music on attractions and shows - it allowed him to approach those things without any fear.
Just as with neurotypical children, each parent knows their child and the limits those children have. And finding quiet areas to have your child relax and deal with any sensory overload is very important. Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions. :wave:

We took our nephew there. He absolutely loved it! He had some issues with fire then, so we had some difficulties in some areas of the parks as well as some of the attractions. One of his favorite rides was the teacups. The faster we would go, the bigger the smile. He wasnt very happy about waiting in line, so we had to go to guest services for a pass. The crowds and the noise were never a problem for him while we were there. He had the layout of magic kingdom memorized on the first day!

One thing that i did for him ahead of time was make a pamphlet for each park with pictures of my wife and i at the different attractions from our previous trips. He was then able to itentify that those were safe things since auntie L and uncle Larry had already been there.

He talks of going there again frequently. He is over his fire fear and we plan to take him again. I bet he will still have the layout memorized.

One of my nephews has Asbergers (I don't know if I spelled that right) which was explained to me as a mild form of autism. You would have to carry on a conversation with Jack to figure out that there's anything not on par. Someone who knows nothing of this condition wouldn't pick up on it right off. He was like 13 or so when his parents took him & his 3 younger sisters to WDW. His experience wasn't the flowering, wonderful experience that a lot of autistic children have. He is so literal about everything and doesn't deal well with dark, loud, or anything even mildly thrilling. He takes things for face value so if there's an AA dinosaur about to 'eat' him, he believes it is and freaks out. He has always been terrified of fireworks also. So start trying to imagine him on rides even as mild as the GMR at the studios when you pass thru the Alien rooms. Fireworks had to be experienced in a situation where Jack could stand inside where he feels safe while his sisters could be outside. Yeah. My sis-in-law had a really hard time.

On the same trip the family did, however, make a day to visit Discovery Cove. That was the experience on their vacation that saw my nephew flowering. My sis-in-law said when he was interacting directly with the dolphins he was like a duck-in-water. It amazed her.

Good topic!

My 9 year old son has high functioning autism. We took him 4 times and he loves it. Crowds aren't such a big deal to him. I always get a note, and take it to guest relations to get a guest with disability pass. Waiting on long lines can sometimes get him upset. We always check the menus at every place to eat , because he is very picky. All autistic children react different to things, it is such a wide spectrum. I have found it to be a positive experience

sweetpee_1993 said:

One of my nephews has Asbergers (I don't know if I spelled that right) which was explained to me as a mild form of autism. You would have to carry on a conversation with Jack to figure out that there's anything not on par. Someone who knows nothing of this condition wouldn't pick up on it right off. He was like 13 or so when his parents took him & his 3 younger sisters to WDW. His experience wasn't the flowering, wonderful experience that a lot of autistic children have. He is so literal about everything and doesn't deal well with dark, loud, or anything even mildly thrilling. He takes things for face value so if there's an AA dinosaur about to 'eat' him, he believes it is and freaks out. He has always been terrified of fireworks also. So start trying to imagine him on rides even as mild as the GMR at the studios when you pass thru the Alien rooms. Fireworks had to be experienced in a situation where Jack could stand inside where he feels safe while his sisters could be outside. Yeah. My sis-in-law had a really hard time.

On the same trip the family did, however, make a day to visit Discovery Cove. That was the experience on their vacation that saw my nephew flowering. My sis-in-law said when he was interacting directly with the dolphins he was like a duck-in-water. It amazed her.

Good topic!

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I have heard of dolphin therapy w/ autistic children, that is so awesome for your SIL :sohappy:- I would love to be able to afford Discovery Cove with my son. He loves animals, which makes Animal Kingdom a must on our vacation.

We're still not sure about our son experiencing the fireworks, more so for the late hour than the noise. He has to have a very similar schedule from day to day or we deal with hyperactivity and meltdowns. However, we will play it by ear and see how he does. He loves watching the Disney planning DVD when the fireworks part comes on.

My eldest son has Asperger's Syndrome, and we have been going to WDW every year from the time he was 6 to now (12). He does not handle loud noises well. He keeps ear plugs in his book bag for fire drill days at school. He does not like being upside down.

At WDW, he feels completely at home. He loves character interactions. His social skills are definitely lacking for someone his age, but the characters and CMs in general make him feel very comfortable. WDW has become one of his primary interests (other parents of Asperger's and Autistic kids will know exactly what I mean) so actually being there is the highlight of his year.

I've had to "preview" some rides so that I could prepare him. In some cases, he has declined to ride, which is fine. One of my wife or I will wait with him while the other takes our other sons on the ride.

Most of his papers and projects for school have a Disney element to them. Also, his notebook is loaded with doodles of Disney characters, places, and titles. He can reproduce the "Walt Disney" font with miraculous precision, and he can draw any theme park element from memory with incredible detail.

My little brother is autistic and enjoys Disney World now but in 1990, when we went, he had to be at least 3 or so therefore, he was overwhelmed by it a lot. The only thing he enjoyed the most was the characters. He was ALWAYS at peace with the characters. He talked a blue-streak at Minnie during a character breakfast but it was all complete gibberish so she stared at us shrugging XD We even have footage of him giving Pooh a kiss on the nose. Even today, though he enjoys a lot of it much more, the height of his trip is meeting characters.

My son is autistic. We first took him to WDW in the spring of '02, and the minute he set foot in the Magic Kingdom he was a completely different kid. His language exploded, and he became more focused and present than we had ever seen him. After seeing similar results in a second trip a year later, we decided to move from Seattle to Orlando so that we could use the park as a kind of giant therapy session.

His favorite ride is Snow White's Scary Adventures, and back in May of '05 he hit 1,000 rides (search this board for "SW1K" for threads on that event). That day Snow White herself came out to meet Ben and go on the ride with him. It was an amazing experience.

He is now closing in on 2,000 rides, it looks like that will happen on February 23rd. We are trying to arrange something special for him again this time.

Lokheed said:

My son is autistic. We first took him to WDW in the spring of '02, and the minute he set foot in the Magic Kingdom he was a completely different kid. His language exploded, and he became more focused and present than we had ever seen him. After seeing similar results in a second trip a year later, we decided to move from Seattle to Orlando so that we could use the park as a kind of giant therapy session.

His favorite ride is Snow White's Scary Adventures, and back in May of '05 he hit 1,000 rides (search this board for "SW1K" for threads on that event). That day Snow White herself came out to meet Ben and go on the ride with him. It was an amazing experience.

He is now closing in on 2,000 rides, it looks like that will happen on February 23rd. We are trying to arrange something special for him again this time.

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Yay for Ben! :sohappy: This June will be our son's first ride on Snow White. I agree about the MK, in fact all of Disney, being therapeutic - our son's progress has been dated from our Nov.2006 trip.

Lokheed said:

My son is autistic. We first took him to WDW in the spring of '02, and the minute he set foot in the Magic Kingdom he was a completely different kid. His language exploded, and he became more focused and present than we had ever seen him. After seeing similar results in a second trip a year later, we decided to move from Seattle to Orlando so that we could use the park as a kind of giant therapy session.

His favorite ride is Snow White's Scary Adventures, and back in May of '05 he hit 1,000 rides (search this board for "SW1K" for threads on that event). That day Snow White herself came out to meet Ben and go on the ride with him. It was an amazing experience.

He is now closing in on 2,000 rides, it looks like that will happen on February 23rd. We are trying to arrange something special for him again this time.

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Oh my gosh! I remember reading all about Ben here in May of '05. It was one of the things that first caught my interest In WDWMagic while I was still a lurker. Yay for Ben and for all autistic children who get so many positive things from our favorite place!

My son, too, has Aspergers. We took our first trip in 1998 when he was 10. He was very cautious about all the attractions and sometimes would feel sick to his stomach before going on one. After he went on and realized there was nothing to be scared of, he was excited to do it again. He's always been afraid of loud noises but WDW really hasn't scared him much with that aspect. That first trip (and since), every character was a delight to him. And I'm not sure, but it seemed as if all the characters knew he was "different" and would be even more kind to him. I can't praise Disney enough for teaching their castmembers how to handle "special" kids. I've watched with tears in my eyes while a severely disabled child in front of us in a wheelchair was being quietly and kindly hugged and patted on her head by Chip and Dale. She was beaming! It touches your heart. My son has always been more than happy to get hugs and smile for the camera. That's something that doesn't happen much in the real world. As another reader above stated, he's looks just enough "normal" to fit in until someone tries to interact with him - then he doesn't communicate well. Since that first trip in 1998, we've gone every year at least once, sometimes twice. He's 20 and still loves it - it's the one place I think he feels comfortable with who he is and no one is trying to judge him. We also have made a trip to Discovery Cove. He did fine in the water with the dolphins but I don't know if maybe he didn't get such a reaction because he's so high functioning:shrug:, but he still really enjoyed it.

Besides the fact I love it, that's a big portion of why we keep coming back. Thank you, Disney!:sohappy:

I have Asperger's and grew up loving Disney. I was pretty much nonverbal as a child, so Disney World was one of the few places where I really felt like I could let go. I still remember my first time speaking up to tell the cast member how many were in my party (It's a Small World), my first time asking for a specific seat on a ride (Goofy's Barnstormer) and my first attraction that I visited by myself (The Making of Pocahontas, when it was shown in the theater where One Man's Dream is now).

I never really had issues with crowds or waiting in long lines. I'm very sensitive to sounds, so as a child I had trouble with attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean and The Great Movie Ride. I can handle the sound levels of the attractions pretty well now, but I do carry ear plugs with me just in case.

Now I'm 22 and I've been working at Disney World for over 5 1/2 years.

Our son has been diagnosed with mild-moderate Autism since he was 3 and a half years old. Due to being very sensitive to crowd levels we waited until he was 15 to take him to Disney. He did very, very well. We went during the non-busy holiday time and he had a blast. One of his favorite things has always been christmas decorations so you can imagine his reaction to Christmas Disney-style! It took a couple of days of doing character dining for him to get into interacting with the characters - got to love Stitch at O'Hana - but character greetings are one of his favorite things. On our second trip a year later he really suprised me when meeting Cinderella after our dinner at CRT, when she told him to come around and stand next to her he was there and had her arm-in-arm of his own accord; the only blonde for him.
We do try to look for the signs of stress and have found that an hour dip in the resort pool works wonders for calming him. He blossoms when at the world. Well, who can blame him; don't we all?! I can't wait, 321 days until we're home again!

I have a mild form of Asperger's Syndrome, yet I love Disney World. Originally, I had trouble with things such as hugging the characters or talking to CMs, but as I have gotten older, I have been able to work through many of these issues. As long as I am with people I know, I can enjoy almost everything about WDW. Like sillyspook13, I was largely a nonverbal child, but I've found that Disney helped me to be more outgoing and social because it was such a happy place and people seem so much less threatening there. Also, I've found that hugging the characters in full costume has helped me learn to like hugging in general, something that has truly been hard for me my whole life. Thank you, WDW!

I have a mild form of Asperger's. Disney is one of the few places my family went to when I was younger. I have always been extremely shy around people (still am), especially around people I don't know. However, Disney has helped with that. Now I have worked in Disney on and off for 3 years.

My brother was born in 1986. My parents had decided, whether boy or girl, their child would be named Disney.

Disney has autism, but I suppose, given his namesake, he was born to adore going to the parks.

Some social situations still make him uncomfortable, and he IS highly functional and communicative, but at WDW he is a different kid.

He's practically fearless when it comes to the rides, when normally he can be very leary about things...and while some loud sounds upset him, none of the ride audios do. AND he LOVES IllumiNations and Fantasmic too!

His biggest issues are, at times, waiting in lines--he has problems understanding "time" and "our turn later"--so for some rides like Test Track and such, we use the Guest Assistance Pass--but generally we don't use it, as he is entertained by the cueing areas. Once the line was long for HM and we didn't want him to get flustered, so we went through the alternate entrance--or tried to. Let me tell you, Dis' was NOT happy about the idea of missing the Stretching Room!!!

It's so fun to be there with him and watch his interactions. It's especially fun when the CM's are so nice and introduce themselves and faces light up to learn that his name is Disney

Reading this thread has made me smile so much, knowing that there are times and places where people can make those with such a special need feel awkward and out of place, that at WDW my brother and those with special needs like his can feel at home

joanna71985 said:

I have a mild form of Asperger's. Disney is one of the few places my family went to when I was younger. I have always been extremely shy around people (still am), especially around people I don't know. However, Disney has helped with that. Now I have worked in Disney on and off for 3 years.

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Wow, I didn't know that. I am even more impressed with you than I was before I learned that. :kiss:

mousefan1972 said:

Wow, I didn't know that. I am even more impressed with you than I was before I learned that. :kiss:

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Thanks Kristin.

By now this is repetitive. My son (4) has developmental delays and displays some of the traits of autism, but not others (his issues most directly track a condition called Hyperlexia). He's been to WDW 6 times, 4 since he really knew what was going on. The first time, he was overwhelmed, but the last three trips he has loved the place, despite the noise, the crowds, and everything else.

He normally doesn't like loud noises, but Disney fireworks, and Pirate cannons, and everything else he loves. He's also more assertive about telling us what he wants to do and where he wants to go at WDW than other places, and he is more confident in trying new things there as well -- for example, he usually will stick by mom and dad if he has the chance, but in Turtle Talk, he went ahead and sat down in the front with the other kids.