A DESPERATE plea to aspie and autie parents from an aspie

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Do not take your autistic child to Chuck-E-Cheez's, Celebration Station, or equivalent establishment. NT kids see arcade games and chances to win prizes, but kids with ASD see a Danteesque hellscape with too many flashing, spinning objects and lights, hideous screaming noises, and lots of terrifying, fast-moving people. Going to Chuck-E-Cheez's when I was eight was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life.



Please.

not all autistic kids are alike. My son likes Chuck E Cheese just fine and does really well there. I don't take him all that often because I can't stand it (and it's expensive). But it's not the Hell to him as you describe.

The funny thing is my sometimes sound sensitive kid can handle places like that- arcades with the games blaring at unbelievable decibels - they are hell for me- an NT! I can't stand to go in them. But then he is doing something he loves - video games. We are going to an indoor water park next week and we checked out the noise level beforehand because when he was younger (he is now 11) those places would freak him out. Now he can tolerate it. I'll never say never...we even plan on trying to go to a hockey game with him - something we would never have even thought about a few years ago.

Every kid is different and can tolerate different things.

I loved chuckie cheese, and when I was older kahunaville. I did prefer them without a crowd,, or before the music was pumped off over the crowd, but I could still hold me own for a while there

dp

Uniformity of stimuli plays a big part of our comfort. Like, I can handle a noisy bar because of the noise haze. I can't handle being in an otherwise quiet restaurant with music on or loud conversations. Pop is the same way. family restaurants were always so hard for him but pizza parlors are okay.

My husband is just the opposite.

Well, for me, it's so loud that it does form a noise haze just like a smoke-filled room is hazy. Which I have a similar response to. If I'm in a smoke-filled room, I can breathe just fine. But if I'm in an otherwise clear room (or outside) and there are a few lone smokers, it chokes me.

i think the important thing here is to pay attention to the underlying message~the OP wants us to not force our kids to do things which are painful for them.

i think the important thing here is to pay attention to the underlying message~the OP wants us to not force our kids to do things which are painful for them.

i go to chuckie cheese still! (i am 23) *grins sheepishly* it's the only place i can find skeeball around here!

I can appreciate the op's point. I know for a fact that he would be overwhelmed at Chuck E Cheese, because we took him to an arcade and he had a very wild and overwhelmed look in his eye. That time, I could tell. But he didn't say or do anything different. I could just see it in his eyes. But we know he has an auditory processing problem, and he is very distracted by visuals, so that was an easy one. Other situations are more subtle.

My problem is that our son, who is 4, doesn't or can't say most of the time when he is in an overwhelming situation. It is very hard to tell just by his behavior, because there are so many variables.
We went to a restaurant today with 2 other kids. He was very quiet and withdrawn, more than usual. Was it the situation, the fact that he's on antibiotics for an ear infection, the fact that he's had a lot of Valentine's candy this week and more prone to meltdowns, or something else?

Then one of the kids was scratching him on the head like a puppy, and he just stared at him but didn't react. Did that mean he didn't mind, or was he just too afraid to say? Yesterday, a little girl at OT bit off a chunk of his hair, and he didn't react then either. I am not sure if he doesn't mind 'cause he doesn't feel it, or if he wanted to say something but couldn't, or ?

laplantain~ yes, it is quite difficult to judge when there are no overt reactions to the situation......our son can be like this. so many things he hated when he was young~he never told us, never showed any signs that he was miserable......now that he's older, he says that he thought we knew he was miserable and were just making him do these things.......things are better now. he'll tell us if he doesn't want to do something ....