Should I try go-karting with my 11 year old Aspie son

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Is this something I should try, or would sensory overload take over? I'm concerned that the safety briefing contains too much information to process in one go. Too many rules all at once.

Experiences? Thoughts? Good? Bad?

Thanks.

If he wants to do it, why not give it a shot? Maybe bring some earplugs along, if noise will be an issue. Due to my AS, if I am trying to listen to someone giving instructions and it becomes to much, I just tune out. Or I start looking around for something more interesting. Is it possible to ride go-karts at a time when there aren't many people around?

If you have access to a golf cart, maybe he could try that. They are very quiet and usually have a governor on them so they can't go very fast. My son is 11 and is HFA. He is verbal, but has moderate communication issues. He isn't very coordinated, either. So, I was totally shocked when I learned that my parents let him drive their golf cart when he was visiting one weekend. He's been driving ever since, and he was only 8 years old. He is a very good driver.

Karting is a very XTREM activity. I had a go at doing it years ago and it is quite hard work. A lot of stuff is happening all at once.

How will he be with a helmet on his head ?

As a car driver I found one thing a bit harder, on the kart I was using the right foot worked the gas while the left worked the brake. I am too used to working both pedels with the right foot, I have been driving manual transmission cars all my adult life so trying to drive an automatic with the brake on my left foot was hard for me to get my head around.

Maybe as he has never driven a manual transmission car in his life he might have an advantage as he will not have to unlearn what I know about car driving.

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Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

My kids are 10 and 13, and we're all ASD. We are all adrenaline junkies! Yes, a simple hug can send any one of us into overdrive...but purposefully exposing ourselves to things that are overwhelming for even NTs is kind of soothing. We have to choose it. Making us would be unpleasant. But if he's asking to try, you may find he loves it. My son was big for his age and able to go on the little kid roller coaster at the fair by his 2nd bday....he come off shaking so bad he could barely walk and streaming tears and asking for "more?". lol

You kind of have to take each experience as an individual with ASD, I think. I'd give it a shot. If he freaks out, comfort him and let him know that he can absolutely try it again at a later date if he thinks he's up to it. One of the most crippling things about ASD is how people always take things away from you for not being NT enough for their comfort. Not letting you try....or not giving you a second chance if you're not perfect the first time around, you know?

Just my take....apply as you see fit.

Please parents don't rule out activities like this too easily. He may have issues but he may be great at it and assuming he can't do it and other things may set him up for a life of assuming he can't do anything.
I was given my first car when I wad 13 to do rally driving type stuff and I loved it.

Ya should try this..

I've booked him a karting activity day for half term. I had a very positive discussion with the staff at the karting centre and they said they have experience supporting AS children successfully and were positive about this.

They did suggest that we turn up half an hour early so they can meet him 1-1 before everybody else arrives. I'll stick around for the day.

Wish him luck ... hope it goes OK.

awesome! It sounds like a great situation too. We don't have anything nearly so organized around here. lol You pay the fee, pick a cart, and go. The staff doesn't do anything more than make sure you don't keep the cart too long, and yell at you to stop if you do anything monumentally dangerous. =D

I look forward to hearing about your son's experience. I hope you pop back in and update us after the fact.

I hope he enjoys! You definitely might want to bring some ear plugs just in case.

Also, do they have 2 person karts? Some places do and that would enable him to experience it without having to focus on the steering and stuff if that is hard.

I personally had a horrible experience when I went gokarting with my boyfriend and his family. I brought ear plugs (luckily!) but it was way too loud, the helmet was uncomfortable and suffocating, and the safety instructions weren't clear so I had no idea what it meant. Also, I am not very coordinated and I kept bumping into walls driving and everyone was getting annoyed at me for blocking their way. The guys who worked there got mad at me because I ran into barriers a lot or bumped into people and that isn't allowed. I just had trouble dealing with all the sensory input while trying to drive, keep track of the course, and keep track of the other people.

You might want to come up with some back-up plans and things to deal with the various things that could go wrong. Also, does the place have other stuff besides the gokarts? The place we went had an arcade so while everyone else took extra laps, I put in my ear plugs and shot cyborgs (Terminator arcade game is one of my favorites). It gave me alone time to recenter afterwards.

Awesome job though being aware of possible problems he could have there and while being sensitive to that, not just writing off the possible experience.

Thanks for the prompt.

This went very well, and the staff were careful to address him by his name and make sure to get his attention.

I stayed for the half day, and he really enjoyed the experience. Not by any means the fastest kart on the track, but he was able to drive laps without crashing. In fact he only crashed once when he went round a corner too fast.

He did say that he found it difficult to know what the other karts were going to do, which has to do with understanding what the other driver might be aware or ignorant of, and also their level of skill.

So a good start, and we can take it from here as he has enough skill to participate in open timed events.

Quite understand about aspiefeminists difficulties with sensory overload.

Thanks everybody,

A proud Dad.