Autism-friendly specific sessions - the good, the bad, and the ugly
The number of places offering specific autism friendly sessions for autism families is steadily increasing. I believe public museums and art galleries lead the way, with businesses following in their footsteps - some supermarkets, trampoline parks, soft play areas etc. now offer specific autism and disability opening/sessions.
Whilst acknowledging that this is great news for families who otherwise might not be able to access these facilities at all, and the training staff receive, there are some definite downsides. Certainly the fact that a place offers a specific autism session shouldn't be a substitute for being inclusive outside of that session.
Timing
One aspect of these specific sessions which I have a problem with is when they are scheduled. They tend to be very early in the morning, before the usual opening start time (in the case of children), or late in the evening (in the case of adults, for example for supermarket shopping).
I think there is a general perception that families with young children must always be up at the crack of dawn and that therefore there is no problem with going to an event which starts early in the morning. Even ignoring the fact that it can take a while to get out of the house with children, and that it can take much longer with autistic children, there is the sleep factor.
Having in the past attended an excellent sleep workshop for parents of autistic children, run by the Together Trust (which I can highly recommend!), I know that autistic people have more sleep problems than the rest of the human race. Second comes people with other disabilities. Autistic people suffer from nightmares, night terrors, sleep walking, difficulty getting to sleep, difficulty staying asleep...
(The big difference between nightmares and night terrors is that someone who experiences a nightmare wakes up and remembers having a nightmare. A person experiencing a night terror will exhibit being incredibly distressed in their sleep, which is extremely upsetting to see, but when they are awake they have no knowledge that they have experienced a night terror.)
The Together Trust explains the problems and provides many practical strategies to help, they can even take on your specific case to investigate and solve or improve the sleep situation you're struggling with. The group workshop was enough for me to just instigate a new bedtime routine which worked wonders and got my son to sleep much earlier.
Bearing in mind then, that autistic people often suffer from sleep problems, perhaps having specific sessions for them that start either early in the morning, or late in the evening (which has the additional consideration of bedtime routine, and the cumulative stresses of the day), is not exactly ideal. It is extremely rare for my own (young, autistic) son to be awake before 8am and, when not having to get out to school, he will choose not to have any breakfast until at least 10:30am or later. He prefers a slow start to the day.
Scheduled disability
A friend recently booked and took a group of autistic children on a trip to a trampoline park, a fun social activity together. All the children had been to trampoline parks before and knew the rules. As is the case with all trampoline parks, the children needed to take part in a safety briefing before their hour long session started. How that safety briefing is delivered obviously differs from place to place (I've seen it as a very quick chat before the kids go on to the trampolines). At this particular place the children were expected to watch a video presentation, but this took place in a room with several particularly noisy and distracting children's parties taking place and this environment was far too chaotic for the children, who couldn't stand to be in the room for long enough to watch the video.
After explaining the issue to the staff they said they could not allow the children on to the trampolines because they hadn't watched the video. They did not offer any alternative way of accessing the safety briefing, instead making the children wait 15 minutes to watch the video when the room was quieter, thus missing out on a quarter of their jumping time. As a seeming chastisement, the staff pointed out that they run a specific autism session (on a Sunday evening!) on a specific day, suggesting that they should have been going to that session. To me this attitude is wrong on so many levels!
Disabled people are not only disabled to suit a schedule. They're not only disabled from 9-10am once a month on a Saturday morning, or 6-7pm on a Sunday evening each week. They should not have to feel that the only time they can attend something is within a very specific window of opportunity and that they're not allowed out in public otherwise. If you train your staff for specific autism events then don't just train the staff for those events, take the opportunity to train all your staff, and think about what you can do to make your whole offering, throughout the whole week, more disability friendly.
The trampoline park could have shown the children the video in another, quieter room (even on an iPad!), or given the children a safety rules leaflet to read outside of the noisy space, or a member of staff could have told the children what they needed to know - there were so many easy solutions to the problem which could have been implemented with the minimum of fuss and hassle and mean that the children were not being disadvantaged. If you want to be autism friendly, having a quiet room people can go to if they need some relief from a difficult environment is a good first step. If the trampoline park had a quiet room, then the children could have received their safety briefing there.
Resources:
@autismInMuseums on Twitter, and their website. Promotes and advertises autism provision in museums - find out what's happening near you.
The Together Trust and their autism sleep counselling service (the group parent workshops they run travel the country, but do not happen often due to funding for staff. They also undertake sleep research).
Whilst acknowledging that this is great news for families who otherwise might not be able to access these facilities at all, and the training staff receive, there are some definite downsides. Certainly the fact that a place offers a specific autism session shouldn't be a substitute for being inclusive outside of that session.
Timing
One aspect of these specific sessions which I have a problem with is when they are scheduled. They tend to be very early in the morning, before the usual opening start time (in the case of children), or late in the evening (in the case of adults, for example for supermarket shopping).
I think there is a general perception that families with young children must always be up at the crack of dawn and that therefore there is no problem with going to an event which starts early in the morning. Even ignoring the fact that it can take a while to get out of the house with children, and that it can take much longer with autistic children, there is the sleep factor.
Having in the past attended an excellent sleep workshop for parents of autistic children, run by the Together Trust (which I can highly recommend!), I know that autistic people have more sleep problems than the rest of the human race. Second comes people with other disabilities. Autistic people suffer from nightmares, night terrors, sleep walking, difficulty getting to sleep, difficulty staying asleep...
(The big difference between nightmares and night terrors is that someone who experiences a nightmare wakes up and remembers having a nightmare. A person experiencing a night terror will exhibit being incredibly distressed in their sleep, which is extremely upsetting to see, but when they are awake they have no knowledge that they have experienced a night terror.)
The Together Trust explains the problems and provides many practical strategies to help, they can even take on your specific case to investigate and solve or improve the sleep situation you're struggling with. The group workshop was enough for me to just instigate a new bedtime routine which worked wonders and got my son to sleep much earlier.
Bearing in mind then, that autistic people often suffer from sleep problems, perhaps having specific sessions for them that start either early in the morning, or late in the evening (which has the additional consideration of bedtime routine, and the cumulative stresses of the day), is not exactly ideal. It is extremely rare for my own (young, autistic) son to be awake before 8am and, when not having to get out to school, he will choose not to have any breakfast until at least 10:30am or later. He prefers a slow start to the day.
Scheduled disability
A friend recently booked and took a group of autistic children on a trip to a trampoline park, a fun social activity together. All the children had been to trampoline parks before and knew the rules. As is the case with all trampoline parks, the children needed to take part in a safety briefing before their hour long session started. How that safety briefing is delivered obviously differs from place to place (I've seen it as a very quick chat before the kids go on to the trampolines). At this particular place the children were expected to watch a video presentation, but this took place in a room with several particularly noisy and distracting children's parties taking place and this environment was far too chaotic for the children, who couldn't stand to be in the room for long enough to watch the video.
After explaining the issue to the staff they said they could not allow the children on to the trampolines because they hadn't watched the video. They did not offer any alternative way of accessing the safety briefing, instead making the children wait 15 minutes to watch the video when the room was quieter, thus missing out on a quarter of their jumping time. As a seeming chastisement, the staff pointed out that they run a specific autism session (on a Sunday evening!) on a specific day, suggesting that they should have been going to that session. To me this attitude is wrong on so many levels!
Disabled people are not only disabled to suit a schedule. They're not only disabled from 9-10am once a month on a Saturday morning, or 6-7pm on a Sunday evening each week. They should not have to feel that the only time they can attend something is within a very specific window of opportunity and that they're not allowed out in public otherwise. If you train your staff for specific autism events then don't just train the staff for those events, take the opportunity to train all your staff, and think about what you can do to make your whole offering, throughout the whole week, more disability friendly.
The trampoline park could have shown the children the video in another, quieter room (even on an iPad!), or given the children a safety rules leaflet to read outside of the noisy space, or a member of staff could have told the children what they needed to know - there were so many easy solutions to the problem which could have been implemented with the minimum of fuss and hassle and mean that the children were not being disadvantaged. If you want to be autism friendly, having a quiet room people can go to if they need some relief from a difficult environment is a good first step. If the trampoline park had a quiet room, then the children could have received their safety briefing there.
Resources:
@autismInMuseums on Twitter, and their website. Promotes and advertises autism provision in museums - find out what's happening near you.
The Together Trust and their autism sleep counselling service (the group parent workshops they run travel the country, but do not happen often due to funding for staff. They also undertake sleep research).
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