I’ve seen this question pop up at various times in online forums. Typically the family is getting ready to head out on vacation, and all of a sudden they remember car rides aren’t just a time to relax and look out the window.
The truth is, it will vary. My three sons all behave quite differently on car rides.
My eldest had no issues on car rides, except that he took it as a time to practice his Houdini act and escape from the car seat any time he could. Of course, this was normal for him as a child. Now that he’s older, this isn’t as big of an issue, although being goal driven, does have an influence on him and his behavior on long car rides even to this day. That leads me to Tip #1.
Tip #1 – Have a schedule and share it
If you have kids who love to know what’s coming up, when and where they are going to eat next, and how long until they get there, be prepared for that.
We like to tell them how far it is until we’re going to start looking for some place to eat, where we will eat, and with the help of the modern GPS, when we will be getting where we are going.
Tip #2 – Be prepared for them going stir crazy
Look, sitting still is tough. My middle son hated being buckled for more than 30-40 minutes. Just about enough time to get to Grandma’s house. Knowing we wanted to try longer trips, we planned one that was about 2 hours away to try to build to a longer trip. On the 2 hour trip I was tempted to leave him on the side of the road…. but don’t worry, I didn’t. But I did learn that we’d have to try, try, and try again, if we wanted to take a week long road trip.
It was tough on him, and thus on us. So we learned and prepared. Bring things your child likes to play with. Now we have hand held game consoles, but before that we gave him other things to do, and thus focus on. It’s a great time to play car games like eye-spy, looking for certain color cars, road signs etc. It took some experimenting, and him maturing before we could actually go on a longer trip – which leads us to our next tip.
Tip #3 – Take some small practice trips
Don’t make your first trip a two day drive across the country. Instead, start with some small trips – an hour or two away. Find out what you need, and treat them like a practice run. You’ll be surprised just how much you do or don’t know about traveling with your kid – and your kid will be different than any other kid.
Tip #4 – Don’t surprise them
No one I’ve ever met who is on the spectrum likes surprises. So talk about the trip, let them see photos of who or what they will get to see. We would start talking about it a couple weeks in advance so they got used to the idea. We let them help pick out clothes to wear and toys to bring (they always got to bring a favorite stuffed animal). This way they felt like they were a part of the process, instead of being thrown into the mix.
Conclusion
We didn’t start taking trips until our kids were a little older, about seven years for the youngest at the time. We both needed that time to get ready and be able to manage the process. So don’t feel like you have to rush into it. Take your time, learn what to do, and it will be better for all of you.
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