_Field trips are often high on the list of events kids with autism dread about school. In general, field trips are unpredictable, loud, crazy and exhausting. That's not including the distractions that come with a 20 minute bus ride to and from the field trip destination.
In preparation for these field trips, in past years I have had to plan out his days weeks in advance. Tactics such as
-creating a contract with Curtis about the trip
-role playing certain moments of the trip
-finding out who he is going to sit next to on the bus
-who will be his "field trip peer"

These have all proven to be beneficial forms of front loading at different times. This past week, Curtis and his entire second grade class went to see the Nutcracker.

Curtis is growing up and his needs look much different this year than in the past. Socially, he has much more of an urge to connect to his peers. Because of this, I decided not to put too much surface planning into this field trip and try to make it a "no big deal" event, meaning, I have plenty of back up tools in my head ready to grab at but on the surface, and to Curtis, it looks like we are just going with the flow. Like I mentioned to his lead teacher that morning, it was our plan to do as the class was doing. I was available to keep things in check for him and to keep him safe in a very crazy environment. However, the plan on this field trip was for him to have the same agenda as the rest of the class. Naturally, he was apprehensive about this entire trip.
He had created a code language for the event - "TSN" (The Stupid Nutcracker) and was "boo-ing" every little comment anyone made about the filed trip before we even left. Typical Curtis when something out of the ordinary is getting ready to occur. Again, I gave this attitude he had little surface attention and was careful with who he spent time with during certain conversations about the upcoming field trip. I reviewed many social stories with him about class trips and worrying in general - but I showed him with my body language and with my words that this was a "no big deal" situation - hoping he would jump on board. Of course all of his fear was driven out of the unknown and being a little nervous for a day that looked nothing like typical days.
Once we saw the buses pull up, we simply got in line with our class. I front loaded the seating arrangement, carefully placing him among "safe" friends that made him feel confident and sitting behind them. He was glowing with happiness and felt such joy for being able to work through an internal fear. He laughed, ran around some and needed little "adventure breaks" to explore the stairwells. He also asked appropriate questions and he seemed more interested in the Nutcracker than I would have ever expected. At the end of the show, as we were getting back on the bus he says to me, "I think I didn't want to come to the Nutcracker because I was nervous. Was I nervous?" I just gave him a smile and a nod and followed behind him on the bus.


Caron, 1:1 School Support