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Sensitive Santa - Meeting Santa Before Mall Chaos Ensues

11/15/2012

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With estimates like these (1 in 88 children are diagnosed with autism, 1 out of 54 boys, annual costs of autism totaling $138 billion) it's increasingly refreshing to see more and more provisions being made to include children with sensitivity issues.

Any parent or caregiver who has taken a child to the mall to see Santa or the Easter Bunny knows the experience is often not great. To bring a child on the spectrum to an event like this is often worse, with noise and lines that detract from the experience and making it  more trouble than its worth.

Today we noticed our own Maine Mall was making special provisions for children with Autism and similar disabilities to meet Santa before the mall fills up with the usual distractions, yelling, and other loud sounds. So way to go mall, and we hope these types of events continue to pop up everywhere.


Events- Sensitive Santa


12/1/2012
Time: 8am-10am
Location: Santa's Train Set near Sports Authority
Contact: Stefanie Millette, 207-828-2063 x 224
Sponsored by: The Maine Mall

A special event for children who are sensitive to noise, the Santa Set will open before official mall hours to provide a quieter atmosphere for children with noise sensitivities including those who have autism or hearing impairment.





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Autism and Shopping, the More (of the same thing) the Merrier

12/13/2011

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At times, shopping alongside a child that has autism is the same as shopping with a typically developing child. Curtis often wants any toy he has seen advertised on TV with little regard as to what his parents might have to fork over to get it. At other times, it's nothing like shopping with a typical kid. Here's how my trip to GameStop went with Curtis this past Saturday as we shopped for some used ps2 games.
For the non-"gamers", a ps2 is a great system to have. No one cares about it anymore, so stores like GameStop often have a bin set up with hundreds of used games in sleeves selling for $1-$5. On Saturday, we hit the mall to return a couple games we no longer needed and see what the used bin had to offer for games new to us. At least that was the plan we started with. Curtis began flipping through the games and noticed a copy of "Spongebob The Movie" game, a game he is 86% completed with at home according to his most recent memory card save. He was so happy to see another copy of the game he already owned that he couldn't put it down. He also wasn't done yet. This became the start of a mission.
In the time I shopped for 4 used games, Curtis had set aside the following:

5 copies of Spongebob The Movie game
3 copies of Shrek 2 the game
3 copies of Strikeforce Bowling
1 copy of ESPN Baseball (which I own and he has never played)

Each game he already owns, and Strikeforce Bowling in particular,  is a horrible game. Still, Curtis thought it would be a great purchase to get 12 more copies of games we already had at home. Thankfully, he didn't put up much of a fight about not buying the games and hardly even fought the logic as to why we would not be buying them.
He didn't come away with any new games, but he had a great time searching the bin for copies of games he had at home, working the "S" section of the bin over pretty hard. Curtis left the store empty handed and satisfied.
On the way out of the mall, we stopped at Johnny Rockets for some lunch. Any place with chicken nuggets/chicken tenders is fine by him. After we ordered, the waitress/cashier handed Curtis a small coloring book and a package with a red, a blue, and a yellow crayon to which Curtis responded, "Thanks, how come you only gave me primary colors?"

A satisfyingly autistic trip to the mall.

Greg, Dad

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