By Guest Blogger, Jennifer Hiatt
Jennifer is a mom of two.  One of her children,  Zachary, has Down syndrome. You can be read and follow her blog at http://www.thehiattkids.blogspot.com/.  I would like to thank Jennifer for putting together these amazing tips and for sharing her experiences with us!

All kids are different and special needs or not, traveling can be challenging and overwhelming. On our most recent trip my son was 5 and while he had a fantastic time there were things that I learned worked well with him. Hopefully they can be helpful to other parents.

• Don’t leave home without the following:
• Stroller. Preferably one with a canopy that comes far down.
• Ear plugs
• Any therapy or calming products that you use at home

• My son gets anxious about the unknown. Thinking back, I wouldn’t have talked to him about the trip before hand. (In our of my excitement, I talked about our vacation for weeks ahead of time.) When we would talk about it he would say “I no go to Disneyland” and was very fearful. Once there, everyday when we would prepare to leave the hotel, he insisted that he was not going with us. I would calmly explain to him that no one would be at the hotel and he can stay in the stroller and he does not have to participate in anything. We had brought our BOB stroller for our younger child and my son used it more. The sun shade on the BOB comes down really far so he was able to hide out in there until he felt comfortable. Usually that would be once we got past Main Street and near some rides. Then we would see him peeking his head out and he would eventually get excited and want to come out of his “safe place” and get on the rides.

• Inside rides were very overwhelming for him. Especially the ones in Fantasyland. They are very loud and can be scary to young children especially kids with sensory problems or audio sensitivities. I would suggest using ear plugs when you go on them for the first time. We took my son on one of these rides when he was 4 and he has been scared to ride them since. We hope to work on that on our next trip. We were able to get him to ride Toy Story Mania on our past trip and he loved it. That ride did not seem to be quite as loud as some other inside rides.

• If your child works well when they are explained things before hand I suggest utilizing YouTube. There are tons of videos on there that people have videoed entire rides from the riders point of view. This can be helpful to show them exactly what will happen and prepare them for the unknown.
• Don’t underestimate your child. Just because they typically act a certain way at home doesn’t mean they will do it here. For instance, my son is generally terrified of anything in costume. At Disneyland all bets are off. We were completely prepared for him to cry and go no where near Mickey on our trip 2 years ago. Mickey happened to be the first character we got close to and Zach walked right up to him, gave him and hug and chatted with him.

• Things that you might not notice might be very relaxing or therapeutic for your child. My son loved sitting and watching Mulholland Madness (soon to be Goofy’s Sky School) run its course over and over and over again. Take time to just sit back and look around.

• If your child is medically fragile, know where the closest ER is. When we went my son got a case of croup which we have seen a dozen times and we knew he needed a breathing treatment. I called tons of hospitals in the phone book to determine where was closest. We ended up at Garden Grove Hospital. We were in and out in a couple hours and it was a very short drive from our hotel. Don’t go through the trouble of making a bunch of calls at a time like that. Just because a hospital is on “Ball Drive”, does NOT mean it is close to Disneyland!

• We purposely plan our trips for 5 or 6 days so that if we only do a couple hours on a day or skip a day all together, we can still get everything done and not be rushed. We also always go when it is off season. The hours are shorter and there might be more ride closures but the lower crowds are worth it for us.

• Go with the flow and have a good time!