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| TX: 16.04.09 - Travelling with Autism PRESENTER: PETER WHITE |
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| Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. WHITE Now travelling with children is a pretty stressful business at the best of times but with an autistic child - easily worried by unfamiliar surroundings - it can be traumatic. Well to help ease the experience Manchester Airport has just produced a booklet to help prepare autistic children for their journey. Kevin Mousley went to Manchester Airport to meet some autistic children and their families to see how helpful a booklet could be. MOUSLEY For most families holidays begin here. Queues, security, packed concourses, shops and cafes, rooting for tickets and passports while juggling luggage and keeping an eye on the kids. Airports are full of stressed people. But for Julie-Ann Hewett there's an extra complication - her son is autistic. HEWETT Well last October when we came on holiday going through security was very difficult because the alarm went off on Sam, my son who's got autism, and the stress that that creates for him it creates for all of us, so then rather than being a relaxing time it can be a time of tension and stress. MOUSLEY Autistic people to one degree or another have difficulty interacting with the world, they like life to be predictable and when it's not they can become distressed. Sam was upset by my tape recorder but then decided he wanted to talk after all. So Sam do you like travelling on holiday. SAM Yeah. MOUSLEY What are some of your favourite places that you've been? SAM Longleat. MOUSLEY What's great about Longleat? SAM The safari park. MOUSLEY I've seen that on telly, have you? SAM Yeah. MOUSLEY And what about aeroplanes, have you been in aeroplanes? SAM Yeah. MOUSLEY How do you find that? SAM Fine. MOUSLEY And airports, do you like airports? SAM A bit. MOUSLEY What don't you like about them? SAM Queues. GOUGH We start off with an index of the journey showing you all the different things that happen along the journey... MOUSLEY Katie Gough works for Manchester Airport communications team and she's been behind the creation of a new book aimed at making a trip to an airport less traumatic for autistic visitors. GOUGH We go through a did you see or hear section where you can tick if you see say a zebra crossing or a bus stop. Well we know how difficult it is coming to an airport, it's an alien environment, can be quite stressful especially if you're not used to it. For children with autism it's such a break in their routine and it can be very distressing when they get here. So we want to make the passenger journey as easy and stress free as possible, which is why we've created this free guide to try and help them ease their journey, to understand what is going to happen when they come to the airport. CHRIS Because certainly I mean if you're in a place like here today there's a lot of unexpected stuff going round, I mean - and you get to the size of this place, so I mean naturally you would get a bit nervous. MOUSLEY Chris is 23, has autism and helped with the book. CHRIS I mean I've only actually been travelling twice, I mean I don't think I'm that good a plane flyer because I'm not really that experienced in airports to be honest. MOUSLEY And if you're younger is it worse or did you ...? CHRIS I think it would be yes. MOUSLEY So you're finding it a little easier to do this sort of thing these days? CHRIS Yeah. I mean certainly I mean I was here a few months ago to help out with and suggest one or two ideas for the booklet and act on guidance that actually the airport asked us to provide. So to that extent it's been okay. MOUSLEY And what do you reckon to the booklet, do you think it'll be a real help? CHRIS I hope so yes. REDFERN Do you remember my belt was beeping so mummy had to take it off to show what it was? ANNA Did they think it was something that they didn't want? MOUSLEY For Sam Redfern and her daughter Anna today's event at the airport is more than just academic - next week she'll be back here for real - flying to the Canary Islands. REDFERN Anna was quite nervous about the holiday, obviously excited but had quite a few concerns and this day has really helped to put her mind at rest, she's really enjoyed herself. MOUSLEY Generally getting around is it stressful for you, I don't know, if you're in a railway station and you're coming to the end you're thinking oh crikey I wonder how she's going to cope with here, is that just part of your everyday life? REDFERN Yes absolutely. And that is just life, there is nothing that you can do about that but you just learn different ways of coping with it and obviously you have to give your child strategies to cope with that as well, explaining everything that you can as you get into the situation. These people are all here in a big crowd, we're going to walk around this way and explain to them what's going to happen as much as you possibly can. MOUSLEY I mean she seems quite communicative so I expect the book is extra helpful in that way. REDFERN It is, although she's communicative she communicates what she's comfortable with, she won't necessarily communicate her stresses and her worries. The book actually has a worry page which she's been able to fill in herself at length and there's a lot in that worry page that as parents we might not necessarily have thought would be a concern to Anna but we can talk about each individual thing before she actually gets to the airport. GOUGH At the back of the book we've got a journey of your suitcase page which shows, using photos and text, exactly where your suitcase will be. It's quite a glossy book, it's got pages on the inside so the children can actually write on it, it's similar to a Mr Men book. SHARRATT I think it's fantastic, I think it's brilliant because travel of any kind with children is stressful but with autistic children particularly involving airports and flights it's extra stressful. MOUSLEY Step Sharratt is the outreach worker for Bolton Kids Together, a charity that works with autistic children. SHARRATT And I have an autistic son and I know from a personal point of view any tool I've got to help us prepare as a family in advance is a bonus. MOUSLEY What is so good about it? SHARRATT It's written for the children, it's based around sort of common worries and difficulties that autistic children have, like the noise and the sensory difficulties - people being too close to them, queuing, waiting, not understanding that their bags are leaving them, not understanding what's going to happen next. And it not only works through it in terms that they can understand, the tick list that it gives, like did you see, have you heard, help them to understand the processes. MOUSLEY Do people who have autistic children simply give up going on holidays sometimes? SHARRATT Some do, yeah, some do it once and say never, never again because it's so horrendous and by the time you get there you just want to turn round and go home because just getting there is a huge issue and then you've got the fact that there's all the different surroundings and all the different things, being in a different country, not at home, not with their own things. So many do go for - I'm not going to say the easier option but do choose to stay in this country rather than flying. MOUSLEY Now it's great if you live in the Manchester area and you're coming to Manchester Airport but what about elsewhere in the country, would this booklet be of any use to them? SHARRATT It should be national. I think it can be modified for any airport anywhere and updated - Katie said she's put issue numbers on it so if settings change or uniforms change she can update it and so it will always be current. MOUSLEY Well that's a point isn't it of course you take a picture and you think oh that's that but they notice that detail. SHARRATT Oh yeah but that's not the right uniform, but you don't stand there, and the kids would know. So the fact that it's going to be updated and they're going to keep it current is fabulous and it should be in every airport. WHITE Step Sharratt ending that report by Kevin Mousley. And if you'd like a copy of that booklet there are details on the You and Yours - well there will be details very soon anyway on the You and Yours website, that's bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours. YY_ IN: Fx…”For most people.. Out: …it should be in every airport” (SFX to fade). Dur: 6.57 BACK ANNO: Step Sharratt ending that report by Kevin Mousley. If you would like a copy of the booklet there are details on the You and Yours website Back to the You and Yours homepage The BBC is not responsible for external websites |
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