Time Difference and Special Needs children

[stevered1]

We have a boy who has global developmental delay and autism. which means at the moment he waked up 5am and sleeps at 7.30pm, now if we change his routine ie let him stay awake longer it seems to affect him badly and he then has 3 days or so of screaming and not understanding why he is so tired. We then have to go into a controlled crying routine to get him back to normal.

My thoughts are when we take him to WDW which might not be for another 5 years to allow him to develop more ( he is 5 and has a developmental age of just over 1-1.5 in all areas ) but how will the time difference affect him. We cant explain to him as he cant understand and my fear is we goto WDW and he is waking at 1am and sleeping at 2pm and trying to get him out of that routine might take days and lots of screeaming.. meaning the holiday would be hard work to begin with, then getting him back into routine at home would also be very hard

How have others found it...

[keith&carol]

That's a really hard one to answer because each child is so different. We only have experience of our DD (fostered) who is now nearly 30 but who we have been taking to WDW for years now. She is spastic quadriplegic with learning difficulties and like most special needs people she functions best in a fairly strict routine of her own choosing. Whilst she appreciates trips out and treats she can easily get overexcited and overtired and then everyone suffers until she gets back to normal but I can honestly say we have NEVER had a problem taking her to WDW. Please don't ask me why because I haven't a clue but she copes with the time change and jet lag much better than we do and is generally very well behaved even though her normal routine goes to pot. We have found being in a villa is really helpful because it's like home from home and so much quieter than a hotel. We also tend to make a plan but go with the flow and give her plenty of time to catch up on her sleep if she needs it.
This is probably not much help to you but just wanted to wish you well with what ever you decide is best for your child,
Carol :wavey:

[loadsapixiedust]

We also have a child with special needs and were worried about this just as you are. Other than a bit of jiggling for a week either side with times for his medication, we found the time difference much less of an issue than we thought it would be.
Last year was the first time I felt he was obviously tired in the daytime, but I believe this was more due to the heat than the time difference. We adopted a strategy of letting him have an afternoon or early evening sleep if necessary and he had a few lie-ins as well. You really have to guess at how your child will be, they are all so different, just allow for flexibility in your plans if he gets tired.
You might try to vary his routine a bit before you go, so he comes to accept the changes as normal and will learn to cope.

[stevered1]

Excellent answers and that has put my mind at rest a bit more. I think I would go for three weeks to allow any settling down time and get used to it, this would then allow DW to relax a bit and hopefully enjoy WDW ( well more thn last time anyway )