Travel Tips for Neurodivergent Families

Tips for any type of travel but especially for International travel.

In this episode I personal experiences and practical tips for traveling internationally with a young child. As an AuDHDer who has travelled internationally with my daughter several times I share the preparation strategies, essential items to pack, and accommodations available for hidden disabilities that I've learned.

Key tips

• using a sunflower lanyard for hidden disabilities
• leveraging AI for travel planning
• packing efficiently
• utilizing communication cards 
• noise-dampening tools
• compartmentalized packing 
• child-friendly entertainment options

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Time Stamps:

00:00 Introduction and Travel Plans

01:12 Packing Tips for Solo Travel with a Child

01:55 Navigating Airports with Hidden Disabilities

04:09 Traveling Through LAX and Using Google for Assistance

06:29 Utilizing AI for Travel Assistance

08:34 Preparing Medical Documentation for International Travel

09:28 Communication Tools for Kids During Flights

12:57 Essential Travel Hacks and Tips

24:09 Final Thoughts and Social Media Links

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Transcript

 This is gonna be a solo pod. My friends and I will try to keep it concise, but we all know that's not my strong suit.

If you follow me on socials, you will have probably seen that I am getting ready to travel internationally 

solo with my just turned 4-year-old. Now, some of you might think I'm crazy. Yes, maybe. But I have done this trip. This will now be our fourth time of just me and my daughter going, and then my partner coming later on.

And because I've done the trip now several times. I have a bit of a system, so I figured I would share some tips with you if you have any travel coming up, but especially air travel either alone, or if you're also traveling with kids. Now, as a reminder,  I'm sure you already know this, but I'm A DHD Autistic, A DHD.

And my daughter is at least a DHD. We don't, we're, we're unsure what else might be in there, but the A DHD one is really obvious.

And because it is just me and her traveling there, I have to also keep our packing pretty consolidated because I only have two sets of hands. One set of hands, you know, two hands. She's not really helpful being just turned four years old. Sometimes she does, but not reliable enough that I can assign her her own luggage to look after.

So it means we take one large checked bag, a carry-on bag, and then and a backpack. Typically also some coats and et cetera because it's cold where we're going. So that all takes extra arm space and a travel pram or travel stroller.

So some of the things that we are doing different this time that I'm trialing to see how it goes, I'm gonna wear the sunflower lanyard, which if you are not familiar with that, that is a lanyard that you can wear. It has sunflowers all over it. You can typically get them from the airport, or you can buy your own online, and it indicates you have a hidden disability.

 This is applicable for. Anyone, 

I think it's really commonly talked about among autistic people in the community, but it can also be if you are a DHD, if you, if you have epilepsy, if you have anything that is. As the name indicates, a hidden disability. So it means yes, if you walk with a cane or you use a wheelchair, those are disabilities that people are of course able to see and able to anticipate your needs a little bit easier.

With the hidden disabilities, it is a lot harder. So I know Sydney Airport is one that has implemented a lot of changes recently to. Recognize the sunflower lanyard last time we were there,  about 15 months ago, there were posters all over the airport, indicating that they were familiar. They knew what it was, and in different lines, through security and et cetera, it, it would indicate which line you could go through if you had a sunflower lanyard.

Now. I will update once we have been there, but last time I went the sunflower line was the same as the children and family line, 

which is supposed to be a little bit faster. But I have also heard other friends say that sometimes at different airports, the sunflower line will somehow be a low sensory. experience. I don't understand how that's possible considering all the floral lights and yelling people in airports, but I think as far as low sensory align with a bunch of children who are probably about to lose their stuff is not the most accommodating space.

If you've traveled and you've worn your sunflower lanyard and you had a different experience, please let me know. Like I said, I will update this after I have actually traveled wearing it. Instead of just going off other people's experience,

 We are flying into LAX this time, Los Angeles airport. Typically, we go through San Francisco. Now I love, love San Francisco Airport , because the distance from international to domestic is really, really short. It's so easy to get around. Even if you wanna go get food in a totally different terminal.

 It is not that far of a walk. And after you've been on a plane for 14 hours, sometimes you want a good walk. So sometimes I will go all the way to one of the other terminals just to walk,

but this time we are flying into LAX. I haven't been to that airport in about 10 years, and so I turned to Google. Because as somebody who is autistic, I get really, really anxious when I am going into an unfamiliar environment, especially when I have quite a short turnover. I only have a three hour, three hour layover, and that's if nothing's delayed.

And in that time, I have to collect all my bags, go through custom wrangle my 4-year-old and get to the international, which. If you have been to LAX ever and had to go from international to domestic or vice versa, it's really long. Like I would say it's probably kilometer, three quarters of a mile walk from one to the other.

And because I Googled, I learned that now they have a shuttle,  which thank God, because I was dreading that walk, even though, yes, I just said sometimes it's nice to walk, but it's nice to walk at a leisurely pace, not when you feel like you're having to rush and run to get to your next destination, but that is my tip.

If you are going into an unfamiliar, either airport, train station, et cetera, Google. in this case I googled like LAX international to domestic transfer. You can also Google and look if that specific airport or. Train station, or et cetera, has any social stories, whether the actual establishment themselves like the airport or the station puts them out, or whether someone else online has created one that will most likely.

Pop up for you. So I really, really, really recommend turning to Google and looking for that. This is also where I think somewhere like ai, which I know not everybody loves, but AI can be great because you can pop into it a prompt, especially if you've never done that before of, this is where I'm going from here to here.

, if you wanna give it. Additional details like I am autistic, I am incredibly sensitive to noise, or I am incredibly sensitive to whatever. Please list out the route that I need to take or list, or please tell me how I get from point A to point B and include any accommodations that I can ask for and include any items that I should bring with me.

And the beautiful part of AI is it will spit all of that out for you.

I gave it a prompt earlier just to create an example and to see if it had pulled anything out that I hadn't already thought of. I said, I'm traveling from Sydney to LAX. I'm autistic and A DHD. What accommodations should I ask for or be aware of for the airports, and what should I pack to make the flight more comfortable?

I then said, also, ask me any questions if you need clarification, because sometimes with ai. The amount of information you put in is gonna be 

what you get back. So if you were to just say, tell me how to get from Sydney Airport to LAX, it's going to give you a completely different answer than if you give it like the prompt that I had said.  The beautiful thing, then it pops out. Accommodations at Sydney Airport, hidden Disability, sunflower Program, special assistance services, blah, blah, blah, goes through, and then it says, accommodations at L-A-X-L-A-X has their own autism Flight Experience program.

That's pretty cool, right? It was designed to familiarize individuals with autism and their family traveling with them about the airport, the flight procedures, and reduce travel related stress, and then it gave me a list of items that potentially I should pack to make the flight more comfortable.

All that saying, AI can be an incredible tool and it can be something that you might want to use.

And the other thing that I am doing this time different that

I haven't done before, and.

Without getting political this time, I just feel the need to have some extra precautions. I have gotten a letter from my psychiatrist listing my diagnosis, the medication I'm on, that the prescription is true and real and valid. Even though I'm taking my medication in their prescription bottles, I am just covering all of the extra bases.

And while you might not need to go to that extreme, getting a letter from one of your prescribing doctors, I do highly recommend if you are traveling internationally, double check the country that you are going to, allows you to take any type of medication that you are on. So for me, I'm on a stimulant medication.

Hot tip. Not every country lets you travel with your stimulant medication, even if it's a prescription.

And I saw, no, I said that was the last thing, but there's one more thing that we're trying this time and we're gonna see how it goes. I have made little communication cards for my daughter to use when we're on the plane. Now. Absolutely. She sometimes gets dysregulated and words are hard. I mean, don't we all feel that like so much in ourselves?

Maybe that's just me.  But also I have auditory processing issues and when we're on the plane and  there's the jet engine sound and everything else, it's really hard for me to hear and downside when I'm really struggling to hear. I. Get dysregulated incredibly easy. So I thought for both of our sake, perhaps using communication cards might be something that makes communicating, communicating as you will on the plane a little bit easier.

 Yes, she can talk to me, but typically what happens when we're on the plane, I have loops in. So I'll have , my loop engage, or my loop quiet depending on what I'm doing. And I actually wear my loops under the headphones that I wear to watch a movie or whatever. They make it so that it, it blocks out.

Some of that engine kind of quote unquote white noise sound, because for me, I, I know some people like it. I can't stand it. It makes me so dysregulated. And because I am sound sensitive, I have like a decibel meter on my watch. Um, hot tip. If you didn't know you could do that on an apple watch, you can. But I have a decibel meter and the last time we flew.

And the sound of being on a plane, you'll get sound notifications, like especially at takeoff and even if it's not so high. So I think above 90 is the, the cutoff, but through the flight it hovers around that level. 90 decibels. Sometimes it pops up higher, especially at takeoff and landing. For me, being able to wear my loops and then a set of headphones to hear a movie or whatever over, that means that I am cutting some of that down and just dampening it.

 Loops, if you don't know, , they don't block out sound, but they dampen the sound a bit.  , the pair I wear takes it down. I think about 20 decibels, give or take. I don't remember, depending on the pair. But to circle all that back, that means when my 4-year-old talks to me, I have to, of course, take the movie headphones off, but then oftentimes I have to take the loop out or I have to get right in front of her face or, or basically have her.

Come as if she were telling me a secret, but she's essentially yelling in my ear because I can't hear her. So I'm hoping these communication cards work I have put on there basically everything that's gonna be in our backpack, anything she would ask for. And then things like icons for snacks, icons for the toilet, icons for water bottle or drinks, and for getting up and going for a walk because we.

We are both A DHD. We do laps up and down the aisle a lot. A lot, basically, if she's not sleeping. We are doing that a lot of the time, especially as it comes to the tail end of that 14 hour flight.

And now let's jump into the things that I have used every time we have traveled and they are like my little travel hacks and tips for you that I recommend. So first and foremost, of course, you're gonna have your carry-on bag. You're probably also gonna have a backpack. I recommend having a backpack for all those things that 

you wanna access like in flight.

But I also recommend carrying a small bag. Some people will call this a bum bag. Some people will call this a fanny pack. Some people will call this a cross body bag. Whatever it looks like for you in your style, in your fashion. But for me, I use this, I, it is just a small bag. I use like a cross body kind of bumba situation.

It's big enough to fit all of our passports and my wallet. And like a small fidget or two, so that as we're going through the airports, we're going through security. I have it on me where it's easy to grab. It's easy to get. I can take it out, give it to whoever needs it, and back again. I don't have to worry about anyone messing with my bags and potentially getting it, especially our passports.

My wallet. And then when it comes time to get on the plane, it's small enough that I can just slip it down into the backpack and it's not taking up loads of room. Then when we get off, same thing.  Throw it over the body. It's quick and easy to access everything, and we go on our way.

I've already talked about loops. I love them. If you use a different brand, fantastic. But something to help dampen that noise when you're on the plane.

I, of course, I recommend headphones. And of course if you have a child like I do who, she's too small for loops and I don't think she would leave them in, even if she had them. I take headphones for her, like actual just noise dampening headphones. So that's something else that you're gonna think of. I know some people have noise canceling headphones that also, you know, can Bluetooth to whatever device.

Two birds, one stone. Fantastic. But thinking about going through a really loud place, you were probably going to wanna dampen that noise. Of course, be aware, you're most likely not gonna be able to use these, whether it's you or your child in areas like security lines. But if you have disclosed that you are autistic, perhaps you will.

I feel like the obvious things that I'm gonna talk about are taking an iPad or some type of device. I always recommend downloading stuff because obviously you're not gonna have wifi in the air. If you travel domestically, you might, but I never like to rely on it, so I always download a handful of her favorite shows, and 

if you are traveling internationally, this is my biggest tip. If you have a kid who has an iPad or whatever and they have favorite shows, you're gonna put it on airplane mode before you leave your home base. And you're gonna leave it on  airplane mode the entire time. And you might think, well, where I'm going has wifi, what does it matter?

Because all of the streaming services have regional licenses. So if you, even if you have it downloaded, if you have stuff on your device on. They all do this, but I'll just give you the example. Netflix, and then you travel from Australia to the US or some region to another region, and you put wifi on.

When you get to your destination, it is going to recognize that you are no longer in Australia, and those licenses that it holds for those things that you have downloaded are not going to be accessible. We learned this the hard way. The last time we traveled, I downloaded all of her current favorites, and then once we got to the US I turned on wifi, not thinking it was a big deal, and realized, oh, oh, we don't have access to these things and.

Some of her favorite shows, we didn't have the streaming service or have access to them, so it was like a whole kerfuffle trying to sign up and get different things so that she could get her different shows. I know some people might go like, oh, what's the big deal? She can't watch it. Well, if you have a child who gets really dysregulated and certain shows are, they're like comfort shows.

You'll understand. Same thing  if it's you, yourself, if you have comfort shows. You get it. So put that device on airplane mode. Leave it on airplane mode. This is why also I recommend having an external device that isn't your phone. It's like an iPad or a laptop or et cetera that you can use or you can let your child use so that it can just stay as you set and forget it when you're at home.

They have access to their favorite things when you're traveling, and then once you get home, you can turn the wifi back on.

Of course you wanna take all of your power cords and external battery and making sure that you have access to all of these things. Especially because it's not just about being able to log on to TikTok as soon as you land. Like I don't think any of us are hanging on for that. It is about if you get there and you don't know where your way around, you can log onto airport wifi and you can Google and.

Have a little look at a map and stuff. Of course, also you can ask people in person, , but I understand sometimes that's really difficult to do, especially if you're dysregulated.

Ooh. And another tip, of course, take a water bottle. If you're in the us, you're gonna have to have that as an empty water bottle that you take onto the plane with you if you're elsewhere. It's still weird to me, but you can take a full water bottle onto a plane. But my other kind of hydration tip one, take some electrolyte tablets.

Because even if you mean to drink a lot, you're inevitably not gonna be drinking that much and you're probably gonna be sitting more than you would. , trying to make sure that you are taking those, that you are keeping your electrolytes up, . You are helping your body stay as hydrated as possible, considering you're on a tin can in the sky for however many hours, and that's whether you're traveling internationally or domestically.

But in addition to your water bottle and your little hydration tablet. Take a travel coffee mug and you might think, wow, that's strange. But here, get me. Especially if you're a DHD, I know you want drink options. I know you do. 

And I also know that those little tiny measly cups that they give you on the airplane. Yeah, they're not very sturdy. Ask me how I know. My little hack for this is if you take a travel coffee mug. That has a lid, obviously it's a travel coffee mug. If you want coffee or juice or soda or whatever, anything outside of the water that you have in your water bottle.

If you want that on the plane, you can put it in a vessel that has a lid and you can enjoy and have less worries about spilling it or knocking it over upside. Also, if you do decide to get a coffee, it is going to help keep it a little bit warm.

And overall, make your experience so much better. If you're done drinking that, you just use a couple of drops from your water bottle. Wash it out, dump it in the sink in the bathroom. You're good to go for your next beverage. Like I said, I know you want options because I want options and I don't wanna deal with the measly, flimsy little cups that you get on the airplane.

And last little tip here, we talked about your backpack or whatever that you're gonna take onboard to have easy access to all those things during your flight. 

Get bags where you can compartmentalize that. So I recommend getting like clear pencil cases because they're in a really sturdy fabric.  They also work really well because they are from a plastic type material, so they are gonna be waterproof if anything spills in your bag 

or et cetera. If you can get a couple of these clear bags, whether they're pencil cases, or you can even just use like a, a Ziploc in a pinch and you can compartmentalize your different things. So I will put, we have one big one where I will put coloring items, so a coloring book notebook, and some colored pencils or crayons.

Another one where it's gonna have all of our little fidget and sensory toys. The sensory noodles, the squishy things, all the different things that's gonna go in there.

And breaking it down that way. So the little, if you think compartments of the items of what you're gonna want, they're all gonna be in their own little thing, so you can pull that out. And then it's easy to keep everything, especially if you're using a backpack. We know those things tend to slip down to the bottom, like everything just ends up a jumbled must down there.

So make it easier on yourself. Put 'em in these bags, and then that way you're just slipping one after another down there. In addition to fidgets and stuff, we're taking a Magna Dole. I know it sounds like a toy from when I was a kid, like 30 lots of years ago. Almost 38 years ago, but they still hold up.

That is a toy. Will, I will say it last, the test of time. My dad, last trip we were home for our flight home as a present for my daughter. Got her an etches sketch. And a magna Doodle and those things still get used all the time, and they're going on the plane with us to go back because it's something where she will sit, especially now being just turned four and she's more interested in drawing and doodling and coloring.

She will sit and play with those for relatively decent amount of time, relatively considering she's an A DH ADHD kid, but. Something like that where it's no mess. It's easy, you can slip it in the bag and it's easy to go. 

The last little like toy item that I will recommend is the  water coloring pens and coloring books. If you haven't seen these, they are amazing. They're amazing when you're out to dinner, they're amazing in the car. They're amazing on the plane. They're amazing in general because it's just water. So they come with these little refillable pens.

You put water in it. When the child is done, you dump the water out. There's no mess. Even if they, you know, decide to take the lid off, which of course, of course mine has done, it's not a big deal 'cause it's just water. It's not some solution or thing that you're gonna have to worry about. But you fill it up with water, and as they're coloring on the page, the water reveals all of the color.

So when you first look at the page, it looks like a white page and just black outline of whatever the picture is. But as the child's coloring in the water activates the page, , the color is revealed. They're pretty cool. My daughter loves them. She's used them since she was. Uh, less than two years old and it's something that every time we're traveling  we be sure and pack because it is just something that is so easy to have.

You don't have to worry about the mess, and it still makes her feel like she's painting and having fun.

All right. I hope those travel trips and hacks help you If you're traveling, like I said, I'm going internationally, but even if you're flying domestically, if you're going on a road trip, there's little tidbits throughout this episode for everyone. Or if you know that you have a friend who's traveling, go ahead and share this episode with them.

I'll have content around this on my socials, so if you head over to Sam attempts motherhood on any of the socials, I'll be there and you'll be able to comment and share your favorite travel tips and hacks. 

And once again, thanks so much for listening.