Camping with Autism...

Joel is a good looking happy five year old boy who loves animals and being outside. To look at he appears no different from all the other children in the park except if you talked to him he would never speak back and probably just ignore you and run off... Yes Joel is Autistic.
  Autism has a very wide spectrum of symptoms and indeed no two Autistic people would show the same characteristics and yet one in a hundred people are thought to have Autism in one form or another. So you see it's quite probable you've met some one with Autism and either not known or just put their behaviour down to a personality quirk.

  Back to Joel though. Joel was diagnosed with Autism aged three when certain characteristics were noticed at his preschool and thankfully with their support and now with his Infant schools help Joel is happy and making progress. One key factor with many forms of Autism is that the individual relies on routine and order in many aspects of daily life and if things are different they can become unsettled and upset.  So as you can imagine going on a camping trip can seem fraught with potential upsetting scenarios that would put most parents with Autistic children off the entire idea.
 Thankfully this is where the Campervan is so useful. Because we use the van all the time even for shopping trips, Joel is used to being in it. Also when we first got the van we spent time playing in it with his toys and older sister and so after a while it just became an extension of home. The big test came on our first camp out just a few miles from home. We packed his favourite food (very important for children with Autism) his favourite toys and with a little trepidation set off....He loved it..especially the freedom of being outside, it even helped him to socialise with other children. It was quite touching when his sister Erin who is only 18 months older than him was explaining to the other children that Joel couldn't speak because he was Autistic.

 Each camping trip we've gone for longer and longer expeditions until last year we spent three weeks touring France and Joel loved it ( so did we).  In many ways our camping expeditions have made Joel more able to cope with different routines and even encouraged him to try new activities and foods. So much so that now all Joel wants for breakfast is croissant's.
  Sometimes its the fear of doing something different that stops us from trying new things and yet our experience has taught us that if  a five year old Autistic boy can do it and have fun...whats stopping you?...Get out there and have fun!