"Day Out with Thomas" | Autism PDD

On a related note, there are some more tips and links for train lovers under the following topic on our forum:

http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11839&am p;KW=train

We did this with my oldest son. He had a blast. The only thing he was leary of was a guy dressed as Sir Topham Hat. At the time, he wasn't fond of people dressed as characters. I don't remember having to wait long for anything. The whole thing was really well organized. For a souvenier, we took a picture of our son with Thomas - pretty cool!We just went this past April, and had a great time. At one point, J was
playing at the train tables they had set up, and I was looking around and I
swear half the boys there at the tables had some sort of ASD! It really
seemed like it.

My tip: Get there early, so your child can explore all the activities before
riding the train. The 25minute train ride is actually more like 10-15
minutes with extra time on both ends for loading and unloading
passengers. The ride is gentle and slow.

They do a good job selling tickets at staggered times, and that seemed to
keep the crowd from ever getting too large. It was very manageable, and
the kids had a great time. We were there for less than 2 hours.
Have fun!We haven't done the thomas train yet, I've been thinking about it. We did do the polar express when they were 3, and yesterday we did a pirate ship. They did great on both and it was a great experience for all. the only touchy parts was the waiting, waiting to get on, waiting until things got started. They don't do so well with that, so I try to keep them as occupied through the wait part as I can. Once it all gets going though they are fine. Also being able to move around at least some is a big plus. With the polar express they got to dance in the aisle. Wioth the boat they walked around at will. I didn't worry too much about them participating, I gave them the option. They did very well. There was a couple of beaming faces that day and yesterday, that is for sure.

We did this when the boys were 4 and had a blast. However, I wish it had been in spring or fall and not in the middle of the summer because it was hot!

I agree no need to spend more than two hours there. We got there early, did the activities, rode Thomas, bought souveniers and went home.

A note of caution - there is a GIANT tent selling every Thomas product on the planet. If you are on a budget and don't intend on buying a toy to bring home, try to steer clear of the store tent! However, if you're looking for any hard to find Thomas item, this is the place to be!

Have fun!

I did "Day Out" earlier this year with my entire crew, and my son enjoyed it immensely. It was held at a restored old train station, so there was plenty of space to move around, and they utilized the train station as the store for selling products. Because there was plenty of open space, it was easy to get Mr. B. somewhere quiet to calm down if necessary.

The Day Out organizers in our area allowed various child-oriented organizations to participate in an information fair, so Autism Speaks had a booth set up. We spoke with the organizers after the event, and they were very anxious to get "on board" (bad pun) with autism awareness, particularly because so many ASD children have a fascination with trains in general, and with Thomas. They requested information on autism awareness for their other sites and how they might develop a nation-wide joint effort.

Ironically, my son wasn't overly interested in Thomas then, but in the past two months, that has changed enormously! Now, he can't get enough of the various trains, sleeps with the product brochure that came with one of his recent acquisitions, and knows all the trains, cars, and assorted other vehicles by name... I see miniature railroading in a basement in his future if this keeps up!

Thanks everyone! That makes me quite excited. I was so worried that it was going to be so busy and long waits that he would have a meltdown or something. And I guess thehusbandguy and I will have to set some money aside for the visit. We've been looking for the LARGE motorized Thomas set.. Haven't found it in stores, and we really didn't want to have to order it.

Now if only Stephen actually enjoyed trains too.. Oh well.. :D

my son Aethan loves Thomas. He's been asking every day since the event "See Thomas." He was in such an amazing amount of joy sitting on top of an inflatable Percy, seeing Sir Topam Hatt walk by and getting his very own Thomas "tattoo."

Best of all, he was delighted that all of the other kids had Thomas t-shirts and back packs too. It gave him a real sense of belonging and comradery.

We did the train ride (wich was very slow and backwards most of the time) and he was first in line to board Thomas. I've never seen Aethan so happy.

Autistic children are always trying to gain pleasure from life's chaos and this wonderful event is something I will do with him every time it comes to town.

I know a lot of you have kiddos that are in love with Thomas, like Daniel. I was wondering how many of you have gone to the "Day Out with Thomas" events of years past and how your kids did. Last year, my in laws took Daniel to it but didn't do the train ride.

This year we have 4 tickets for all of us to actually do the 25 minute ride. And then the events afterwards. I'm just kinda wondering what to expect out of Daniel.

If you've never heard of this, they do have a website: http://www.thomasandfriends.com/usa/parents/dowt.html

Ran across this today -- "Top 10 ideas for using Thomas the Tank Engine as a Teaching Tool."

http://autism.about.com/od/childrenandautism/tp/thomastank.h tm

My son has a Thomas video that shows the REAL Thomas train and he always says, "Go in there?" I feel so bad, I guess I'll have to wait until it comes to our area, maybe next year...... HOWEVER, Thomas Live on Stage IS coming to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Tampa, FL so we might go to that. We have taken Tyler to ride on Thomas 2 times and he had a blast both times. It was always at the start of our beach vacation, so everyone was in a good mood.

The only thing that frightened him was the unicycle riding jugler clown that had black and white face paint and a silver glitter wig. This guy freaked Tyler out and pissed me off. He would not leave my boy alone even after he saw that he was terrified of him. I politely told this guy to get away from my son and to please stay away. He gave me a dirty look so I went to the Straussburg Rail Road management and informed them that I was about to kick a little clown rear end if they didn't do something about this kid. They did and he came over to us out of costume and personally apologized. He did not know that he seemed so odd to a little kid with Autism. I accepted his apology and we had a great time.

We did it last summer. The funny thing is Drew loves Thomas but there was a little store on the corner by the entrance that sold all sorts of pinwheels and junk. Drew was more fascinated with the pinwheels than the Thomas thing. We had to take him a few blocks away to a park and then reenter from a different street to get him in the gate. We did finally take the train ride but Drew didn't really know the train we were on was being pulled by Thomas. He enjoyed watching more than the actual ride. He also loved all the activities they had set up.

Have fun!

Laurie