Child with special needs

We are sailing on the RCL Navigator in October and have an 11 year old child with special needs (he is autisic). Anyone have experience with an autisic child on a cruise?

I'm wondering if the kids club will work for him?

Will the cruise line accomodate us with a one-to-one asssistant?

Do we need to notify RCL in advance to receive assistance for our child?

Search this forum for "autistic children" and 2 threads will come up that might be informative for you. I would link you, but I don't know how.:confused:

The cruise lines make it very clear that the person with a disability must either be able to provide their own care, or bring someone with them who provides this care. The cruise line is not required to provide a personal assistant, and even if the ADA did apply (still unclear what this will mean) the ADA does not require this. You may be confusing this with 504 in the schools, which is completely different.

It is unlikely that a child with significant autism would be accomodated in any children's program. You would have to check with the individual cruise line, but there is insufficient supervision or counselor training for this.

No real answers but some ideas.

Get on the cruise message board for your cruise.

Describe you child in words that apply not the diagnosis as every child is different.

You may get lucky and meet up with a few fellow cruisers that can help, as do my wife and I (Phy Therapist/Psychologist/Nurse) but that is streaching it a bit.

The cruise staff is not trained for a special needs child in many areas, as the one person noted.

Wish they had a "special nneds" consultant who did then wish most cities has a better paid special educ corps of teachers and such.

I can only help with specific issues, the entire area is just complicated. Suspect it will work out.

Joe

Here's a thread that may help:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=52657&highlight=autistic

Good luck!

Since I work in the field of special education, my TA shared some interesting and exciting information with me. There is a Special Friends Cruise in June 2006 with a guest lecturer in the field of autism. This is primarliy for families of children with special needs with extra staff on board to provide appropraite support. If you would like specific information, please contact me by email and I'll provide the details.

Darcy

wolfie105@aol.com

Wolfpup,

I will be e-mailing you for the info. Thank you soooo much. I have an 8 yr old autistic son. He is very quiet, able to follow directions, but really needs that extra attention. I also have other children that really want to cruise, but was too concerned about my little guy. I think this may be the answer! Thank you in advance for the information.

Seeker