The Royal Melbourne Show is a sensory feast – or a sensory assault, depending on your perspective.

If someone asks, just before the September school holidays begin, “Are you going to the Show?” we all know exactly which show. Like all agricultural shows, it began as a place to display the skills of farmers and their families in raising crops and livestock, riding and rounding up, cooking and crocheting, among many other things. Over the years, it has grown to include gravity-defying fairground rides, entertainment and – of course – the ubiquitous showbags.

Sensational!

Every sense is assailed – sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. Flashing lights, whirring machinery, screaming teenagers and shouting parents, noisy spruikers, the smell of animals and cigarette smoke mingled – the Flemington Showgrounds are a colourful, vibrant, bustling anthill of activity. Going there as a child with your parents is almost a rite of passage, followed up by the teen ritual of visiting with friends. By this stage, you bypass the animal nursery and head straight for the most stomach-churning ride that you can handle. This is often followed by a hiatus of some years before returning as a parent, aunt or uncle perhaps. At this point, you wonder how on earth your parents managed to take you when you were a kid!

Sensory overload!

Sensory overload!

Given all this, it’s fairly obvious that the Show is not exactly the most ASD-friendly place to take your kids for the day. But hey,why live within the comfort zone? Let’s push the boundaries for everyone and go! Again! So, we did.

Learning Goals

Regular readers will know that I’m fond of bundling learning goals for my Wombats – especially for Dancing Wombat. Well, today was the hamburger with the lot. With Grandma Wombat and my niece and nephew, 8 of us set off for the station on a grey, drizzly morning – me pulling a shopping cart full of food supplies to fortify us for the day ahead.

Travel training – and the rest

We started off with travel training – walking to the station. In the rain. Which involved teaching Dancing Wombat that when she kindly shared her umbrella with me, it needed to be above eye level! At other points during the day, it involved her being responsible for her ticket, swiping on and off at the different entry and exit points at the train stations. Ironically, the hardest part of the travel training was going on the escalators, for reasons which you might not expect. But more of that later.

Although I was carrying lunch for everyone, I insisted this year that all the children carried their own backpack with snack box and water bottle. So, practising independence and taking responsibility was another focus.

Staying safe

Travelling with a big group means being aware of who you’re with and staying with the group. Being the adult in charge, I’m the mother hen fussing over her chicks and ensuring everyone is there. However, I’m also trying to teach Dancing Wombat to be aware of the group and take responsibility herself for keeping up with everyone else. Of course, once we hit the busyness of the Showgrounds, it would be even more important for her to keep her head up and be aware of the group, from a simple safety perspective. No parent wants to contemplate having a lost child at the Show – especially when that child also has special needs.

As well as teaching Dancing Wombat about staying with her group, I’m also trying to teach the other Wombats to be aware of the group. They need to learn that it’s not fair to race ahead of those who can’t keep up. I strongly believe that a mark of a good society is how well we look after the most vulnerable. Home is the best place for modelling and reinforcing this learning.

Sensory challenges – with exercise on the side

Exercise. Was anyone wondering when this would crop up? Yep – what a great opportunity to rack up some steps on her Fitbit! We’d be doing SO MUCH WALKING!!!

Of course, given the nature of the Show, this was also going to be an exercise in managing sensory issues – particularly noise. This year, even I found the noise almost too much at times. While Dancing Wombat was having the time of her life on the dodgem cars, I was standing with my hands over my ears, feeling the music pulsating through my body, just waiting for the ride to end!

Super sensory at the dodgy dodgems

Dodgy dodgems!

Last, but certainly not least, while we were going somewhere where we’ve been before, it’s always just a bit different. This provided an opportunity to practise strategies for dealing with change. And the chance for me to try different strategies in helping my Wombats manage as well.

So, how did we go with all this? Actually, pretty well.

Showstopping

Travel training

This was managed well, especially considering that we were travelling in quite crowded conditions. However, we needed to change platforms. This meant going up to the concourse on a rather steep escalator, then back down again. Dancing Wombat insisted on standing with both her arms stretched across the escalator, stopping people from walking past her on the other side. I kept putting her arm back down, (as did Grandma Wombat, on the next escalator). She didn’t like it.

“Don’t, sweetheart,” I told her. “You’re stopping people from walking past you.”

“But I’m just stretching,” she protested.

“Well, stretch downwards, like a carrot,” I suggested.

That was not well received. By the time she was partway down on the second escalator, she was quietly melting down. Tricky.

Perhaps holding both sides of the escalator was helping her feel stable on the steep ride up.  That would be entirely understandable. Perhaps she really was just stretching. Maybe it was helping anchor her physically and emotionally in the crowds. Equally, it’s just one of those rules of convention that we stand on one side to allow people to move on the other. One of those little courtesies that helps to grease the wheels of society. Literally helping people move around, and showing respect for the needs of others. Yes, my daughter had needs too. But here I think the needs of the many transcended the needs of the individual. So my homework is to find a way to help manage her sensory and other needs, while allowing others free movement.

Practising independence and taking responsibility

Train Wombat decided at the last minute that he would come to the Show. As he’s now that bit older, I said he could go off with Free-Running Wombat, if he wanted, and just meet us for lunch. That would give him some independence, and allow him to be more in control. I hoped that would help with his sensory and other challenges. In the end, he came across our path at least three times at least before lunch – either for money, or asking for bags to be minded!

Shortly after lunch, he claimed that he had exhausted everything he wanted to do. Much as I would have liked him to come around with us, this year, I let him and his brother go home alone. You definitely have a bit more flexibility with older children. Experience has also taught me that sometimes giving Train Wombat more independence in his choices helps him stay calmer and more in control. It worked, this year.

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Dancing Wombat and Littlest Wombat managed well with their backpacks and water bottles, as I was anticipating. They were both independent in their showbag decisions and choices (around the particular vetoes that I had imposed). Dancing Wombat also had plenty of practice transacting, buying tickets for her rides, buying showbags and asking for information.

Being aware of the group in the sensory soup

For Littlest Wombat, having his cousins with him was a big help, and a distraction from the noise and bustle of the show. I noticed Dancing Wombat looking around to keep her eye on us, as much I was keeping mine on her! She did extremely well, given that all the distractions made everything a bit of a blur!

Exercise

That certainly happened. Dancing Wombat and Littlest Wombat managed this well, until mid-afternoon when they began to flag. This was probably as much from the constant sensory bombardment, though, as the exercise. When we were in the quietest part of the Showgrounds – the Arts and Craft Pavilion, Dancing Wombat suddenly professed to be extremely tired and couldn’t stop yawning.

Sometimes, she uses this as a strategy to get out of doing things she doesn’t want to do. Sometimes she genuinely is tired. It’s often hard to know. Certainly, looking at things that don’t really interest you can be tiring – no matter how amazing we might think the displays are. And there were some pretty sensational cake decorating exhibits.

Sensory Issues

All Wombats seemed to manage these quite well, this year. Maybe it was a combination of them being a bit older, more familiar with the Show and a bit more aware of how to manage their own sensory challenges. I was also more aware of what I needed to have in place to help them – like lots of food and water, and plans for multiple stops, and going where the queues were shortest.

Dancing Wombat loved going on the dodgem cars, including the loud music, flashing lights and all the bumps and thumps. Interestingly, though, immediate sensory challenges still took precedence. When the  straps on her clothing slipped, she immediately took her hands off the wheel to deal with that.

Having a ball in the water.

Having a ball in the water.

She also sought out a sensory challenge in the water ball activity. In this, she needed to try and stay upright and walk inside a large ball floating on water. It was a struggle, but she persisted.

 

Dealing with change

Like the sensory issues, the Wombats managed well with all this. The only tricky time was when, having waited for 10 minutes in a queue for Dancing Wombat to “have a go” on a golf challenge, I walked away from it at the last minute. I found out that I needed to enter a whole lot of personal information. Just to have three swings with a golf club? No, thanks. I explained my reasons to Dancing Wombat, but she was reluctant to leave. Luckily, the rest of our group came up just then so I was able to distract her and we could go.

Jolly good Show!

We all had a good day. I was proud of the way my brood managed in the Show environment. And glad that I hadn’t let the anticipated challenges stop me from taking them. It had been a positive experience for us all, building on many things that I’m trying to teach my children – especially Dancing Wombat with her extra needs. Being prepared certainly helps, and next year, I’ll be a bit more prepared, and make a bit of a schedule so we see some more of the traditional Show events and exhibits. It’s a learning experience for me as much as for my Wombats.

And as the Show must go on, so will we!

Until next time, Happy Wombatting!