SnooSnoo said:
Screaming Coasters said:
With respect, I do think its a fair policy for the major sufferers, but parents use it to take the piss.
I slightly agree.. but I do think people could take advantage of this. I'd say 90% of people with ADHD don't need it.. but some people might.
It's not easy to take advantage of - well, not when the new Merlin disability scheme goes across the board.
You need to have paper proof of the disability signed by a professional. Not something that is as easy to get as a dose of Seroxat from the doctor because you're a bit miserable.
To get a diagnosis for ADD/ADHD you have to be studied and show the correct signs, etc.
Minor_Furie was under a doctor for nine years looking for a diagnosis with what made him odd (I blame the parents). After that time, he had statements to help him catch up with his school work and the like, but he was never quite enough into an ADD/Autism scale to be diagnosed. So he was discharged as he went to secondary school.
So, under a good doctor, it shouldn't be an easy thing to have diagnosed - so it shouldn't be something that happens a lot. It shouldn't just be a case of going to the front desk and saying "my kid has ADHD, let me queue jump". Hopefully Merlin will clamp down now (even though I am guilty of abusing the system with SSIL_Furie myself).
To go to Ian's point (well put BTW). We learned over time what things set Minor_Furie off on one of his "episodes". We could see the signs before they snowballed, and worked out ways of diverting the issue or calming him down. Over a period of years, we all learned together and now Minor_Furie functions almost the same as everyone else (we'll ignore the recent episode of him stabbing six classmates with a pencil and getting suspended :lol: ).
Part of the learning process was learning how to deal with everyday issues. You have to put a coat on if it's cold - the sun shining in December does not mean it's hot. Odd little things like that which could cause an episode.
It's a tough one, when he was younger, you'd certainly not have wanted to be with him in a queue for a ride when he went off on one. However, we'd have never put him in the queue unless we had ways of making sure he wasn't going to go off on one. As Ian says, choose quiet times.
There's a lot to dealing with a kid with ADHD, most of it involves trying to work things out, dealing with things rationally and calmly and over time doing your best to ensure that you child can integrate into society well - ADHD usually lessens over time anyway as the child matures.
So the article I think is right. Your child has to deal with things and needs to learn how society works. They can do, you just have to approach it in the right way (any notice how much attention Minor_Furie demands in a queue? That's part of it - distraction techniques we used when he was younger).
If your child can't deal with the excitement of a theme park? Don't take them to a theme park! Take them to a big wooded area and let them hit trees with stick and kick a ball around. Yeah, it's not fair they have to be excluded from the things other people do - but sorry, such is life. I wanted to be a pilot, but colour blindness stops me - that doesn't mean I should force the RAF to change the rules. I just have to live with the fact that there are some things a disability excludes me from that others may take for granted.
Having said all of that, if the rules are there and slack enough to let people abuse them? Then who can blame people for taking advantage?