So we booked the ultimate holiday, we are excited, happy, and broke! But then the reality sets in, how to handle Neuro Diversity.
Now I like to say that I have a Neuro Spicy household, we have Autism (1 diagnosis, 1 I mean yeah obviously, and 1 that we should have gotten diagnosis for but as a whole they cope quite well), we also have me and although I am not saying that the ADHD is something that affects me all the time, there are times when the squirrels be squirreling (don’t come at me I know its “trendy” to say you have neuro diversity).
The airport is a minefield of stress for the Neuro typical, now throw in the Neuro Diverse. The noise, the people, the dogs and men with guns, the process …… the list goes on and on.
In my experience the answer to much of this is the Sunflower Lanyard. That little green lanyard holds the power to make the start of your trip so much better. Airport staff are trained to spot it and act accordingly. From the person at the security who pushed us into a different queue (more space, less people), to the security people who explained completely what they needed to do (tip here is to take off the hoodie, especially with long hair that covers the hood!) the staff where on it.
The Virgin crew who on spotting the lanyard asked what we needed to make boarding easier, guiding us to seats that had more space and highlight to other staff we might need special assistance. The discreet head nod to us to follow them when they opened up the boarding process, meaning that we were able to board first without people pushing us to move down the aisles, and the Cabin crew how spotted things and ensured that we had what we needed. All in all, we couldn’t have asked for a better start to our trip.
The power of that little lanyard is vast, although I know not everyone would experience the things we did (the airport was a little quieter due to the very early flight we had), I would encourage anyone with a Neuro spicy household to get themselves a lanyard, more and more people are getting trained on how to spot them and what to do to help.