How road trips keep James connected

James spends quite a bit of time at home due to his additional needs, including Social Anxiety, making it really hard for him to leave the safety of our house.

So that James doesn’t become house-bound, we plan ‘road trips’ with James, at least once a week, sometimes more if he is willing and if we are able to juggle things.

The road trips include favourite activities and familiar places, all brought together to help James feel safe and comfortable with going out.

We have to think of things that are able to be done in the car, as although we can support James to come out of the house and get into the car, he is unable to get out anywhere else until we return home.

After the house, the car is James’ next best ‘safe place’. All sorts of things take place in the car as a result of this, even including dentist appointments, but we do what is necessary to help James engage in ways that work for him.

There is one activity that is regularly a feature of these road-trips, and that’s a visit to the McDonald’s drive through. James is not happy if he goes on a road-trip and there isn’t chicken nuggets and chips!

James has a set of laminated cards that include the different places that we go, and he can make some choices about whether we go one way or another, to Poole Park to see the ducks and then go across on the chain ferry to Studland and Swanage, or to go out to the New Forest to spot ponies and then drive to Lepe Beach to look at the sailing boats on the Solent.

James makes his choices quite clear, and we then head the car that way and make sure we visit one of the McDonald’s drive-through’s on the way!

A road-trip can will usually last all afternoon, and might even start with a structured activity such as a visit to the craft class that James is booked into every Thursday afternoon.

As James is unable to leave the car and go into the craft class, the craft class comes to him, with all of the resources brought to the car so that he can be supported to complete the craft activity there.

As we drive around, James loves looking at the places we visit and pass through from the safety of the car. He knows the routes, so if we try to go a different way then he lets us know!

I check how James is doing by asking him “James, I …” and usually James will reply “Appy!” with a big smile!

These road-trips are important to keep James connected with the outside world. He would lose touch with so much that we all take for granted without them.

As we approach the summer holidays and there is more time available, we hope to support James to increase the number of road-trips we can go on during the week. As his confidence grows, we hope to hear him saying that he is “Appy!” more and more!

Maybe this is a way that you could support a child, young person, or young adult that you know, who may be anxious about going out like James is, to keep connected with the world?

Happy trails.

Mark Arnold, Director of Additional Needs Ministry at Urban Saints. Arnold blogs at The Additional Needs Blogfather. This article was re-published with permission.