The Melbourne Museum is ASD Friendly!

The Melbourne Museum, AMAZE and The Department of Early Childhood Development have partnered together on a project to create an ASD friendly environment to make the museum more accessible to families with children on the spectrum.  This is fabulous news for parents of kids with certain special interests like dinosaurs or bugs as they will hopefully feel much more comfortable taking their kids for a visit.

On the museum website http://museumvictoria.com.au/ they have various Social Stories that parents can view, download and print out to prepare their kids before they venture out.  They cover everything from the car park to the playground and even the plane hanging in the foyer assuring children it won't fall down!

They also have a map that you can print out which shows the Low Sensory and High Sensory areas so that families know where they can head to for some quiet time and also prepare for the busier areas.  If you forget to take your map, just head to the cloak room and borrow one from there.

The museum also suggests that you buy your tickets online before you go so there is no long waits in line and recommends visiting on weekdays during term between the hours of 3 and 5pm as that is when they are quietest.

The project, which includes extensive staff training, recently won a Museums Australia (Victoria) award and is in the process of being introduced to sister museums Scienceworks and the Immigration Museum.