+atsteele Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 I am the father of a 9 year old with Autism. I just recently was trying to find some new fun activities for us to share as a family and got turned on to Geocaching by an old friend from college. Currently, I cannot find any groups that are geared toward kids on the Autism Spectrum. So, I decided to start my own. We are called MAGPIE (Metro Autistic Geocachers: Producing Intrepid Explorers) and are located in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex. If you live in the area, we would love to hear from you and get together for adventure with some of the most intrepid explorers on the planet! We are currently seeking ideas for caches in the metroplex that are "MAGPIE-friendly", so if you have any, please e-mail us at dfwmagpie@gmx.com Best, Jonathan Steele Quote Link to comment
+Mbiyf8 Posted July 1, 2010 Share Posted July 1, 2010 Awesome idea - We have an 11 yr old with autism and we just started geocaching. It is a fun family activity that we can all participate in at some level, AND it doesn't require being in busy places with lots of people! We live in Atlanta - I wonder if there is something like this near us? Polly Bouker Quote Link to comment
+3Nish Posted August 6, 2010 Share Posted August 6, 2010 We have a 16 year old son with autism. Don't think there is any kind of group like that here in Ontario, Canada either. I've taken him with me out letterboxing, and he seems to like following me around out in the woods too. He'll stick with it for finding one, and then he'll want to go back to the van. Quote Link to comment
+Bergie Bunch Posted September 20, 2010 Share Posted September 20, 2010 I have worked with many children with Autism, it is a great way to introduce them to the great outdoors. Many of the kids I have worked with liked to hide in the house or their own yards. Caching got them out into the outdoors, for the adventure of it. There is a great Autism conference every year in July, just outside Dallas, in Plano. I have been to it a few times. If you are really interested, it might be a great place to try and set up an informational booth with the assistance of some local groups for support and spread the word. Quote Link to comment
savant9 Posted September 20, 2010 Share Posted September 20, 2010 I have an 8 year old daughter with Autism. She can walk for hours with me on the trails, but when she is done, she is done. I live much too far from you to join in, but best of luck with your group. Quote Link to comment
+3Nish Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 No action in this thread since last year. How is everyone's sons and daughters doing? My son is now 18 and this year he has been wanting to spend most of the weekend walking or doing the trails so I decided to have him get his own account here. His name is NishGuy so now we are going back and he can find the ones that I've put out and also the ones on the trails that we walk on. Quote Link to comment
+Team Pixos Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 I have an 8 year old son with Aspergers. He can at times love caching other times he doesn't want anything to do with it. I really like your idea. How is the MAGPIE program doing? Quote Link to comment
+3Nish Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 It was atsteele's thread. Wish I knew how it was going too. Quote Link to comment
+TheMasses Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 I'm in Boca Raton, FL and my sons and I are loving the cooler weather! My 10 year old is autistic and I also have 2 11 year olds.... Quote Link to comment
+TheMasses Posted June 9, 2012 Share Posted June 9, 2012 bumping this thread up because I'd love to talk to other autistic cachers/ parents of autistic cachers... Now that it's getting hot my son doesn't want to go out as much but I still do (I lost 25 lbs since I started caching!) how's it going for the rest of you? Quote Link to comment
+3Nish Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 We're doing good. We don't do as much caching anymore but we still walk the trails. Pretty hot out there yesterday so we only did one was a 2.37 kilometre trail but it was a good one. We pretty much do the caches that are on trails as I don't really like to do the park and grab caches. He turns 19 years old tomorrow and we're having a birthday bbq for him at his place. Quote Link to comment
+TheMasses Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 3Nish - I only like the trails too - I look on the map before I set out for a park that has at least 3 caches... I let my son sit when he needs to but lately he just doesn't want to do it at all - or he'll say he does, get all the way there and then either not get out of the car or get out of the car and not want to go (either right at the outset or a little bit into our walk) Quote Link to comment
+galdrin Posted April 14, 2013 Share Posted April 14, 2013 (edited) I know this is an old thread but I thought I should let people reading this thread know that I have tried to write down what geocaching has done for me and my son who is suffering from severe autistic spectrum disorder. If you want to check it out go to http://shadowcacher.wordpress.com and I recomend starting at the first post if you want the history from when we received his diagnose. Edited April 14, 2013 by galdrin Quote Link to comment
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