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Ways to cope with visiting a restaurant/café, improving the experience for children.

Holly

Hiya, I am Holly and I am studying interior architecture and design. For my most recent project, I am focusing on designing a restaurant that is more inclusive to autistic children and their families. Read the full description below:

The number of children being diagnosed with autism has hugely increased in the last two decades, whilst many areas of design have adapted to the needs of neurodevelopment disorders, restaurant design in-particular remains non-inclusive. This, therefore, means autistic children and their families miss out on important family time as they often find dining out challenging due to restaurants being too overwhelming for children who are over or under sensitive to senses. But dining out is an important part of a child's development and it should be encouraged not avoided. By re-designing a restaurant space that are more autistic friendly, it will help pose a change to future design, ensuring a more inclusive future.

If you have any stories, experiences whether they are good or bad about visiting a restaurant then please comment away! Whether you are a parent and struggle taking your child out or as an adult, and avoid visiting restaurants altogether. Or do you have any tips on how you cope in this environment, are there any ways to improve the overall experience for children?

I would love to hear any feedback you have, anything will be useful to help me design an autistic-friendly restaurant and activity hub.

Parents

  • I think a calm atmosphere is the most important thing. Booths where not many people can overlook the individual diner, would be preferable. Surfaces that are sound-absorbent, rather than reflecting is also a useful feature. I was once in a Japanese restaurant that had an interesting feature, it had a series of very low tables, like you would find in very traditional Japanese eateries, except, to cater for Westerners' inability to sit cross-legged in comfort, the area under each table was sunken into the floor. You could sit upright on cushions aroundn the edge of the 'pit', with your legs down. What struck me was that the area under the table could have been converted to a sensory area for autistic children, or indeed any children.  They could pop up to eat and be entertained between courses by playing under the table.

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  • I think a calm atmosphere is the most important thing. Booths where not many people can overlook the individual diner, would be preferable. Surfaces that are sound-absorbent, rather than reflecting is also a useful feature. I was once in a Japanese restaurant that had an interesting feature, it had a series of very low tables, like you would find in very traditional Japanese eateries, except, to cater for Westerners' inability to sit cross-legged in comfort, the area under each table was sunken into the floor. You could sit upright on cushions aroundn the edge of the 'pit', with your legs down. What struck me was that the area under the table could have been converted to a sensory area for autistic children, or indeed any children.  They could pop up to eat and be entertained between courses by playing under the table.

Children
  • in reply to Martin

    This also makes me realise that THINGS TO DO while you wait for your food could be a good addition.  

    NT people like to use that time to chat, but if like me you struggle to make conversation that could be a strained time.  Adult colouring pages, logic puzzles, stim toys etc could be good fun and help patrons to stay relaxed.