Our initial plans had been kaiboshed due to two children with PDA were too anxious to leave the house, so a quick internet search located three options nearby for me to take my eldest daughter for a fun day out, just me and her.
Option 1 was Lapworth museum https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/facilities/lapworth-museum/index.aspx
Option 2 was ThinkTank in Birmingham http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/thinktank
and Option 3 was The Space Centre in Leicester https://spacecentre.co.uk/
She doesn't do decisions or choices very easily, so we looked at their websites together. 1 had fossils and dinosaur bones, 2 had a dinosaur skull and lots of hands on science things to do as well as a planetarium and 3 had a planetarium, lots of hands on space things to do and the added advantage that we had been there before, so she would recognise it (albeit a few years ago now).
From a practical point I had to rule out option 1 due to weekday parking issues with our tall vehicle (so frustrating when we cannot fit into a car park nearby).
She decided option 2 would be the best choice for her. 
I had heard of ThinkTank a few years back when we house sat for someone in this area, but had seen mixed reviews and lots of talk of cost and public transport. However, a quick search located a car park we would get into right next door to ThinkTank, the cost was very reasonable for entry and it seemed to have a huge variety of areas and topics covered inside.
Off we went, dodgy phone navigating us there (I had my fingers crossed all day that it wouldn't switch itself off so we could get home too). Even in the car park there were signs to ThinkTank, so it was looking good. Our only wobble was once we left the car park and the signs disappeared, leaving us surrounded by students, trying to get the same dodgy phone to work on google maps.....then I spotted a huge sign inside a building around the corner, indicating ThinkTank was right infront of us. Phew!
At the reception desk, the man we saw couldn't have been more helpful. He let her choose which planetarium show to watch, with no rush at all, pointed out all the information we needed to know- picnic areas, lockers, toilets, cafe, outdoor garden and planetarium location. When we sat down to have our picnic there were several school groups also doing the same (but still plenty of free seats and tables for us to use), so a member of staff showed us a quieter place to have our picnic without me needing to ask. There are two lifts in the central column of the museum, and a staircase winds around them to all floors also. My daughter finds descending stairs difficult, especially when feeling under pressure, so the lift was useful.
Despite the large numbers of school groups in the museum, we hardly saw any of them, and did not have to queue for any exhibit, wait for any activities or have any problems or altercations. My daughter was able to follow the map from floor to floor, selecting which activities she wished to try and returning later to the others. She was very impressed with the child size city, the water play and the natural history sections, also loving the planetarium show.
We were very lucky in the planetarium to have only 26 people there in total, and the man working there was so enthusiastic, he brought the whole show to life for her. It was all about animals in the stars, constellations and ended with a song about Orion.
There are so many fantastic displays and hands on activities I cannot possible name them here, but thoroughly recommend a visit if you haven't been.
We bought her an annual pass before leaving, then, at home when she told her sister all about it, she wanted to go back the next day!
Off we all went this time, the five of us. Our eldest very reluctantly, our youngest so excited she needed her buggy and ear defenders to help her focus and stay safe. This, and the weekend put a different slant on our visit. This time there were lots more families rather than groups of children- obviously- and there was a tiny queue to get in (three family groups in front of us maybe). The staff were the same, very helpful, very welcoming. We still got a locker, made use of the buggy parks around the child sized city and had to use the lift. This was the only possible negative of the day, but one we simply couldn't avoid. One of the two lifts broke down during the day, leaving all visitors with the use of just one, for a museum over four floors. That said, we weren't ever waiting too long, had the buggy there for our daughter to sit in (she can't queue well) and were able to allow our eldest to go ahead (with a supervisory tail) knowing he would be safe.
We didn't have to wait for anything again, all the exhibits are sufficiently spread out to allow plenty of scope for visitors to access them without having to queue. Our planetarium visit was a no-go for our youngest, but we knew that would happen (we had to try though as you never know what day she will do something). The other three in our group enjoyed the show and met up with us afterwards. Another bonus feature that I had missed on the previous day was that our youngest could run (as she does) from activity to activity and I was able to keep an eye on her through windows, open plan layouts and low level displays. I also knew the only way for her to change floors was the glass lift or the stairs, both centrally located, so worst case scenario I would have had to wait there for her. It didn't come to that this time (almost when we lost my husband, but not for my daughter).
We bought both our other children annual passes also that day, and plan to return very soon, hopefully on a dry day so we can fully explore the outdoor garden too.
All meltdowns and challenging behaviours were fairly easy to avoid at ThinkTank because of the open spaces, laid back staff and wide variety of activities available. When our youngest struggled with other children there, I was able to redirect her to plenty of other areas where she was able to cope better- even checking my teeth in the dental chair at one point 'say ahhh'.
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