Keeping children with autism safe is a difficult, but not insurmountable challenge, which is why Autism is Not the Boss is issuing a call to all parents to supply tips and success stories for how to teach safety skills.  As thought starters, please check out our blogs on elopement issues, home safety drills and ’stranger danger.’ 

For more on this topic, please also check out Dennis Debbaudt’s Autism Risk and Safety Management website at http://www.autismriskmanagement.com/. With over ten years of experience presenting autism related law enforcement training sessions, Dennis’s training materials are in use by law enforcement agencies in the U.S., Canada and United Kingdom.

Elopement

My son reacts to certain stimuli like a car alarm in a thunderstorm.  Given the right trigger, he will take off running in full panic mode, usually straight into a busy street, and he will not stop, nor pause, nor look at anything nor at anyone while he is in flight.  The official term for this type of behavior is ‘elopement,’ and it seems to be triggered by some type of sensory overload. It was much worse when Connor was younger, and other than hyper-vigilance on my part, there wasn’t much I could do about it. 

But Connor still runs, and now he’s gotten so fast that it’s difficult to catch him.  After one too many jaunts into traffic, I was determined to do something about it. I grabbed my fleeing son and took him to a running track adjacent to the school, where I told him firmly, “You can run here, but not in the street. Now run! ” And he did, for three laps until whatever was bothering him worked his way out. I ran, too, fueled by adrenaline from my near miss with a semi during the rescue.

We also went over rules.  Connor can’t help his flight response, but he did acknowlege that when I yell  a single “STOP” he’ll do his best to pause until I could reach him.  He also agreed to run toward a playground instead of a street or parking lot. Finally, we are trying to mitigate Connor’s urge to flee by encouraging deep breathing and other self-calming strategies.

Stranger Danger

Stranger Danger isn’t an issue for us as my son uses the “Don’t Talk to Strangers” rule completely and without exception!  We’ve had to have a few talks about why it is both appropriate and important to talk to police officers and firemen.