The Interactive Autism Network recently did a survey about wandering and elopement among people who have autism spectrum disorders. The results of the survey may be alarming to parents who have a child who has been diagnosed with autism. Now is a good time to make sure that you are taking the necessary safety precautions to prevent your child from being exposed to any of the dangers that come with wandering.
The survey was done online, and involved more than 800 parents who had at least one child who was on the autism spectrum. This is just one of many surveys that The Interactive Autism Network (IAN), is conducting in order to understand more about autism. About half of the parents in the survey reported that their child has, at one time or another, wandered or eloped. Overall, the survey found that the behavior of wandering seems to reach it’s peak when the child is four years old, but that the behavior can continue until the child is seven, or even ten years of age, (when children who do not have autism tend to stop wandering).
Out of the families who said that their child who has autism wandered, almost 50% of them reported that their child went missing for a long enough time period to cause the parents significant concern about the child’s safety. It’s always terrifying when a parent cannot find his or her child. To have a child that cannot tell people what his or her name is, or to state their address or phone number, is that much more terrifying.
This survey that was done by IAN is the first one to scientifically validate that wandering and elopement are a critical safety issue for the autism community. Their hope is that this research will be used by advocates and policy makers, and will result in implementation of key safety measures that would help to keep children who have autism safe.
Elopement is dangerous. It puts the child at a risk of trauma, injury, or potentially death. Two out of three parents in the survey reported that their child had a “close call” with a traffic injury. A startling 32% of parents reported that their child had a “close call” with possibly drowning.
Parents who have a child who is on the autism spectrum, and who wanders, were very affected by this behavior. More than half of parents, 58%, said that out of all the behaviors that their child exhibited, wandering was the one that caused them the most stress. About 40% of parents reported that they suffered sleep disruptions because they feared that their child would elope. 62% of parents said that they were so fearful about the potential for their child to wander that they prevented the child from attending activities that took place outside the home, in order to prevent the wandering behavior from happening.
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