An eight year old boy who has autism left his school playground. In order to lure the child out from wherever he was hiding, rescuers played the boy’s favorite song, (which happened to be by Ozzy Osbourne). Fortunately, the boy appeared to be fine.
An online survey done by The Interactive Autism Network (IAN) asked questions of over 800 parents who had at least one child who had autism. Half of the parents reported that their child has, at one time or another, wandered off or eloped. Out of this group of parents, over 50% of them said that their child went missing for long enough a time period to cause the parents significant concern about their child’s safety.
In general the peak age that children who have autism tend to wander off is four years old. However, the behavior can continue until the child is seven, or even ten years of age. Ten year olds who don’t have autism, or other special needs, don’t typically exhibit this particular behavior. They grow out of that tendency.
An eight year old boy named Joshua Robb ran away from his school playground in Twin Peaks, California. Joshua has autism, and is easily frightened. He also barely speaks (which isn’t unusual of children who have an autism spectrum disorder).
It is speculated that Joshua left school in an attempt to find his parents. It seems that his parents recently lost their home, due to a foreclosure. I’m not sure of exactly what was going on with that part of the story. However, I can see how a situation like that could be confusing and anxiety provoking to a child (no matter if the child had a special need or not).
His parents were, obviously, concerned about their missing son. Rescuers were looking for him, but the parents feared that their son would choose to hide from the rescuers instead of coming out when they called him. He had a history of not responding very well to loud noises, or to people who are calling his name.
Instead, the searchers tried something a little bit different. They blared two of the boy’s favorite songs, in the hopes that it would lure him out from wherever he was hiding. Those two songs happened to be “No More Tears” by Ozzy Osbourne, and “Good Time” by Alan Jackson. Clearly, the boy had a rather diverse taste in music!
After around 24 hours since Joshua left his school, he was found. The boy was shirtless, and was hiding behind a bush in the San Bernadino Forest around 2:30 in the afternoon the day after he wandered off. His father said that Joshua looked tired, and had some scratches, but appeared to be ok. He was hot, and was thirsty. The boy was flown by helicopter to the local hospital for an evaluation after reuniting with his parents.
Surprisingly, it seems that Joshua chose to speak to the rescuers. It has been reported that he said: “Thank you, you saved me” to the rescuers that found him.
Image by Fabio Ikezaki on Flickr