A few months ago Daniel slipped under the garage door (which was only opened about 6"). He was gone within seconds of me turning around to get something. When I realized he was gone (about a minute later - if that), I opened the garage door and he was nowhere in sight. Nothing has ever made my heart pound so hard, my body immediately get hot and feel so sick to my stomach so quickly. We live in a gated community, but, your mind goes in every direction. Which way did he go, is there anything he can fall into, is the gate open, etc.
After checking and notifying my husband he had slipped under the door, I called my sister (who, thank God, live
2 doors down). They, along with my nieces and brother-in-law fan out.
Going down the inner courtyard - between two streets - they found him
quickly. I was beside myself, looking from the garage so I could stay
close to keep an eye on Anthony. Then I see him appear between the
buildings and luckily my sister saw him, called his name, he turned to
her, smiled and ran to her. She scooped him up and gave him to my husband, who brought him home. Then, about a few weeks later, he learned how to remove the child safety doorknob and tried to get out again. Luckily we caught him. We have since purchased a gps unit called the "pocketfinder". It's relatively inexpensive:
$149.95 + tax & shipping. There is a monthly fee of $ 12.95 for
the first unit, and less for each additional one.This is available at:
http://www.pocketfinder.com/
We have attached a unit to our boys' pants when they leave the house. We clip it to a side, back belt loop and tuck it in their rear pocket. (Luckily they're currently wearing jeans). We like this unit because we can track them on our smart phones, iPad/iPod or the computer. We can set zones so that if they leave an area, we will receive a notification via text message. As you can tell, I am quite taken with this unit.
I have learned that kids with asd (Autism Spectrum Disorder) will generally head for somewhere they normally go with someone else, to something they've seen that caught their attention and really want to go to. Then, maybe something catches their eye, or they get turned around and end up far away before anyone finds them. As parents of children on the spectrum we know that you have to constantly watch our children, but we've also learned that it only takes a few seconds of distraction for a little one to slip away. We know that no matter what we do, we cannot watch our children 24/7, at the very least, you have to blink. That's how most wanderings or missing kiddos happen... in the blink of an eye.
Since this has happened to us, I have researched all I could on ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) wanderings, elopements, escapes, runaways... whatever you want to call it. What I have found is quite alarming to me. Several studies and articles have been written on the subject, yet the only time it seems to be mentioned publicly is when a child goes missing and makes the news. I think more people need to be made aware of the real danger, parents should be educated if they have kiddos on the spectrum to be aware of the reality that it can happen to anyone. Several surveys I've seen show:
- Wanderings begin around age 4
- Up to 49% of children with ASD will wander (elope, run away/dart)
- Almost 1/2 - 53% of those children who wandered were gone long enough to cause concern
- Almost 1/4 - 24% of the kiddos who wandered involved close calls with drowning
- a double keyed deadbolt - so you have to have the key to unlock it from the inside, and we keep the key hung up out of reach of our little ones
- as noted before, we have gotten the GPS units for when they leave the home
- we have an alarm that we can set that will go off when a door or window is opened
- we have a "tether" that we can use which attaches to the kiddos to help minimize "darting/running" away
I have found out some smart recommendations to help us be prepared in the event that either of our boys - "wander" and we need help:
- contact your local police department and let them know that you have an autistic child in your home that has a tendency for wandering
- always keep a current picture of your child handy, if you have a phone that has a camera, keep a picture on it - like we don't already :)
- keep the numbers of your local news stations written down
- keep a list of the local pools, water areas that your child may have access to noted
- keep a list of your child's favorite place to go
- VERY IMPORTANT FOR YOUR CHILD: let the police know what calms your child, so they may get your child to come to them so they can be brought home (a stuffed toy, a favorite food, etc)
A smart person once said: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Stay safe and spread the word.
God Bless.
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