Autism and
Wandering:
— by Suzanne Koup-Larsen
“People are drawn to the water.
That’s why everyone vacations at the
beach,” says Fogel. But children with
autism seem to be more attracted to
water than the average child, says Lori
McIlwain, co-founder & chair of the Na-
tional Autism Association. Experts have
not identified a clinical reason for this
behavior, but experts believe that water
provides a soothing sensory experience
for the children with autism who seek
it out. “Knowing to search water first
saves a lot of lives,” says McIlwain.
How to Keep
Your Child
Safe
W
hen New Jersey mom
Suzanne Simon’s son
Koray was 8 years old,
he wandered away unnoticed from the
American Museum of Natural History
onto the streets of Manhattan. Despite
cold temperatures, he wasn’t wearing a
coat, and he was soaking wet by the time
law enforcement found him more than
two hours later. Koray is a non-verbal
child with an autism spectrum disorder.
As many as 49% of children with au-
tism are prone to wandering, says Heidi
Mizell, resource coordinator for Autism
Delaware in Newark, DE.
Wandering — also called elope-
ment — is the tendency to try to leave
a safe, supervised place, which puts
a child with autism at risk of injury or
even death. Kids can bolt away or sim-
ply leave a place undetected. “The only
real difference is the speed,” says Rachel
Tait, chief program officer for Eden Au-
tism in Princeton, NJ. “The safety risk
is the same,” she says. The potential
danger involved with wandering arises
because children with autism often have
trouble with communication and safety
awareness.
Why do children with
autism wander?
“There are different reasons that
kids might wander or elope,” says Mike
Fogel, founder and director of the Child
and Family Art Therapy Centers (in Cen-
36 WNY Family February 2019
leading cause of death among individu-
als who wander, says Mizell.
Empower
Ability
Inspire Advocate
Special
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ter City Philadelphia, Ardmore, Paoli
and Plymouth Meeting, PA). In many
cases, they may want to move toward
something that interests them or wander
away from something that stresses them.
Many kids with autism have hypersensi-
tivity to sound or commotion, and these
factors could cause undue stress, says
Fogel: “They may be trying to escape
some frustration, and their coping skills
aren’t up to the task.”
Dangers of wandering
for a child with autism
Children with autism process only
concrete things, and a concept like safe-
ty is too abstract for them, says Cindy
Bott-Tomarchio, director of educational
services for Eden Autism. The potential
dangers when a child elopes include traf-
fic, exposure, dehydration, hypothermia
and encounters with strangers, but water
is especially dangerous. Drowning is a
Reduce the risk of
elopement from home
“There is no substitute for supervi-
sion,” says Sue Tuckerman of Philadel-
phia, mom of 19-year-old twin sons with
autism. Several devices — both low-end
and high-end — can help you monitor
your child, she says. Experts encourage
multiple safeguards to keep the home se-
cure. The most commonly used device
is an alarm system that chimes when an
exterior door opens. You also can put
jingle bells on door knobs and take the
bells with you when you visit someone
else’s home, Tuckerman advises. Or you
can install locks that use keys or codes
to unlock them and place the locks very
high on doors.
Reduce the risk
elopement from school
Schools tend to have greater su-
pervision than at home. However, in an
educational setting, kids will bolt if the
expectations overwhelm them, says Fo-
gel. Experts recommend that parents ad-
vocate for their child to ensure the child
has proper supervision at school written
into the IEP. “If they’re prone to wan-
dering, request a one-to-one aide for the
child,” recommends McIlwain.
Tracking devices for
children with autism
who may wander
Most people in the autism commu-
nity do not oppose tracking devices, says