Common Sense Solutions to Wandering

Fears about children with autism wandering off have kept many a parent awake at night. When you have a child who wanders, or in some cases it may be more accurate to say is an “escape artist,” as long as the child is in your care you can create a safe environment with locks on windows and doors and alarms that sound any time someone opens a window or door.

Thousands of parents have created the equivalent of Fort Knox in their home and have trained everyone in the child’s orbit to ensure that the child does not leave. Parents are generally vigilant and the child is safe. Some parents have even elected to have a article by Amy Daniels, Ph.D., an Autism Speaks health policy researcher, who gives an in-depth analysis of autism and wandering. At the end of the article she says: “The time to develop solutions is now.” I couldn’t agree with her more.

Here’s my solution. Every school yard needs to be 100% secured with high fences and no way to get in or out from the school compound. All exits from the school need to be monitored every day, all day.

With the number of children afflicted with autism growing, every school will have to be secured. Not only will this help children with autism, it will also help all children remain safe and give every parent a better night’s sleep.

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What are some ideas that you think can help prevent wandering?

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Sabrina Freeman, Ph.D.

Sociologist (Ph.D. Stanford '95), autism advocate, author of several books & a DVD on autism, mother of an adult w/ autism, founder of FEATBC in '96.