Fire Drills

When my son was in first grade, he refused to go to school one day because he knew that there would be a fire drill.  I finally got Connor into the building, but he was clearly terrified.  When I picked him up that afternoon, I asked him how his day went, and he calmly told me, “My teacher ’splained it to me, Mom. A drill is just PRACTICE!” In other words, my son hadn’t known the difference between a drill and an actual event.  As his mother, I was ashamed to realize that I had sent Connor into what he thought would be an inferno of unspeakable terror. In hindsight, he was being extraordinarily brave, not difficult. But I also realized that it was unacceptable to have have a child think even for a second that it would be okay to walk into a burning building.  My husband and I began preparing our family for emergencies the next day. The first step was to talk to Connor’s teachers, who agreed to give him a heads up a day before a scheduled drill.  This made feel Connor feel more in control and less anxious about participating. The teachers also agreed to let him cover his ears during the alarm. It would make the noise more tolerable for him, but wouldn’t drown out the alarm entirely. The next step was to begin practicing at home.  We took Connor through all the steps of how to stop, drop and roll if his clothing caught on fire; how to leave the house and go to a safe meeting spot; and how to crouch down beneath  the smoke. We had a few challenges because Connor always felt like he had to stop, drop and roll before leaving the house (and again after he got to our meeting place).  He made us practice daily for about a week and a half, and my husband and I generated quite a few neighborly snickers at the sight of us stopping, dropping and rolling on the island in our cul-de-sac. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Fire Drills", url: "http://autismisnottheboss.com/2009/04/fire-drills-safety-autism/" });

It was well worth it..