Mamabear,
Welcome to the forum. I am glad you found us. This is a very helpful resource for parents. The parents and adults on the spectrum here are unbelievably kind and helpful. Well your problem is a pretty common one. We have had lots of discussions about elopement(runing away/taking off) on the forum. Just type in elopement or running away in the search box at the top and you will see tons of helpful material. My son does that too. He is 6, doing it less that he used to when he was younger. It does get better. Good luck.
Norway Mom,
You are awesome! Your ability to research and post such helpful links is amazing. That is a wonderful learning tool. It will help my son as well.
Concernedpa.
My younger son runs off, but as a game I think. If it is safe we let him and he visually checks that we are following at about 30 feet. If we get within about 15 feet he runs off some more.The last few weeks she will suddenly get in a mood where she just runs off from me when we are out in public. [/QUOTE]
I have always had this problem with Skylar running. So per seeing on a post on here I got him one of these and he LOVES it.
OR
I have so many questions but this is one I want to ask first. We just got a dx of pdd-nos for my 3 1/2 yr old daughter. The last few weeks she will suddenly get in a mood where she just runs off from me when we are out in public. At speech therapy today we walked into the building and in 1 min she was running down the hall into someone's office giggling. It seems like this just started or at least it in now happening a lot/daily now. Not that we are out in public everyday. I'm afraid she will run into the street someday--I always hold her hand tightly when we are out in parking lots, etc..but what if she breaks free. It seemed like she was good at listening to me when I'd say stop in the house but she did not listen to me today when I said "stop now" I don't know if this is part of her dx or what. What I ended up doing today was running after and putting her in time out. I had to do that 3 times while we were there. Then she kept touching things there I told her not to touch and she would laugh like she knew she wasn't supposed to do it. This is something new that she is doing.... Oh my god, I think I remember her doing this a very long time ago but like a yr and half ago. Does this mean she is regressing more? What I want to know is what do I do?! We haven't started ABA or playtherapy yet. We just started ST. OT to begin soon but I want to do something now to help with this behavior. Usually in the past if I said, no or stop she would stop. HELP please!!
Not to worry, I bet she is NOT regressing! It sounds like she has made a game out of running and having mom chase her. Most kids love to have mom or dad chase them. I know my kids all do, even my teenagers LOL
I think you did the right thing putting her into time out, but I have noticed rewards work better for our kids than punishments. Maybe every min. or so she stays by you or keeps hold of your hand, give her an M&M. Or get one of those cute little backpacks where the animals tail attaches to mom or dads wrist for safety. (soem eople call them child leashes) Just until she grows out of this stage. Just suggestions, hope someone can help you :)
I hadn't heard of this animal backpack before. Apparently they're called tot tethers. What a great idea! Here's a link to them (I have no idea if this is a good place to buy them or not).
http://comfort1st.stores.yahoo.net/tottechbachs.html
It does sound like your daughter is enjoying a chase game, but like you said it's a real safety issue. She might try to play the game in public because she gets hyped up/overstimulated by all the unfamiliar sensory stimulation -- sounds, sights, smells of a strange place.
To help your child learn to not run into the street, you can use this animated safety song, which covers staying on the sidewalk and holding Mom's hand. There are other songs related to traffic and fire safety on this website, too. Definitely worth bookmarking.
http://www.do2learn.com/games/songs/streetsafety/part1.html
Running off (elopement) has the potential of occurring at home and at school, and you'll find lots of good tips under the following topic on our forum:
http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=16989&am p;KW=Lifesaver
http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=17018&am p;KW=missing
Good luck with everything!
Hmschlmama2five, thanks so much!!! I hope it's not regression. I just remembered that about a few months ago we started the chass game at home...http://www.mypreciouskid.com/child-locator.html
That shop had lots of other cool safety products, such as an affordable magnetic alarm (when magnet contact is broken, the alarm sounds, for a set of 2) and a cover to keep your carseat cool.
My 2 year old just ran off across a road and into a neighbors yard. because we live in a wooded area he could have hidden anywhere and calling his name did not do any good as he does not answer tohis name. I did three things I got a medical alert bracelet with his name my number and Autism writen on it. Also I ordered a paging system from the internet (My safe Kid.com) the one end is on my key ring and the other tied to his shoe. so when we are out I press the alarm and it rings to alert me where he is. It does not solve the running issue, but does give me a way to find him. I also contacted the state police to let them know the situation should they ever have to respond again. They kind of looked at me like I had three eyes but, anyway they know. I have also registered him with DDD in NJ and asking for fence for our property.
hi
if you like i can make you a social story for your child
love shell
http://groups.msn.com/autismaspergersinthefamily
A lot of the kids I work with do this often. What's been working particularly well with one of the younger ones is making into an actual game. We started working on it in the backyard, where we'd tell him to "go run!" and after a second or so we'd tell him to stop (at first we had to physically stop him), and tell him "come here." When he stopped/came back he was given a treat (he loves scooby doo so he got scooby doo fruit snacks.) We gradually increased the distance we allowed him to run, and he kept up on it.