Imagine you are watching your autistic child playing quietly in your backyard when you become distracted for a moment by a phone call. You then glance up to find your autistic child gone from sight. You don¡¯t panic, but begin looking for your child. After a few minutes of searching and calling your child¡¯s name, you begin to panic and yell for anyone to help you. Soon the entire neighbourhood is looking for your child but he/she is nowhere to be found. child safety is now your number one life concern. Everything else takes a backseat and you just pray that your child is safe and that you find him/her soon.
This scenario happened to my wife and I in the fall of 2005 when this issue of child safety hit home. It was as if time was standing still as we were looking. All of the sudden our neighborhood seemed huge. My wife got in the car and began driving the roads. I was walking around in what seemed to be a drunken stupor yelling my daughter¡¯s name. I called 911 and could barely talk to the dispatcher as I was beginning to get light-headed. I had already looked in our van more than once, and had not seen my daughter. It wasn¡¯t until an neighborhood boy looked in there again, and saw her climbing over the back seat, that we finally found her.
Like most autistic children, she didn¡¯t utter a word. The experience was very traumatic for my family and the entire neighborhood. Since that time we have installed many keyed locks in our home for both internal doors and external doors. We no longer let her play outside without someone being within arm¡¯s reach. What we realized is that it only takes a second to lose an autistic child. Then the entire world is a dangerous place for them. Child safety is now high in our minds.
The following sad story hit home with my wife and I as our daughter is almost eight years old.
¡°GREENACRES, Fla. An 8-year-old autistic boy whose body was found in a retaining pond drowned but did not appear to be a victim of foul play, according to a preliminary medical examiner¡¯s report released Saturday.¡±
After our daughter hid from us and we heard similar stories from several people in our autism support group, it became apparent that tracking devices might provide some help for caretakers who don¡¯t want to make prisoners of their autistic children. But still have child safety at heart.
This article will examine some of the pro¡¯s and cons of these devices, and hopefully provide some useful information for caregivers considering the purchase of such devices.
Review of child safety devices¡¡¡.
The first tracking device that we looked at has received a lot of good press. It is the Ion-Kids tracking devices developed and distributed by Bluespan Products in Texas. This device has some very innovative and impressive features that work very well for tracking small children. The product comes in various kits, which include a wristwatch device to be worn by the child. The wristwatch does have a locking feature to prevent easy removal by the child.
The kit also includes a base unit for the caregiver. When the child gets out of a certain range, the base unit beeps and shows a map to the child¡¯s location. It can be set to alert at a pre-determined radius or ¡°comfort zone.¡± The limitation of the unit is the distance that the unit will track the child within.
If the child gets farther than the transmitter distance, then the signal is lost. So, for small children that can¡¯t travel long distances, it will work well. In our scenario - where our daughter was hiding in the van, it would have worked very well.
http://www.autism-world.com/index.php/2007/04/28/how-to-keep -your-autism-children-safe/
Thanks for sharing your story and product tip.
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;am p;KW=Lifesaver
http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=17018&am p;am p;KW=missing