Sample IEP Letter to Help Your Child's School Address Wandering

An example of a letter you can send to your child's school to inform them of your child's tendency to wander and suggest/request that safety measures be put in place.

http://www.awaare.org/IEPletter.htm

Create a Family Wandering Emergency Plan (Includes a Plan to Fill-In)

Make sure your family has a plan in case of a wandering emergency. Before an emergency happens, sit down together and decide how you will get in contact with each other, where you will go and what you will do in a wandering emergency. Fill out this simple template and keep a copy with your emergency supply kit or another safe place known to all family members, where it can be easily accessed if your child should go missing. You may also want to give a copy to your child's teachers or other caregivers.

Please save a copy of this plan to your computer, as well as printing a copy to fill-in with your family. http://www.awaare.org/docs/FWEP.pdf

Along with this plan, keep a copy of this "Person-Specific Information for First Responders" form that lists information that can help find your child if he or she is lost: http://www.awaare.org/docs/AUTISM%20ELOPEMENT%20ALERT%20FORM.pdf

Wandering Toolkits for Families and First Responders

Check out these toolkits with lots of valuable resources.

The family/caregiver toolkit contains:

• Caregiver Checklist 
• Family Wandering Emergency Plan (FWEP) 
• First-responder profile form
• Swimming Lessons Tool 
• Root-cause Scenario & Strategies Tool 
• Stop Sign Prompts 
• Social Stories 
• Caregiver Log 
• Sample IEP Letter. (Never allow restraint/seclusion practices into any IEP as this increases associated risks.) 
• General Awareness Letter: share with schools, homeowner’s association, law enforcement agencies, physicians, etc. 
• Caregiver Resources

The first responder toolkit contains:

• Autism Overview 
• Autism Behaviors  
• Autism Wandering Statistics  
• First Responder Checklist 
• First Responder Resource Sheet   
• First Responder Tips   
• First Responder Notification Form   
• Search & Rescue Guidelines For Missing Persons With Special Needs (NCMEC) 
• Print-and-hang Flyer 

Tips to Help Prevent Wandering and Wandering-Related Tragedies

Six Tips to Help Prevent Wandering and Wandering-Related Tragedies (and other resources) from Autism Speaks: http://www.autismspeaks.org/wandering-resources

Helpful Tips from Parents and Families: http://www.autismspeaks.org/family-services/autism-safety-project/wandering-tips

Why is My Child Eloping and What Can I Do?

A helpful article by a BCBA that discusses some tips on reducing eloping based on the reasons why a child elopes in the first place.

http://www.autism-community.com/why-is-my-child-eloping-and-what-can-i-do/

Resource from Amazon.com:

Danger Is...? (Autism Is...? Books) (Volume 2)

 

 

The Danger of Elopement/Wandering

According to Autism Speaks, a survey on wandering and elopement was recently conducted with parents of children with autism. In this survey, almost 50% of the families reported that their child had gone missing for long enough to cause a significant safety concern. Clearly, elopement (leaving an area without notifying others), poses a potential danger to individuals with autism.

To further illustrate the danger, parents in this survey reported that over 1/3 of the children who elope are rarely or never able to communicate identifying information, such as their name or phone number. These families also report some "close calls:" 2/3 of parents reported that their children had a close call with a traffic injury and approximately 1/3 reported a close call with a potential drowning incident. (Note: please see last month's issue of Positively Autism for water safety resources).

In addition to the danger to the individuals with autism themselves, 58% of the parents of children who elope reported that this was the most stressful behavior related to their child's autism. Elopement can also prevent families from attending activities outside the home due to fear of the child wandering off (62% of families of children who elope) and can disrupt parental sleep because of fear of elopement (40% of parents surveyed). Despite these family concerns, half of the families of children who elope reported that they had not received any advice or guidance from professionals about how to address elopement.

In this blog post series, we hope to provide some resources to help both families and educators address this important issue.

References

"New Data Shows Half of All Children with Autism Wander and Bolt from Safe Places" - http://www.autismspeaks.org/news/news-item/new-data-shows-half-all-children-autism-wander-and-bolt-safe-places

"What is Elopement?" by Abby Twyman, M.Ed., BCBA: http://www.autism-community.com/what-is-elopement/

June 2014 Topic: Autism and Wandering/Elopement

Elopement refers to a person leaving an area without notifying others, which may place that individual in a dangerous situation. Elopement, which is similar to the term wandering, is a common issue faced by the families and educators of people with autism.

This month, we'll continue our series on Autism and Safety by focusing on resources and information to help with elopement and wandering among students with autism.


Reference

"What is Elopement?" by Abby Twyman, M.Ed., BCBA: http://www.autism-community.com/what-is-elopement/