The picture of Bradyn on the beach I posted yesterday is from our family vacation to Gulf Shores this past March. We had a great time, and he really loved it. I have "liked" different pages on FB pertaining to Gulf Shores since then, to keep up with the goings on of our family's vacation spot. A few weeks ago notices about a missing 8 year old non-verbal autistic boy started showing up on my newsfeed. As I read the story, my heart just sank. He was vacationing with his family on the beach not far from where we had just been. After spending some time at the beach, they all went back to their condo to take a nap. When his parents woke up, he was missing. I followed the story closely, and learned quite a bit. Before this, I had never heard of how autistic children tend to wander. Many parents of autistic children shared their stories about their children wandering. I got chills as I realized we have had similar experiences with our son. I just never related it to his ASD before this. Sadly, after 2 days of searching, the missing boy's body was spotted washing up on the shore less than a mile from where he was staying with his family. How terribly sad. We can only be thankful that his parents didn't have to leave without him. Without ever knowing what happened to him. He was a beautiful little boy, and he left quite an impression on my family. We will never forget little Owen Black.Through this tragedy, our family learned how to better serve and protect our own son. He has had a history darting off, wandering into neighbor's garages or sandboxes while we're all outside, opening the locked doors to our house, and even our vacation house when we were in Gulf Shores. Luckily the dog usually runs out of the door before he does, so he yells "Oh no! Sugar ran away!" and we end up going after the dog instead of him. And even though we have explained to him that this behavior is dangerous for him, his younger siblings and the dog, it just never sank in.
Following this tragedy, we found a lot of useful information in a statement released by the National Autism Association concerning wandering autistic children. One very useful tool is called the Big Red Safety Toolkit. We got a really good idea from this toolkit that has worked out really well for our son. We printed little red stop signs (two on a letter size paper), laminated them, and taped them at his eye level on all the doors leading out of our house. Bradyn in particular really likes stops signs. He always insists that I stop at every stop sign he sees while we are in town. So we explained to him, and our 4 year old daughter Nataley, that these stops signs mean you need to stop. Do not proceed, do not open the doors or leave the house without an adult. It has worked great. In fact, today I was in the kitchen doing dishes when Nataley and Bradyn where standing at the sliding glass door just off the dining room. Nataley was trying to unlock it when Bradyn told her, "No Nataley! We don't leave the house without mommy." I was so proud of him, and I praised him and rewarded him right away. I also reminded Nataley what the red stop sign meant. This is one simple and easily applied solution to a life threatening problem. So I just had to share. Here's to keeping 'em safe!
