Learning About Autism

After my son wandered off 2 weeks ago and I spent 20 harrowing minutes living out the worst nightmare of my life as I frantically raced around the neighborhood barefoot I’ve become a lot more safety conscious and pay greater attention to the details. “Did the door get locked? Where is my son now? What is he doing? Can I hear him?”

Reading Parent Hacks this morning they had posted a pretty cool little item, a USB thumb drive with the emergency information on it for your child. Though the product was offered by a company for a fee this is nothing you can’t do in Microsoft Word or in Pages on a Mac. Just open a new text document and put all the pertinent information in it.

• Photographs (front, side, rear)
• Name, address, phone
• Emergency contact information
• Medical prescriptions
• Special medical needs, allergies
• Physician information
• Insurance information

When you’re done simply save it as a PDF and put it on a $10 thumb drive you can get from any Target or Walmart or office supply store. But if your child is autistic there’s a few more things you should do. Take the personal information of your child as well as his/her picture and make a “Missing” flyer. Note on the flyer any scars, marks or other traits that might make your child easily recognizable. If your child doesn’t talk put on the flyer in big, bold letters “Non-verbal Autistic”. Also note anything that he may be afraid of or that might scare him. If you’re child should wander off it’ll only take seconds to print and being able to show people your child and hand out the flyer is invaluable. Also photos of your child from the front, side and rear are immensely helpful. I know from personal experience. In my run around the neighborhood I had nothing but my racing mind and my neighbor who was able to offer a better description than I of my own child.

Now that you’ve made a flyer of your child print one out, fold it up and put it in your wallet or purse. Make sure that every couple of weeks you take a new photos and add them to the thumb drive and your flyer then print a new copy of your flyer. This is VERY important. You child is growing and changing rapidly and slight changes to you are major differences in appearance to strangers.

It’s a good idea also to take the “missing” off your flyer, print a copy and give it to your neighbors. Especially the ones who can tell you which neighbors are on the rocks and which are cooking crack in their basement. Let them know that the child should never be wandering alone and if they see them to please grab them and call you or bring them home.

Now that we’re all done we can rest a little easier. Lets hope we never have to use our flyers.

For more information on safety for autistic kids check out autismriskmanagement.com

Tags: Safety //