Eloping

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Hello,
I'm new here. I have an 8 year old son. His primary diagnosis is classic autism. He eloped yesterday. He managed to climb out of his bedroom window. Of course upon realizing our son missing we immediately called 911. He was gratefully found safe albeit about 5 miles away from home in a highly busy traffic area near a freeway on-ramp. I know we're lucky he is home safe. This is not the first time we've been this lucky. He has eloped from school as well, albeit a couple of years ago.

My son has no concept of fear, we've tried everything we can think of to teach him when/why it is appropriate to be outside and how to ask for help if he needs it. Obviously this is not going to work at this point because unfortunately he truly does not understand that what he did is indeed truly wrong and dangerous. Danger does not exist in his world. I wish it did.

We know this is something that many people on the spectrum go through and sometimes they are able to find ways to work through it and other times not. In either case I'm wondering for those whom have been there themselves either as a parent, or as a person going through it themselves what can we do to help secure the safety of our son?

We have alarms & locks on the windows & doors at home but of course he has figured out the locks on everything and unfortunately our landlord has forbade us from installing anything else on either the windows or doors.

Thank you all for your time.

I've recently read here about GPS clothing ...

Sorry, I don't have much more at the moment than that, but I do know we have other families who have been through the same issue and will be able to offer much better support than I can.

Your son sounds like mine. So I understand your fears. My son magically stopped when we moved to a house. He also started to share a full size bed with his younger brother for a couple years. Truthfully, I do not know what all a sudden clicked, but am very grateful.

I would suggest a Med Alert bracelet, along with a GPS anklet.