Study: Half of Children With Autism Flee Safety

Photo by *Clairity* at Flickr Creative Commons.

By Dalia Colón -

A new study confirms what many families already know: that some people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) wander, bolt or “elope” from safe places. Several advocacy groups partnered with the Interactive Autism Network to survey more than 850 families of children with ASD.

The preliminary findings:

• Among children with ASD ages 4 to 10, roughly half had attempted to flee safety. That’s almost four times higher than the rate for their unaffected siblings.

• Of children who attempted to flee, nearly half succeeded and went missing “long enough to cause parents significant concern about their safety,” the report states. Two-thirds said their children had... READ MORE >