NEARLY HALF OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM WANDER OR “BOLT” FROM SAFE PLACES
Children with autism are four times more likely to wander than their unaffected siblings
A new study published today in the journal Pediatrics (Epub ahead of print) found that nearly half of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are reported to wander or “bolt,” and more than half of these children go missing. Led by researchers from the Interactive Autism Network (IAN), the nation’s largest online autism research initiative and a project of the Kennedy Krieger Institute, this study provides the most comprehensive estimate of elopement occurrence in a United States community-based sample of more than 1,200 children with ASD.
“Since the launch of IAN, we have heard from families of children with autism that their children often place themselves in danger by wandering or eloping,” says Dr. Paul Law, senior author and director of the IAN Project