Running away

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Hello All, I am new to the boards. My son is 8.5 with mild/moderate autism, communication disorder, and sensory issues. He is intellegent, although he hasn't had his IQ tested, he learns very well. He still has a lot of trouble with expressive language, but his receptive language is age appropriate. He has been a runner since he was 4; this summer, the day after school let out he ran out the back door (we have locks on the top of the doors, but I had it down fixing it and he took the opportunity to run) he got so far from me I had to call the police, we found him 35 minutes later at the edge of our neighborhood.... scariest thing ever. The school hnadles it pretty well, the teacher and I are in constant contact and we are always working on things to try to deter this behaviour. After careful observation, it seems he does this for a few reasons - sometimes as avoidance of an unwanted task, sometimes out of boredom, and sometimes out of fear. We are using positive practice and redirection to deal with it; he seems to thrive on negative attention, so these are the most effective.

So, my question is..... do you have any other suggestions? I worry so much about the future and when he gets too big for me to keep him in the house or becomes too fast.... is this a behaviour that he may outgrow by his teens, or is it most likely we will deal with this forever?

Thanks for any advice!

I have my theories but take them with a grain of salt. I like to wonder off and travel outside of my home from time to time. Yes getting lost would be inevitable in some situations but sometimes I wonder if some autistic kids who do run off really do know their way around. I think in a way some of them do know what they're doing, where they're going and when they intend on coming back.

Perhaps you may want to try getting him a cell phone or put a child tracking device in him. That way if he does wonder off and get lost the two of you will be able to communicate where you're both at. I wouldn't recommend restraining him from going out unless you want to deal with the meltdowns and such.

If he's bored, maybe you should take him out more to places he would like roaming around. Or maybe the two of you should go on one walk together so you get a sense of what he's like when he wonder out.

Other parents of runners have said that their children tended to stop running (or run much less) as they got older, because their communication skills improved, so they were able to communicate what they wanted better. The running seemed to be something that was done because the children couldn't communicate what they wanted.

When my father in law was in the "wandering" stage of alzheimers it was nearly impossible, at times, for my mother in law to keep him in the house.
1) She installed simple catch locks at the tops of all the doors. (I know, alzheimers isn't autism.)
2) She called a local security company and had them put an alarm on her house to warn of anyone breaking out.
3) She put up a picture of him describing the situation at the post office, along with contact numbers, so if anyone found him they would call her and let her know his location.
4) She got one of those "medic alert" things that she could wear so that if she was following and couldn't get him home she could contact help. (She lived far from a cell phone tower.)
I really hope the ideas help some and that you don't need to use them.