We had a few close calls with water safety and potential drowning early on with our child with Autism. Each chief cause was elopement. One instance stemmed from having a great time at a public swimming pool and our child not wanting to leave. Upon exit, our child (four-years-old at the time) broke free of our grasp and jumped in the deep end of the crowded pool - right between a very busy diving board and waterslide.

This was a wake-up call and we started working with professionals to provide essential water survival skills. Our child has attended 30-minute swim sessions with an instructor at the YMCA for four years now. We have seen strides towards improvement and elopement issues have considerably diminished; but we remain abundantly cautious both at home and on the road.

Facts about Autism and Drowning
Drowning is among the leading causes of death of individuals with autism. Please visit http://nationalautismassociation.org/resources/autism-safety-facts/swimming-instructions/ for a list of YMCA locations that offer special needs swimming lessons, and be sure that your child’s last lesson is with clothes and shoes on.

Overall Mortality
· In 2008, Danish researchers found that the mortality risk among the autism population is twice as high as the general population
· In 2001, a California research team found elevated deaths in autism and attributed it to several causes, including seizures and accidents such as suffocation and drowning

Wandering/Elopement
· Roughly half, or 48%, of children with an ASD attempt to elope from a safe environment, a rate nearly four times higher than their unaffected siblings
· In 2009, 2010, and 2011, accidental drowning accounted for 91% total U.S. deaths reported in children with an ASD ages 14 and younger subsequent to wandering/elopement.
· More than one third of ASD children who wander/elope are never or rarely able to communicate their name, address, or phone number
· Two in three parents of elopers reported their missing children had a “close call” with a traffic injury
· 32% of parents reported a “close call” with a possible drowning
· Wandering was ranked among the most stressful ASD behaviors by 58% of parents of elopers
· 62% of families of children who elope were prevented from attending/enjoying activities outside the home due to fear of wandering
· 40% of parents had suffered sleep disruption due to fear of elopement
· Children with ASD are eight times more likely to elope between the ages of 7 and 10 than their typically-developing siblings
· Half of families with elopers report they had never received advice or guidance about elopement from a professional
· Only 19% had received such support from a psychologist or mental health professional
· Only 14% had received guidance from their pediatrician or another physician

Source: Interactive Autism Network Research Report: Elopement and Wandering (2011)
Source: National Autism Association, Lethal Outcomes in ASD Wandering (2012)

Music license: All music used in the video is royalty free and under licensed agreement with StoryBlocks, circa 2019, and/or the iMovie music library.

Images within the introduction are courtesy of Covenant Photography.