Want to connect with other special needs families? Come join the conversation at April 7, 2009
Try This Tuesday #38: Safety Awareness
Welcome to another Try This Tuesday. For details on how to participate, please check out the welcome post. If you'd like to join in but aren't sure what to write about, try the topic suggestion for this week: Safety Awareness.
How are you teaching your child to be safe, whether it is around traffic, water, strangers, or some other area? Are there situations where you have seen your child show he can handle himself well, or things you are still working on?
Our Experience
As much as it pains me to admit it, my son does not really understand many of the common dangers that most kids have a grasp on by his age.
Even though he is able to tell me about certain safety issues that have been talked about at school, like being careful when crossing streets or encountering strangers, I really wouldn't trust him to pass a real-life test in either subject.
At age seven, I pretty much don't let him out of my sight or more than an arms' length away from me, unless he is in someone else's care, such as at school or church. Whenever I do, I generally regret it because he either isn't paying attention to where he is going and runs into people or he takes off to look at something interesting without telling me.
Interestingly enough, the topic of safety awareness actually came up last night as I was meeting with some other parents of the boys in Michael's group therapy session, and the facilitator is planning to pass our concerns on so the psychologist can cover the subject in group.
I am looking forward to hearing what approach she takes, but in the meantime, I did find a few interesting sources of information.
Some Resources
- Safety Tips – Special Needs:Tips on a variety of safety issues related to children with various disabilities from Safe Kids USA.
- Safe and Sound Campaign: This section of the Autism Society of America's website includes information on Safety in the Home, as well as tips on disaster preparedness and information for first responders such as police and fire departments.
- Developing Personal Safety Skills in Children With Disabilities by Frieda Briggs: From the description, part 1 of this book covers information relevant to the parents and teachers and part 2 includes curriculum ideas and safety skill exercises.
- Autism Life Skills: From Communication and Safety to Self-Esteem and More by Chantal Sicile-Kira: Having read her first book and found it very helpful, I am very interested to pick up a copy of this one for myself as well.
Please join in and share the creative solutions YOU have found to your own challenges, or feel free to post your own challenge for input from others.
Topic Suggestion for Next Week: Nurturing Your Relationships. How do you make the time to connect with other adults and maintain the important relationships in your life?
As the host of Try This Tuesday, Trish shares some of the solutions she has found to make life easier and invites you to do the same. You can also find her blogging at Another Piece of the Puzzle and Autism Interrupted.
Filed under Resources, Tips and Tricks, Trish, Try This Tuesday by
Comments on Try This Tuesday #38: Safety Awareness »
Maddy @ 12:19 am
it's o.k. I'm thinking not lurking. I feel obliged to say something positive but I also need to be honest.
The truth is that even now they are not 'traffic aware / spatially aware,' so for the time being vigilance and constant supervision anywhere outside is still the norm. I still can't predict when something will 'set them off' and I need to react and fast.
Obviously I'm well practiced at many of the triggers but there is still always the unexpected.
I'm still painfully aware that one wrong move from some random thing could have all too dire consequences.
Best wishes
Lisa @ 7:26 am
Those are good tips.
A great web site. Do 2 Learn. My Joey loves it and it's helpful to me as well
Territory Mom @ 11:29 am
My son has no fear. I have to know where he is at all times. We avoid certain places unless I have extra hands with me to grab him in a hurry. He is learning about safety at school and they are doing a better job with it than me. He told me, "if I run in the street I'll hit by a car", that statement makes a little nervous. I'll be sure and check out the safety tips. Thanks
Tamie @ 3:34 pm
Thanks for this post, I am going to check it all out. My 5-year-old has autism and has started "eloping" a lot more lately. We had our first call to 911 this weekend when he got out of the house alone and took off on his scooter.
We couldn't find him for at least 20 minutes and all I could imagine was him getting hit by a car because he has no concept of danger and wouldn't bother to look. Thank God we found him safe, but I definitely feel the need to learn more about keeping him that way…
~Tamie
Julie @ 5:53 pm
Oh, I am so going to refer back to this post. I was a little encouraged to read that you also keep your son in eye sight or within arms reach. I thought I was the only one, but whenever I relax a little bit, I see that it really IS necessary for him to be closely supervised and I'm NOT being paranoid. Sigh. Thanks.
Barbara @ 10:44 pm
I've seen on another blog…the child with autism, too young to really understand, has a monitering bracelet. The technology exists to at least be able to track children if they wander.
Danette @ 10:14 am
Trish – this is such a great topic, I'm going to have to come back after vacation and post on this. I feel like I'm being paranoid sometimes (and dh thinks I'm overprotective) but with kids who don't have the same natural awareness of potential danger as other kids, it's hard not to be that way.
Trish @ 11:48 am
Thanks all who posted and commented. It's so good that we can have a place like this to share ideas but also to support each other.
I find it easy to let myself live in fear that something bad will happen, when in reality bad things can happen to anyone and we can't always predict them. How much better to realize we all do the best we can and enjoy every moment we have with our children.