This document provides information on preventing and responding to wandering and bolting behaviors in individuals with autism spectrum disorders. It discusses developing safety plans involving securing the home, ensuring the individual can be identified, making programs secure, creating emergency plans, educating the individual, and responding in crisis situations. Prevention involves multiple steps like home safety measures, identification methods, school safety plans, neighborhood alerts, and individual education on safety skills, coping strategies, and emergency responses. Response to a crisis centers around immediately searching likely areas and contacting authorities to issue alerts.

1. Preventing and Responding
to Wandering and Bolting
Behaviors

2. This program utilizes materials with
permission from
The AWAARE Collaboration

3. Workshop Overview
 Introductions
 Background Information on Wandering and Bolting
 Why do kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders wander and bolt?
 Prevention: Safety in the home environment
 Working with schools, camps, and other programs
 First Responders: Getting information to the front lines
 Teaching My Child
 In an emergency: Steps for dealing with a crisis situation
 Creating a family plan for my child

4. Introductions

5. What is wandering?
Wandering is when a person who
requires some level of supervision to
be safe leaves a safe and supervised
place and exposes themselves to
potential danger.

6. Potential Dangers:
Water
Traffic
Falls / Injuries
Extreme temperatures
Strangers

7. Background Information
 49% of kids with ASD engage in wandering and / or bolting behaviors.
 Drowning is the #1 danger to kids 14 and under who wander / elope
 Wandering behavior is rated as being the most stressful ASD – related
behavior by the majority of parents whose children wander or bolt
(58%)
 40% of parents whose children wander or bolt report losing sleep over
worrying / fear
 The majority of families with children who wander or bolt report missing
or purposefully abstaining from activities outside the home because of
the behavior

8. It is important to communicate with
your child’s pediatrician about
wandering and bolting behaviors.
 Rule out any potential medical factors contributing to wandering
 You pediatrician can add a diagnostic code for wandering to your
child’s diagnosis of autism.
- Insurance coverage
- May be a helpful addition to a request for an Amber Alert
- Underscores the need for separate consideration of
bolting behavior in your child’s IEP

9. Why People with ASD Wander?
 There are two types of behaviors related to
wandering, goal – directed wandering and non
– goal directed wandering.

10. Goal Directed Wandering
Goal directed wandering refers to leaving
a supervised area in order to pursue
something attractive or obtain a desired
item.

11. Examples
 The child wants something
 The child wants to see something (sign, water, electronics, locks)
 The child receives sensory input (song, TV, sparkling body of water)
 The child sees something and is distracted by it
 The child seeks out attention or stimulation at a time when adults
caregivers are very busy (think school parties, recess tim at school,
family gatherings, siblings’ homework time, etc)

12. Bolting or Fleeing
 Non – goal directed wandering is also referred to as bolting or
fleeing. This refers to suddenly running or bolting, usually to quickly
get away from something. Bolting is associated with the fight or
flight response.

13. Examples of Triggers
 Unexpected exposure to sensory overload (loud noises, camera
flashes, etc)
 Belief or fear that something negative will occur
 Something that is negative to the child that adults might not see
right away (constant exposure to social settings, work, or other
expectations at school, changes in temperature, rooms with echos,
bullying or teasing by peers)

14. People with ASD may engage in
one or both of wandering and
bolting behaviors.

15. Figure out WHEN, WHERE, AND WHY

16. PREVENTION

17. At every step along the way in the
PREVENTION process, think WHY,
WHERE, HOW, WHEN, WHAT, AND
WITH WHOM?

18. Step #1: Secure Your Home
 Visual reminders, such as stop signs on doors and windows
 Double sided key lock deadbolts, hook and eye locks, and key pad
exit locks
 Home security system
 Battery – operated window and door alarms
 Window guards or protectors
 Motion detectors
 Baby monitors
 Fenced in yard with child – proof latches

19. Step #2: Ensure Your Child Can Be
Located and Identified
Can your child provide personally
identifying information? Will they be
willing to provide it to a stranger or a
policeman? Will they approach a
stranger? Will they run away from a
community helper who asks them a
question?

20. Examples:
 Medical Alert
 Wearable Tattoo
 Whose Shoe? ID or Shoe Sticker
 Child Locator Alarm
 Wallet Cards
 Eye – Zon Personal GPS
 Child tracking apps found in many phones and some games

21. Safety Note
 Many tracking devices do not work when they are submerged in
water. Radio frequency trackers and some of the newer GPS
trackers on the market have addressed this safety concern. This is
one safety feature that varies by product and manufacturer. Do
not assume that a device will work in water.

22. Service Dogs
 Some families have been very pleased with service dogs that are
trained to prevent their child from wandering.
 Some families have been extremely disappointed.

23. Step #3: Make schools, camps, and
other programs secure.
 Put safety concerns about wandering / bolting
into your child’s IEP
 Visit program locations to look at the
environment and physical structures and identify
potential hazards
 Review schedules and activities with staff.
Discuss your safety concerns with them and work
together to identify solutions.

24. Adding concerns to the IEP
 Put your request in writing.
 Describe your child’s situation with detail.
 Obtain medical documentation that your child wanders / bolts and
is at risk.
 Concerns for child safety should be directly written into the IEP.
 Concerns should also be reflected in the Behavior Intervention Plan
(BIP)
 A written plan for responding to wandering and bolting should be
written into your child’s Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP)
 Your school should have copies of forms to provide to first
responders

25. If you do not believe that your child is
safe in a given location, then do not
leave your child in that location until
your safety concerns are addressed.
Communication with your child’s care
providers is key.

26. If your child engages in wandering or
bolting behaviors, it is a behavior deserving
of focused attention by a team of
professionals.
Parents Teachers and Principals
BCBA Occupational Therapists
Counselors Speech Therapists
Doctors Physical Therapists

27. The focus of the team should be
both safety and education.
 Devise a plan for monitoring the child and ensuring safety
 Minimize or remove environmental triggers
 Devise a plan for presenting children who bolt with alternatives to
bolting
 Devise strategies, and, if needed, objectives in a BIP or IEP to assist
your child with remaining in a safe location

28. Step #4: Create a Safety Plan

29. Determine your response to bolting
and wandering in advance.
 Decide in advance how you will respond to your child should
wandering or bolting behavior occur.
 It is helpful to have an idea of the function of the behavior before
determining what your response will be.
 For kids who are bolting / fleeing / escaping from situations,
consider that you want them to feel safe and comfortable reaching
out to you or other people for help.
 Even if your child tends to intentionally bolt while laughing, act in
appropriately, or treat bolting like a game, consider that these
might be signs of emotional dysregulation.

30. Step # : Alert Your Neighbors
 Informing your neighbors is often a difficult decision
 You need to decide what and how much to tell neighbors
 For some parents, filling out and distributing “Neighbor Forms” is
comfortable
 Other parents may wish to minimize the amount of shared
information.
 It is advised that parents provide the neighbors with some amount
of information, as neighbors will often be the first people to see a
child who has wandered or bolted from home.

31. Step # : Alert First Responders
 Providing first responders with important information before an
emergency occurs can improve response times and outcomes
 Provide your local police department with a copy of your child’s first
responder plan
 Keep a copy of the first responder plan on hand at all times, to
quick access in case of an emergency.
 Your child’s school should also have a copy of the first responder
plan in a convenient location.

32. Step #5: Educate Your Child
 Helping your child learn to stay in a supervised area, regulate their
emotions, and practice healthy coping skills are all necessary parts
of a solid prevention program.
 Never rely solely on educational methods to keep your child safe.
The child’s safety is the responsibility of parents and assigned
caregivers.

33. Educational strategies for children:
* It is important to communicate with your child at their individual level
about bolting. Never ignore bolting because it is a difficult topic. Take
advantage of opportunities to discuss safety, and discuss safety often.

34. Practice Routines
 Stopping at doors.
 Stopping at curbs
 Keeping seatbelt on until adult gives a cue to remove.
 For bolting, preteach and practice taking routes to safe places /
people at home, school

35. Use Social Stories FREQUENTLY
 Keep it simple
 Allow your child to assist in the creation as much as possible
 The story should contain:
 2-5 sentences describing the appropriate behavior in a social
situation
 1 sentence describing positive, observable appropriate responses
 1 sentence describing the viewpoint of others as they react to the
situation
 1 sentence describing a commonly shared value or opinion
 1 sentence that reminds the individual of the appropriate behavior
in the social situation

36. Sample Social Stories

37. Read Social Stories OFTEN
 The largest mistakes made when using social stories is that social
stories are not read often enough or they are read after an
undesirable behavior has occurred.
 Social Stories are called an ANTECEDENT INTERVENTION. The best
time to use Social Stories is BEFORE a child has engaged in
wandering or bolting
 Example: When going to a busy place, a parent reads a social story
about staying near mom and dad to the child before getting out of
the car.

38. Teach Coping Skills
 Identify calming routines, places, people, or objects
 Ensure that some of these things are available wherever your child
goes, or that your child has a plan or method of accessing calming
stimuli
 Use social stories, cartooning, and real and fictitious problem –
solving scenarios to teach coping skills before problems occur
 Help your child to successfully use practiced coping skills when
possible
 After situations are over and your child is calm, talk to him or her
about how things went. Praise any efforts that your child makes to
practice the targeted skill. Revise coping strategies as needed.

39. Teach a Plan B
 Your child or teen needs to know what to do in the event that they
have already wandered or bolted.
 Common strategies for helping kids with ASD navigate real world
situations are social stories, child – drawn cartoon strips, and making
lists of procedures. Work with your child to think about what they
would do if they were out one day and got lost.
 Avoid saying “if you bolt” or “if you run away”
 Help your child brainstorm safe people, safe places, reasonable
ways of identifying help or finding home.

40. Teach About Community Helpers
 Community helper identification is a start, but it is nowhere near
enough.
Who are they?
What does their uniform look like?
How can they help you?
Where can you find them?
Role play conversations, including approaching and
initiating conversations.

41. Teach About Strangers
 Strangers represent a danger to children who have wandered and
bolted, especially to children who have an impaired sense of
danger or are overly friendly with others.

42. If it is age and situation
appropriate, teach about public
transportation .

43. After bolting and wandering.
 Work with your team of professionals to create a
plan for addressing bolting and wandering with
your child after it occurs.
 The response is situation specific and is linked to
your child’s specific behavioral history and
estimated reasons for wandering / bolting.

44. Teach Your Child to Swim
 Even good swimmers can get hurt or drown, but knowing how to
swim makes it more likely that a child who falls into water will be
able to get out.
 When your child has learned how to swim, inquire about the
possibility of completing a lesson with their clothing on.

45. Dealing with a Crisis

46. If your child is attracted to water,
search nearby water sources FIRST

47. After calling 911 . . .
 Enact your family emergency plan and begin searching the places
your child would most likely be attracted to
 Contact your emergency point person so that they can help you
fax your alert form to local law enforcement, contact your
neighbors, and make arrangements to care for your other children

48. On the phone with 911 . . .
 Clearly state your child’s name
 Tell them that your child has autism. State that they are endangered and that
they have no sense of danger.
 If your child has a radio frequency tracking number, provide it.
 Provide your child’s date of birth, height, weight, and other unique identifiers
 If your child is attracted to water, tell them to immediately dispatch personnel to
nearby areas of water
 Tell them when you noticed your child was missing and what clothing they were
wearing
 Request that an Amber Alert, Silver Alert, or Endangered Missing Advisory be issued
 Request that your child’s name and identifying information immediately be
entered into the National Crime Information Center’s Missing Person File