Data Collection on Autism-Related Wandering Begins

Today, the Interactive Autism Network (IAN), with support from leading autism advocacy groups including the Autism Science Foundation, launched the first major survey to study the experience of wandering and elopement, or escaping, among individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The tendency of individuals with ASD to wander or “bolt” puts them at risk of trauma, injury or even death, yet information on this critical safety issue is lacking.

Since 2007, the IAN Project, www.ianproject.org, has connected thousands of individuals on the autism spectrum and their families with researchers nationwide to accelerate the pace of autism research through an innovative online initiative housed at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. With more than 36,000 participants today, the IAN Project has the largest pool of autism data in the world.

“Although similar behavior has been studied in Alzheimer’s disease and autism advocates identify elopement as a top priority, virtually no research has been conducted on this phenomenon in ASD,” said Dr. Paul Law, Director of the IAN Project at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. “The new survey will provide vital information to families, advocates and policy makers alike as they work to keep individuals with ASD safe.”

The survey will help researchers begin to answer important questions:

  • How often do individuals with ASD attempt to elope? How often do they succeed? Under what circumstances?
  • Which individuals with ASD are most at risk? At what age?
  • What burden do efforts to thwart elopement behavior place on caregivers?
  • What can be done to protect individuals with ASD and support their families?

To understand elopement and wandering behavior in ASD, researchers need information both from families of individuals who do and do not wander and elope. In order to determine who is at risk, all families in the U.S. autism community are encouraged to participate in the survey, whether or not their loved one engages in these behaviors. Survey participants must be enrolled in the IAN Project (to register, visit www.ianresearch.org) and be the parent or guardian of a child or dependent adult with ASD.

Due to the urgent need for this information by the autism community, preliminary data will be made available on April 20, 2011, provided the necessary sample size is reached for the research survey.

This survey is funded by the Autism Research InstituteAutism Science FoundationAutism Speaks and Global Autism Collaboration. The IAN Project is also supported by the Simons Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

2 Replies to “Data Collection on Autism-Related Wandering Begins”

  1. Hi my name is Keryn Harrex, I am a second year Occupational therapy student at Otago Polytechnic and as part of the course I have to do a blog for our participation in learning paper and talk about some of the learning we have covered in our tutorials. Another question the tutor wants us to talk about are topics we are interested in learning more about. For me Autism is an interesting subject because I got to work at a high school last year for my fieldwork placement and there were quiet a few teenagers there that have autism and I found it very rewarding working, knowing that we were making a difference in their lives, but it also had it challenging times as well when students were having bad days and didn’t want to participate with others, be there at all. One boy in particular comes to mind now because he was a wanderer and we would have to watch him pretty closely or he would be out the door.
    One method the teachers used to keep him happy was using a ninetendo Wii cause he loved playing games, and it kepted attention for long periods of time.
    Ok well thankyou for sharing this information, it has been very interesting reading and learning from it.
    Kind regards
    Keryn Harrex

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