1. Because children with autism have not learned these fears the family must be careful to keep knives away, watch for traffic and other common hazards that other children will 'naturally' avoid.
Drawers where knives are kept and doors to cabinets where poisonous chemicals are kept should all have child safety latches. This is a recommended precaution for all homes with young, curious children, but these safety features will be required much longer for children with autism.
2. Doors need to be kept locked to prevent the child wandering away. For safety, it is recommended to install locks high up on the door out of the child's reach. Parents and other caregivers need to be much more vigilant about repeatedly checking where the child is.
3. Try to maintain a routine. Remember the scene in the movie, "Rain Man", where the brother with autism starts rocking and screaming because it is 3 p.m. and he must see cartoons?
Blastland (can you tell I liked this book), describes his son,
"Joe, like many children with autism –aches for familiarity. Endless repetition is a hallmark of his everyday life: the same songs, same games, same food, same routines."
One reason some researchers believe that children with autism desire routine is they have difficulty creating categories and generalizing. They have to learn from personal experience, not from talking to other people, and each experience is unique. So, a child who learns a black bull is to be stayed away from would not necessarily transfer that lesson to a brown bull. When shown a picture of a bull in a book, or a toy bull, he would not connect those in any way with that big huge scary thing out in the pasture. Because each new experience has to be learned about directly, change is much harder for children with autism.
NEXT: Method for teaching children with autism and other severe behavior disorders