Resource Spotlight

Summer is the perfect time to teach your child safety habits that will build a foundation for independent living. It is also an excellent time to revisit and update your family safety, school safety, and crisis plans. Autism presents a range of safety challenges across the lifespan, whether it’s wandering incidents in childhood, cyberbullying during adolescence, or inappropriate police interactions in older adulthood.

OAR recognizes the importance of preparing for these and many other safety issues. Our free and comprehensive safety guide, Life Journey Through Autism: A Guide to Safety, offers practical strategies for caregivers and first responders to help prevent threatening situations from taking place and includes action plans to address problems head-on when incidents do happen. The safety guide also includes tools that can be readily used to communicate with first responders, teach your child critical safety skills, and more.

Since 2015, A Guide to Safety has reached the bookshelves of more than 8,000 homes, classrooms, fire and police departments, autism organizations, and libraries. We encourage you to order your copy of the guide, which is available at no cost in paperback copy and in PDF download. If you know of any parent support groups, conferences, or workshops that may benefit from this resource and would like to request a bulk order, please contact us at programs@researchautism.org with the subject line “Safety guides.”