Oct. 8, 2012 A new study published October 8 in the journal
Pediatrics found that nearly half of children with autism
spectrum disorders (ASD) are reported to wander or "bolt," and
more than half of these children go missing. Led by researchers
from the Interactive Autism Network (IAN), the nation's largest
online autism research initiative and a project of the Kennedy
Krieger Institute, this study provides the most comprehensive
estimate of elopement occurrence in a United States community-
based sample of more than 1,200 children with ASD. "Since the
launch of IAN, we have heard from families of children with
autism that their children often place themselves in danger by
wandering or eloping," says Dr. Paul Law, senior author and
director of the IAN Project at the Kennedy Krieger Institute.
"These are the first published findings in the U.S. that provide
an estimate of the number of children with ASD who not only
wander or elope, but go missing long enough to cause real
concern." Participants in the study in