Dear John,
1 in 34 boys are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder—and nearly half of them will wander away from a safe environment.
At the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) we understand the constant anxiety that families of children with autism feel because we receive hundreds of missing child reports involving kids on the spectrum every year. Thankfully in the story of 2-year-old Ethan Adeyemi—the right person was there at the right time…
“Keith Rollins was just one of tens of thousands of Washington-area commuters that cold, rainy morning, steering his postal truck north through heavy traffic on I-95.
In a split second, Rollins happened to glance to his right and thought he saw something. No way, he thought. But what if it was? He pulled over to the shoulder and grabbed his cellphone.
“911, what’s your emergency?” the Howard County dispatcher in Maryland asked, as cars could be heard whooshing by Rollins on the wet highway in the background. “Um, I’m hoping I’m not just seeing this, but it looks like I see...” click here to read more.
John, despite the current pandemic and quarantines, children with autism are still inclined to wander because they can exhibit a diminished sense of fear combined with a heightened sense of curiosity. These children may seek places of special interest to them such as water, active roadways, construction sites, or train tracks—sometimes with fatal consequences.
Stories like Ethan’s are all too common in the lives of families of children with autism. That’s why NCMEC has created resources for families, law enforcement, and for the public to help educate them on how to respond when a child with autism is missing. There are steps we can take to help more children come home safely. These resources are linked below.
As Americans all over the country fight the COVID-19 pandemic, at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, we continue to help find missing children, reduce child exploitation, and prevent victimization.
Thank you for your support and we hope that you and your families are all safe and healthy.
Sincerely,
Your Friends at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
www.missingkids.org
(703) 837-6420 | 
