Guest post and Competition: A safe day out for a child with Aspergers

Days out with your children don’t have to be stressful and a safe day out for a child with Asperger’s doesn’t have to be stressful either.

A close relative of mine has four children. He has two girls and two boys. All of the kids are happy, loving and lots of fun. Both girls go to mainstream schools. They have no difficulties whatsoever, but they certainly understand that everybody is different and that we all have our own challenges in life. One of his sons is autistic and the other has Asperger’s syndrome. Tom who is autistic needs to be monitored pretty much most of the time and to look at him you know that he is autistic and the majority of people do make allowances for that. Steve on the other hand, is the older of the brothers, he has Asperser’s syndrome. To look at him you would not know he has it.

When the family go out for the day, all of them take turns to mind Tom as he does wonder off and no matter how many times that they tell him he still does it. Steve does not normally wonder off but becomes extremely engrossed in something and does not realise that everyone else has moved on. There have been numerous occasions that my cousin or his wife and even I have gone racing back to the last place we were only to see Steve looking very bewildered. Because of his condition he will not ask anyone for help as he finds interaction difficult. So he is for want of a better phrase ‘left stranded’.

To overcome this and to be able to have a safe day out for a child with Asperger’s my cousin now uses a child locator with Steve. The child locator is made up of two pieces. One for Steve and one for my cousin or his wife, if they move off without Steve there is a chirping sound and they realise that Steve is not moving on with them. All of the children carry a personal alarm for kids anyway so the child locator was not something that was a big deal for Steve.

One of the other things that can sometimes a bit of a challenge for my cousins’ family when they have a day out is that both boys tire quicker than the girls and they tire at different rates themselves. To minimise the impact this can have on the day out my cousin plans the day ahead of time. He schedules meal and break times. This gives the boys some R and R time and means the boys have enough energy to keep up with the girls.

A safe day out for a child with Asperger’s is as simple as a day out with any other child.

Post written by Andrea mother and owner of Safe girl http://www.safe-girl.co.uk

The teddy bear child locator is on sale reduced from £29.99 to just £19.99 till Christmas

WIN A CHILD TEDDY BEAR LOCATOR

The lovely Andrea is offering you all the chance to win one of this fantastic safety child locators.

If entering please leave a contact email or tweeter idea so I can contact you in the event you win.

Compulsory entry 

All I’m asking you to do is visit Safe-Girl website and tell me what Alarm or Locator you like best

For an additional entry

ALL WILL BE VAILD ONLY BY AN ADDITIONAL COMMENT FOR EACH ACTION TAKEN

follow: Safe girl on twitter

Tweet: I want to win a child locator with clairelouise82 and @safety4girls Adding the ULR to this post.

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You don’t have to but it would be awesome if you visited and liked the Safe Girl facebook page

DISCLAIMER: This competition will close on the 15th December at midnight and will be drawn at random! Once notified the winner has 48hrs to email (email in the sidebar) there postal address. Prize will be sent direct from Safe girl. Competition is open world wide. 

Related articles

• revolutionary device designed to keep children from wandering could benefit families of children with autism (aspergersinfo.wordpress.com)
• Aspergers: The Best Thing to Ever Happen to Me (walterhouse.wordpress.com)
• Win a Mommy I’m here teddy bear child locator (aspergersinfo.wordpress.com)
• Asperger’s has made me vulnerable to predators (secretaspie.wordpress.com)
• Support for New Parents with Asperger’s (ask.metafilter.com)

Winner of a, ‘Mommy I’m here teddy bear locator’

Hi Everyone

Just a quick post to announce the winner of the giveaway, ‘Win a Mommy I’m here teddy bear locator’ 

And the Winner is….

Pamella Worrall

Congratulations Pamella

Please contact me and I will get your details to pass to the prize provider.

For full details of draw please click HERE

Prize ID	Winner ID	Public Info	Private Info	Random Sorting ID	Weight
1: Mommy I’m here teddy bear locator	14	Pamella Worrall		121adc4f-e8bc-4d82-bfde-007aa29d82d7

Related articles

• Win a Mommy I’m here teddy bear child locator (aspergersinfo.wordpress.com)

Win a Mommy I’m here teddy bear child locator

A round a month back I published a post sharing a review of a fantastic product, “The Mommy I’m here, Child Locator” I tested this awesome product that came in the design of a teddy bear that could be attached to a child’s belt or shoe, and was blown away by it! 

 The post was titled:

 ‘Revolutionary device designed to keep children from wandering could benefit families of children with autism’ 

 I had quite a few parents discuss the product review with me via twitter and Facebook, showing a real interest in how it works and some asked, “Was it as good as I made out?” The review was completely honest, I love the Locator and continue to use it on my 20 month old toddler.

 I’ve heard to many devastating stories of children getting lost, injured and some even losing their young lives, due to them wandering out off sight. These stories seem to involve very young children (pre-school age) and those with special needs (a lot of the time autism)

The wonderful creators of Mummy I’m here child locators are letting me run a competition to give one of these locators away… I’m frilled as this is a product that can potentially prevent a tragedy.

 Too read the review click HERE

To win a Mommy I’m here child locator all you have to do is

Follow Safegirl on Twitter

Visit the Safe girl site and check out the other alarms and locators in the fantastic kids range

 then come back and tell me what other product and design(s) you like also letting me know that you now follow Safegirl on twitter 

(Important, Please only send One comment informing me off all the above! Others will be deleted).

Optional extra entries  

Subscribe to this blog

or 

Follow me on Networkblogs (Link in sidebar)

A comment can be left for each one of the two optional extras meaning no more than three comments in total

The alarm is availably in two colours. The winner will be able to make a preference for which colour they want prior to the prize being dispatched.  

T&C

Please Make sure you leave appropriate contact details preferable twitter id or email. All those entering must be from the UK for delivery purposes. The competition will close on the 25th August 2011 Mid-night. The winner will be drawn randomly the following day. Please note that those who do not respond to claim their prize within 5 days of the drawing may lose their right to claim and the prize will be re-drawn.The prize will be sent to the winner directly from the retailer so addresses will need to be passed on for delivery purposes. 

Related articles

• revolutionary device designed to keep children from wandering could benefit families of children with autism (aspergersinfo.wordpress.com)

revolutionary device designed to keep children from wandering could benefit families of children with autism

Scrolling through my twitter timeline I came across a link that lead me to a site called, ‘Safe Girl Security’ who were promoting a really great product. To my delight some few weeks later I was approached and asked to review that same product, to share my views with my readers, to which I was happy to oblige!

Why?

Because I could see a great idea that could benefit families of young children especially those with autism

The Mommy I’m here teddy bear child locator is designed to give parents like me a little extra piece of mind!

 The locator is designed in a fun teddy bear design making it more appealing to a toddler or small child!  The locator is offered in a choice of two colours, pink or brown

 This locator is designed to send a signal from a hand held transmitter to a receiver that will give off a high pitch chirping sound allowing a parent to successfully locate a wandering child.

Given you notice that your child isn’t where they are meant to be in a reasonably good time after they have wandered off the locators chirps are loud enough to lead you to your child avoiding a potential accident or even fatality.

 When I first read about the Mommy I’m here locators my first thought was for parents with children on the autism spectrum and those with other special needs. I have sadly read one to many stories in the news and social networking sites that highlight a missing child with autism or sadly one that has had a terrible accident after becoming lost. This locator itself can of course be used for an older child however the product does seem to be aimed more at mothers with younger children. Nevertheless it’s my view that it all comes down to safety and the locator can do what it does for a younger child just as well for the older one.

 Putting it to the test

 I received the ‘Mommy I’m here’ child locator and was pretty keen to give it a go right away. However this wasn’t possible and it was a few days till I got the privilege of putting it to the test. Although my little man who has Aspergers syndrome has done a bit of wandering in the past his learnt as his grown to stick to the no wandering rule. He can be very rule bound and now tends to seek permission before going anywhere

So, the obvious choice for me was my 19 month old toddling terror Harley. Yes, he is at that wandering age and don’t I just know it!

 There was however one little issue! The teddy bear locator we received was pink and little man being so rigid in his thinking laughed continuously for some hours branding his little brother a little sister! Not like this mattered in anyway whatsoever to Harley… After all who says boys can’t do pink?

 I thought Harley would happily participate in my little test but he seemed to be in one of his little moods. I put the teddy receiver on to his shoe but he just wanted it off in-order to discover and play with it… Trust Harley!

Plan B was to attach the teddy receiver to the belt loop in Harley’s jeans. My trick… To do this before actually putting them on him! I made sure the teddy receiver was  switched on by switching it on at the back and checking that its tummy was displaying the bright red light. With this I opened my street door and waved him off (Seriously guys I’m joking!)

 I did in-fact open the back door allowing Harley a little explore time in the garden

 I went back inside and stood at the kitchen window watching Harley trying to pull the washing of the line (not impressed) I then took the transmitter out of my pocket (that comes on a key chain and has a little extending arial) and pressed the button.

 Well, it worked and pretty well too!

 Tip! let the little one get used to the noise or at least make them aware that they are wearing it. What started of as a good idea actually back fired on me when Harley almost jumped out of his skin. What’s great is you control the receiver, once you have your child in sight you can quickly stop the chirping at the touch of a button. The noise was extremely high pitched and I guessed it could be heard from a distance (every dog on the street barked that’s for sure)! I later tried it out again at the park! Daddy took Harley and walked ahead, after five minutes once out of sight I hit the button and tracked them down like a mother in the special forces. It was fabulous, one mother even asked where I got it from to which I happily told her.

  It’s worth noting that the noise produced by the locator may upset a child with auditory sensitivity but for me the safety aspect would far outweigh this.

I would suggest that you try to get your child as familiar with the sound as possible in order to avoid any distress. This is worth any time and effort.

 Although we mothers hate to think about the possible risk involved with children we need too in order to keep them safe! The world today doesn’t only offer our growing children a host of adventures but a host of dangers too. Like it or not there are some very unpleasant people in the world and this alarm could help keep your child that bit safer. If somebody attempted to snatch your child the noise is so high pitched and loud that this would possibly startle an abductor.

The thick Velcro strap is designed to keep the locator in a secure position throughout your child’s wear. I found the strap allowed you to secure the receiver in such away that someone attempting to remove it quickly would have to do some fumbling around to achieve this. The fact that it can be discretely hidden under any layers of clothing made this even better.

 This is a great product that I would highly recommend for toddlers, young children and those with special needs and autism. Just imagine having your child wear this when shopping in a busy supermarket, at the park or when visiting the beach.

The locator would also be great to use when your child is on a school trip or when out and about with a group of children, when its much easier for a child’s wandering to go unseen.

 You really can’t put a price on your child’s safety. Yet living in the real world I’m fully aware that piece of mind often equals a huge price tag! Not all parents including myself are in a position to part with a load of cash, especially when you’re a stay at home mum or dad or a  carer for a child with a disability.

That’s why I recommend the, ‘Mommy I’m here child locator‘ that  little bit more! At £29.99 I think it’s a great price that is very affordable allowing all parents regardless of their income the ability to keep their child safe from possible harm.

 Recommended: Check out the mommy I’m here child locator with new alert feature. This means the locator will send an alert to the key chain transmitter when the child wanders out of  range .

Visit the safe girl security website or call 0844 579 1129 where you can find a number of other fantastic products for all ages. Panic alarms, blinkies and child locators are just a few.

Related articles

• New data shows half of all children with autism wander and bolt from safe places (physorg.com)
• Half of All Children with Autism Wander into Danger (psychologytoday.com)
• Recognizing the Symptoms of Autism (everydayhealth.com)