Bolting

Bolting is a common problem with children who are on the spectrum.  Jacob is a "bolter".  No matter where we are I have to have him in the stroller buckled up or be holding him as tight as I can because he wants to run in the opposite direction anywhere we are.  When someone opens one of our doors in the house he takes off running as fast as he can to get outside.  Until recently it hasn't been a huge issue for me.  Today, Jacob has discovered how to unlock the doors in our house. As you can imagine, this is extremely frightening to me. Luckily we have chain locks on our doors, but we have to remember to use them every single time we open them and we have to make sure anyone who is watching him remembers to do so. I haven't gotten to the section on treatment plans for this behavior in my studies yet and was wondering if anyone had any advise on how to start teaching him not to bolt.  I would absolutely love to be able to walk with him into church or different places holding his hand without him trying to sit down or wiggle out of my hand in order to take off running. As frustrating as all this is, I am really happy that he is learning how to do new things. He is also doing amazing in ABA. She is currently teaching him shapes and basic noun identification like umbrella, chair, pencil, etc.

We are heading to the neurologist today as a follow up since he hasn't been in a year and in order to show her the videos of Jacob's unusual head movements. I feel like it is probably just visual stimming, but is like to make sure. Please say a prayer that all goes well.