I have an autistic 7 year old boy who until fairly recently was also non-verbal.
I have a few thoughts which are entirely MOO.
-“why would you let your autistic child be any distance away from you”
In my experience with autism the children are extremely routine orientated. They display the same behaviour pretty much consistently. Dad says that he would run ahead and then stop to let him catch up. This was Maddox’s routine. Dad had no reason to think it would change, ESPECIALLY because of the autism factor.
-“Autistic children feel no fear”
My neurotypical children will panic if they lose sight of me (shops, playgrounds etc). My autistic child doesn’t have that fear. He will happily carry on playing or looking at something that interests him. My child has a fear of loud noises.
-“Why couldn’t the father catch him”
If my son was 30 feet away and took off at a sprint I could hand on heart say I probably couldn’t catch him unless he stopped. My son was/is a runner but my son would not wait until you caught up. When walking I hold onto the hood of his coat, his hand, his shoulder.
-“why would he empty his pockets”
Because he was going to run after him and catch him when the boy stopped. It wasn’t immediate life threatening danger.
This is all MOO
I’ve attached a picture of the story provided by my sons autism worker, we read this together often. It’s about running away from mum or dad