Autism is a complex developmental disability that affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others. It usually appears during the first three years of life. Autism is thought by the scientific community to be of genetic origin and it has also come to be well accepted that ASDs are the manifestation of a neurological condition. Autism is referred to as a spectrum disorder because it ranges in severity across a wide range of conditions, like the colors of a rainbow. In additions, some people may be affected more by one symptom, while others may be affected more strongly by a different symptom.

Autism is in the news everywhere these days. With more children being diagnosed with an autistic disorder than ever, parents are trying to learn as much as they can about autism and use every means of keeping them safe and from wandering off. Autism is often diagnosed around age 3; however, subtle signs of the disorder may appear before 18 months (3). Autism is still not understood well enough. The social and communication deficits are the crux of the disability, but also part of who they are as people.

Autism is Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) but is not an illness. Autism is multivariate in presentation and cure. The disease bows to the collective weight of doctors working with therapists working with educators working with researchers working with parents working to recover their children. Autism isn’t something one recovers or gets better from. I really rail against the idea of ‘curing’ autism.

Autism is most commonly diagnosed at 20 to 36 months, but experts say the signs often surface earlier. Many families experience delays because pediatricians often dismiss their concerns. Autism is a lifelong disorder that interferes with the ability to understand what is seen, heard, and touched. This can cause profound problems in personal behavior and in the ability to relate to others. Autism is a developmental disability considered the result of a neurological condition that affects brain function. According to the Autism Society of America, there are 1.5 million people living with autism in the United States and most are prone to wandering off into parks, streets and totally devoid of how dangerous the real world really is.

Autism is a devastating neurological disorder that is usually diagnosed in small children within the first two years of life. Autism causes lifelong, severe impairments in language, communication, cognition, and sensory systems. Autism is frightening, and parents wanted to find a reason for it. This is also the time when children may start to show signs of autism. Autism is growing at a shocking rate, affecting millions of Americans. While many of us know little about this disorder, individuals and families are trying to create more awareness, and researchers are trying to uncover autism’s causes and effects.

Children with Autism may have a range of behavioral symptoms including hyperactivity, short attention span, impulsivity, aggressiveness, self-injurious behavior and temper tantrums. They may show unusual responses to sensory stimuli as observed by a lack of response to pain or a hypersensitivity to particular sounds. Children with autism may fail to respond to their name and often avoid eye contact with other people. They have difficulty interpreting what others are thinking or feeling because they don’t understand social cues provided by tone of voice or facial expressions and they don’t watch other people’s faces to pick up on these cues.

Autism is not treated with surgery or medicine (although some people with autism may take medicine to improve certain symptoms, like aggressive behavior or attention problems). Instead, people who have autism are taught skills to help them do the things that are difficult for them. Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by deficits in communication abilities, social behavior disruption and inflexible behavior. Many children with autism have been noted to have GI problems.

Children may appear normal until around the age of 30 months but then after that parents start observing the child wandering away and not being able to find them. Children with autism have pretty significant delayed social skills. They won’t have full eye contact with anyone. Children with behaviors that would be called autistic today are scattered through the literature of past centuries.

It is important for autistic child to be tracked so they can be found quickly otherwise the may go missing forever or wander into traffic and get killed.

Autistic child may also go on the amber alert also. AMBER is for abducted children, specifically under the legal age of an adult. There are also systems in place to help those who are missing or kidnapped and an adult. Amber Alert takes considerable time and cannot be issued in all cases, even if a child has been kidnapped.

One of the best devices that parents should consider when they have a young autistic child is to attach a GPS tracking device to their clothing so they can be easily tracked and recovered by either the parents or the police. 

The WorldTracker Enduro GPS Tracker is one of the smallest real-time GPS tracking devices available. Waterproof, highly sensitive, 5-10 day battery life, and able to operate in extreme temperatures, this A-GPS locator is GPRS/GSM compatible, and comes equipped with a panic button, GeoFencing features, and remote control.

Compared with most other GPS tracking devices, Enduro is good looking, and feels rugged and well made. Measuring just 2.5-inches long, and 3/4th’s of an inch thick, this device is the smallest real-time tracking device I’ve tested to date. It comes with a Power Adapter/Charger, Protective Cary Case Magnetic Slip Case (Optional).

The box protective carrying pouch, shown here is perfect for attaching to an autistic child’s body or clothing.

Leveraging both Google Earth and Microsoft’s Virtual Earth, the web-based location report provides 5 different ways to view the WorldTracker GPRS’ location, including Bird’s Eye, shown above.

Reports are accessed via TrackingTheWorld.com (IE6 or higher is required). Maps can be viewed in 2D, 3D, Road view, Aerial view, Hybrid (Road & Aerial), or Bird’s Eye (available for most US cities). The map can be zoomed in or out, and panned by dragging the mouse around or using the pan/zoom control in the upper-left corner of the screen.

The Bird’s Eye map view, shown above, combined with Enduro’s high performance GPS receiver (SiRF) makes it easy to pinpoint the device’s location on the map, down to about a 15-50 foot accuracy.

Most of the time parents will use the “Bird’s Eye” view, whenever it is available to tracking or find their autistic or missing child.

There’s also displays a calendar that allows users to choose a different day’s reports, letting you see exactly where Enduro has been on any given date for which tracking data is available.

One of the nicest features of the WorldTracker Enduro is the ability to set up a GeoFense. A GeoFence is a virtual fence on the map that will trigger an alert if crossed. GeoFence boundaries can be drawn on the map, and the email you want the alert sent to can be input on the same page. It is possible to configure multiple GeoFences in as many locations as you want.

You can also configure a GeoFence in an area the vehicle is not currently in, and be notified when the vehicle enters that area. For example, you could configure an alert to let you know when your child successfully arrives on his/her college campus.

Defining a GeoFence is intuitive: click to set a GeoFence, then double-click on the map to draw a box around the area you want to define GeoFence around. The highlighted blue area, shown in the screenshot above, is the part of the map that will be included in the virtual fence. You can then choose whether you want to be alerted when Enduro enters, exits, or both. Then click “Set” and the GeoFence is active.

When the WorldTracker Enduro enters/leaves the defined GeoFence, you will receive an alert via email or a text message, depending on your alert preferences.

WorldTracker Enduro’s small size, light weight, long battery life, and relatively good accuracy make the Enduro a very powerful tracker for parents looking for high performance GPS tracker to place on their child just in case he or she wanders off and gets abducted.

Related posts:

1. How To Prevent Missing Child & Child Abductions
2. How To Quickly Find Your Missing Children
3. How To Prevent Missing Children Using A GPS Tracker
4. How Advancements In Child Safety Products Help Prevent Child Abduction

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Tags: autistic child, complex developmental disability, gps tracking devices, high performance gps, how to find your autistic or missing child, missing child, performance gps tracker, pervasive developmental disorder, worldtracker enduro gps, young autistic child

This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 9:34 am and is filed under GPS Tracking. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comment will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.