Providing Security and Safety for an Autistic Child? 90
"Here is the issue. I have three children and a very loving, hard-working wife at home. My oldest child is a nine-year-old girl, and then I have my eight-year-old Autistic son, and then my five-year-old son. The eight-year-old presents the challenge. If you can imagine a two-year-old mentality in an eight-year-old body then you will begin to understand the issues that we face. This child is intelligent and determined, but he doesn't talk and he doesn't understand us when we talk to him. He doesn't understand fear and he doesn't understand pain. I have seen him play in the snow for twenty minutes, barefoot before we realized he had gotten out of the house. His only complaint was that we made him come back into the house to warm him up. The security in my house needs to be done in such a way that my nine and five-year-old can get in and out, without compromising the security in such a way that the eight-year-old can get out. I also need to do this on my own. Our efforts to get assistance from our local government agencies have failed.
We have tried chains, but he just unlatches them. We have tried keys but the kids (nine- and five-year-olds) either leave them where he can reach them, or they lose them when they need to use them. We have tried keypads, but he ate the buttons off of the first one that we bought. The new one had plastic buttons but after two weeks we found that he would look over the five-year-old's shoulder and read the code as he punched it in. The other two kids mean well and they understand, but let's face it, they are typical users. If the security is too hard to deal with, they won't. They won't close the door if they have to find a key to open it again. Besides, these kids need a life too and I cannot put the responsibility of the Autistic child's safety on these kids. It's too great of a burden and they are just kids. I need a solution that is transparent enough that they can live with it and robust enough that he can't break it. The keypads worked great but are just too easy for the Autistic kid to defeat.
I have looked into biometrics but everything that I have found only locks one direction and was expensive. I need something that will lock in both directions and can be done with less then two weeks pay. I am really hoping that someone here will have a creative, effective, and realistic solution that I can get running in a reasonable amount of time. My wife is pulling her hair out and will have a nervous breakdown soon if something doesn't happen.
I sincerely thank you for your time, your efforts and your ideas."
Magnetic cards? (Score:1)
Anyway, if you do this and then put the card on a necklace the child could wear, this might work. They would still have to not leave the card lying around, but on a necklace of some sort it shouldn't be much hassle to keep with them throughout the day.
Re:Magnetic cards? (Score:1)
In order for this to be feasible, the cards would have to be unlosable and unforgettable -- implanted? Except that an implant would be unfeasibly expensive. This is the problem that biometrics try to solve; you are your own key. But those systems are unidirectional and expensive.
Magnetic keys for pet doors (Score:4, Interesting)
The reason I bring this up is not to compare your kids to animals
Not sure what they cost, but I'd imagine it is easily within the "two weeks pay" limit.
Since kids are bigger than your average cat, I'd imagine they'd have to hold the bracelet to the sensor as opposed to just being in proximity to the door, but should still be workable nonetheless. My guess is that the circuitry isn't incredibly advanced, as it is designed for pet-size doors, therefore the security is probably pretty light (ie. limited number of codes - if any "codes" at all) which trigger the lock. You're not worried about a person getting through that 6"x10" hole, and raccoons aren't very good with electronics.
Should be worth a look as a starting point, though.
Good luck.
Re:Magnetic "Key" (Score:1)
That might work for this situation, however, you might not need to secure the house for just the middle child. I don't know if I would allow a 5 year old to go outside unsupervised either. A simple chain lock secured out of reach of either of the younger children and loose enough to be locked from the outside might solve your problem. Adults can still lock/unlock the door, and in an emergency there isn't any confusing locking mechanism. You can lock the door on your way to work and not worry about one of the kids getting up before your wife and slipping out. And the best part, it protects all your kids and costs ~$2 at Wal Mart.
A dog (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:A dog (Score:5, Informative)
I think this looks like the best solution I've seen so far. Get a shepherd breed of dog, who's training and instinct will make it herd the child into a limited area.
Or you can get an akita [geocities.com] and train it to "protect" your autistic child.
Good luck.
Not the best solution-- This is a tough one (Score:2)
Ok-- now for the real concerns I have about your sitation--
1) Security is not just about keeping people out, it is about keeping people safe. If you lock everyone in, what happens if your house catches fire? You want to be able to get out easily, even if your security system has failed. So Ideally, failsafe here means when the security system is down, people can leave but not enter. After all, you are trying to keep your son safe, right? If your main issue is your son, it may be sufficient to allow people to enter and leave if the security system goes down.
2) If a system goes down and allows anyone to leave, then the question is how attackable it is. Make sure it is not accessible and is physically secure.
3) Keys to security-- My experience with an autistic cousin tells me that if you rely on key codes, he may be able to evesdrop, and if you hide some sort of physical key, he may be able to find it. Biometric might work though...
So, the only system I can see that might meet your security needs would be extremely expensive to design and impliment and would need to be done well and safely. While I wish you luck, I do not think that there is a lot today that would meet your needs.
Re:A dog (Score:2, Informative)
My g/f lived on a farm with two younger brothers, she was the oldest at 5, and her younger brothers were 4. They got a Bouvier des Flandres to watch over the kids, and it did an admirable job. Not quite on par with Lassie, but pretty close. It made sure they didn't get near any major equipment, or down the silo (she fell in when she was 4, hence hte dog)
It did a good job, and it was kid friendly.
Reading Ability (Score:4, Interesting)
Get one of those rollup "indestructible" keyboards that they sell (I think tiger.com still has them)
Use a monitor to ask an easy question known to someone who could read.
(What color is the sky ? , How many fingers do you have ?, etc)
Without the ability to read one could not answer the question on the keyboard and could not unlock the door.
The only downfalls that I can see are the possible costs of interfacing the software with the locking door and the computer/monitor/keyboards.
It would probably be much cheaper then a biometric system but would be a little less fault tolerant as it is homebuilt.
Re:Reading Ability (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Reading Ability (Score:2)
Re:Speaking inability (Score:1)
Re:Speaking inability (Score:1)
The system could also easily be setup to recognize the sound of a fire alarm.
Even the lamest voice recognition systems can understand "Open" or possibly "Open Front Door".
Re:Speaking inability (Score:1)
Actually I do not envision this working for one simple reason - autism is the learning of patterns, discerning order from chaos, a run time interpreted language for humans. He will watch the other children say 'open pod bay door, HAL' and it will take about one time for him to mimic them to get out. He isn't talking because he simply doesn't see it as an efficient manner of expressing himself, actually he is fairly inept at expressing himself - not because he doesn't want to.
Autism is the perfect hacker's affliction - the 'symptoms' of mild autism are
ability to memorize pages upon pages of words, perhaps with total recall or photographic memory.
think in a step by step fashion
linear process of written exact directions
not real good with grey areas, it needs to be black and white
get totally focused on a single task, stay with it until something interrupts you
lack of social interaction skills
sound like anybody you know or yourself? congrats, you are a computer programmer or mildly autistic.
So far the magnetic badges (kitty door on the cheap, or ID badges like at work for a little more cash) sound like the best bets.
Some factors make this problem easier. (Score:3, Insightful)
Specifically, I'm thinking of the stuff my high school chemistry teacher rigged up. He was a very bright guy, and had a very limited budget. He found ways to rig up cheap versions of very expensive scientific equipment. He usually did so with parts from Radio Shack and old computers that the computer lab was throwing out.
I would suggest getting an led, and a detector, having everybody in your family put their finger in between and see how much light each transmits. You would have to find a way to disable access for one while allowing access for four. If the differences are great enough, that would work. Just have everybody in your family stick their finger in a hole. You might want to work with pinky fingers so there is only one finger that will fit.
How about a scale on each side of the door? It would be easy to defeat for a regular person, but I'm not so sure for an 8 year old with autism. Again, you only have 5 people to worry about, not a lot more.
Bio is all I can think of too (Score:2)
Almost any non-biometric system won't match your criteria. And of course, biometric is going to be too expensive for the most part.
You might consider (if you have a cheap PC laying around or one that can dual-purpose for this) using one of the cheap thumbprint scanners available for PCs. You'd just have to rig a little custom code and you could make it so that a valid thumbprint raises a signal on a parallel port. From there it would be easy to make a small relay control box to unlock a magnetic latch.
In windows these things are used for windows login. I don't know if any come with an SDK you could use for this. On linux the only hard part would be making sure you have a driver to understand the scanner, the rest would be cake to integrate.
How long will these solutions last? (Score:1)
I've seen twelve-year-olds who, when they want to be difficult, can stop their parents from moving them, chastising them, or controlling them in any meaningful way. Perhaps we should discuss the alternatives to institutionalization that there are for strong, wilful, and uncommunicative people...
Re:How long will these solutions last? (Score:1)
exit safety (Score:4, Insightful)
Joe
Re:exit safety (Score:1)
Most houses have emergency exits cleverly disguised as big windows, with the activation devices cleverly disguised as chairs
Re:exit safety (Score:1)
A Red Emergency Stop type button above child height clearly marked "Door Release".
Check out some iButton-based solutions (Score:2, Interesting)
In particular, this [ibuttonlock.com] looks like it might be an ideal solution.
Sensors? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Sensors? (Score:4, Interesting)
Imagine the huge risk you face, if the rest of your family has to use keys, or pass biometric testing, to exit the house.
If there is an emergency and the system works, the autistic kid won't be able to get out. If he was following you, and the door shut behind you and was locked from the outside, that's a huge problem.
If the system failed, no one can get out. At the very least, you have delayed your exit while you break a window, each family member crawls out, etc.,.
All I can see working here is a "house arrest" type of solution. An ankle bracelet will sound an alarm if the wearer wanders too far away, or if the bracelet is tampered with. Commercial solutions exist, obviously. They do usually call the police department in an alarm situation; the best solution would involve some kind of pager your wife would wear. If a ready-made solution is not available, a local consulting engineer may be able to provide a one-off solution for a reasonable (considering the risk) price. You may even be able to find a senior project group at a nearby engineering school, who may be able to get funding in other ways (grants, Lemelson funding).
Re:Sensors? (Score:1)
Actually, rather than the system you describe which are used for enforcing House Arrest, a better approach may be to use the systems that stores use to stop shoplifting. The tags appear to be simple tuned circuits (some sort of inductor / capacitor circuit, doubling up as an antenna). This advantage would be that you could place the tags in clothing toys, bracelets etc. Cheap to replace the tags if they get lost.
This would however require more engineering than you may want to get involved in.
Re:Sensors? (Score:3, Insightful)
There are several problems, though. A detector must be placed at every possible exit point, rather than a radius-based system. Also, the RFID tag has no way of triggering an alert if it is tampered with.
Maybe guarding one or two entrances is ok, until the child figures out how to climb out of a window. The ankle bracelet system works well for actual house arrest cases; they don't use RFID tags.
RF is also too easy to defeat: tinfoil. My RF passcard for work used to set off store alarms, until one of the stores gave me a "Schlage Shield" (piece of tinfoil covered in paper). The autistic child may not actually think of wrapping their RFID bracelet in tinfoil to get past the alarm, but this could happen accidentally; foil-lined potato chip bags, or anything metallic like a watch or pie plate could shield the RF tag. An active bracelet would trigger if communication is interrupted.
Re:Sensors? (Score:2)
Right, I'd say an ankle bracelet is the answer here. You don't need to prevent your son from leaving the house so much as you need to know whether or not he has. Yes, it'd be nice to actually prevent him from leaving, but as pointed out there are safety concerns. There are also usability concerns with any lock-in solution: You can't keep him from exitting when someone else is entering or leaving the house, and you can't really trust that everyone will remember to lock up or activate they system every time they use the door. An alarm will at least let you know when he's outside so you can haul him back in.
In addition to being used for house-arrest, the ankle bracelets are also used in hospitals to keep tabs on patients who aren't mentally competent. Medical supply houses might be another source for the equipment.
Or, as someone else suggested, get a border collie or some similar breed of dog. It's not a completely whacked idea! Especially if you can find a place that will train companion animals to do what you have in mind, as opposed to the more common seeing-eye training.
Invisible fence (Score:1)
Re:Sensors? (Score:1)
There is a much smaller risk that someone else would not get out during an internal emergency
Which one is better? I don't know.
Re:Sensors? (Score:1)
Hi, I hope that I didn't say anything in my original post that sounded in any way judgemental of you. I was actually concerned that others (eg social services) might judge you, political correctness sometimes over rides taking account of the practical realities of any given situation. This can often happen when people are dealing with autism on an occasional basis. The way that people with autism view the world is so alien to most of us that people often make the mistake of projecting their concerns on to the autistic individual. For instance in the organisation my wife works for great emphasis is placed on respecting a persons privacy and including them in the community. These concerns may be correct for some individual but for some the desire to ensure that these rights are respected can lead to practices which do more harm than good.
My point is that in order to make decisions on how to manage an individual with autism one needs not only knowledge of the condition, but a lot of detailed knowledge of the individual and their environment. There is no way on earth that I would broadcast that level of detail about myself and my family on Slashdot, and I expect you feel the same way. Given that all slashdotters can do is throw ideas into the ring and hope that one of them can be of use.
In that spirit can I make another suggestion? You originally posed the problem as one of having locked doors that open for certain individuals but not for another. How about turning the problem around, could you lock all doors apart from one which your five and nine year old could use. If the eight year old would take to wearing a bracelet it could be used to trigger a lock on the door so that only he couldn't use it. You would then be able to take him out other doors in the normal manner. It might even be possible to construct a bracelet that looks like a piece of jewelery, or a watch.
Good luck.
Re:Sensors? (Score:1)
Posting personal information on slashdot isn't comforting either but I have found more decent suggestions in the last two days here on slashdot then I have heard in two years of struggling with the system.
Thanks.
Image recognition software + Scanner (Score:2, Insightful)
Here is a similar system applied to controlling a cat door. LINK [quantumpicture.com]
Joe
They are kids, and he will learn and adapt... (Score:4, Informative)
Of course, you'll have the same problem here that you have with other methods - the autistic child will learn and understand what makes it work, and the other children may not be responsible enough to make sure he doesn't have access to their watches (or whatever article of clothing you may attach the RFID to).
You can train the other children that if their watch opens the door for him then their priveledges of moving freely (ie, having a 'working' watch) will be limited for a period of time. They will learn to protect and secure their watches after a time.
The underlying issue, though, is that you cannot protect one child and completely free the others from the same protection. It's obviously an ideal for you to do so, and inexpensively, but it's simply not going to happen. Raising a child is not just a parental responsibility/burden, but a family one. As much as you'd like to keep them from bearing such a burden, it is unaviodable.
Since your autistic child cannot speak well, you may want to look into voice recognition technologies. Children are very flexible, and your other two children should learn very quickly to be able to say a simple phrase that will unlock the door for a period of time. You can change the phrase as frequently as needed to prevent your second child from learning it, but not so quickly that your other children tire of learning the phrase so often.
This can be done on the cheap, and coupled with another method, such as RFID or a keypad, could work very well. Microsoft has a free speech SDK which allows one to develop fairly robust speech applications (both talking and listening) with tools as simple as Visual Basic. Since it's a simple windows API, you could probably even use perl or another language you already know to interface with it. The API is built into XP and later, the SDK is freely downloadable from their website and will install the runtimes necessary for win9x if needed.
You might even consider a 'turing test' type of system. Put a few hundred very simple questions in the system. They press a button, it asks them the question, and they give an answer. Since the speech program as speaker independant, it should be fairly robust. You'll need to choose your questions carefully, and change them from time to time. It can be thought of as a teaching tool, even. Make sure the questions are simple enough that you don't have to program too many possible 'right' answers (put 5 pictures on the screen - ask what color the bird is type of thing).
This question intrigues me. I'd be interested in the final solution - or if you need help with any hardware (and possibly software) issues I may be able to do so. You can find my email address at my website http://ubasics.com/adam/electronics/ [ubasics.com].
Good luck!
-Adam
Re:They are kids, and he will learn and adapt... (Score:2)
Only thing you have to worry about there, though, is ensuring that the proper questions get asked of the proper people. It would probably be unfair to the youngest child if it kept asking questions based on the eldest child's schooling ;)
"You can train the other children...." (Score:2)
You nasty bastard,
Let's say that the other two children have an 'issue' with the Autistic child, becuase of attention, 'nauty ness/getting away with more' or whatever kids have issues with.
Your 'training' aproch will just engcourage them the be nasty.
Now on the birghter side, lets say that's not the case and all the kids are happy.
when one of them want to go out, but isn't alowed to what are the other kids going to do, help them, be upset?
I'm no child expert, but it looks like your suggesting kiddy war.
I would do something like,
Go out any play with the kids a bit more (or play indoors), yeh it takes a lot of time and can be frastrating but your kids will love it.
Have a system were only 'you/a trusted adult' can open the door from the inside but the kids can still get back in. That way your not enforcing any kind of predudice in the kids.
What about the magnetic cards I see in offices. (Score:1)
Check ebay and liquidations..... (Score:1)
But on second thought, a better solution would be to keep it simple.
A certain amount of supervision will be required no matter your solution, so this is what I suggest.
I'd use a burgular alarm with the doors always armed and a keypad with a shroud around it (to prevent looking) and a big siren, this way if the door is opened, you'd know, there would be no incentive to play with the keypad if he could get out. My guess is that he can learn over time if he can watch numbers entered in a keypad and repeat the action, with a loud siren and big commotion I'd think it would eventually provide a deterrant, which is what I'd want, volentary cooperation would be a good thing.
The other thing would be a dog collar thing as another reader suggested, but your child would carry the transmitter around and when he left the perimeter it would set a siren off since the dog collar that normally would shock the dog would be on the kitchen counter with a siren or something else rigged up that would alert you, this would be a failsafe, in the event he did get outside.
You have a really tough problem, and a handicap of anyone in the family will always affect everyone else. Your other kids may not understand at the moment, but when they do they will be proactive about keeping him safe.
Re:Check ebay and liquidations..... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Check ebay and liquidations..... (Score:1)
Re:Check ebay and liquidations..... (Score:1)
I've got a Visor that I'm not using. It even has a wall-plug power supply.
If the Drexler's want to pursue this route, I'll donate the equipment and some of my time toward programming the application.
I'll email them.
Re:Check ebay and liquidations..... (Score:1)
Bracelet? (Score:2)
You're never trying to keep the kid *out*, right? (Score:2)
But, like other people suggested, probably an alarm of some sort would be better than an actual locking mechanism, as far as safety is concerned.
Re:You're never trying to keep the kid *out*, righ (Score:1)
Are you underestimating his abilities? (Score:3, Interesting)
If he can think enough to read over the shoulder of your other kids to learn the codes, he is just going to break any sort of fence you put up for him.
In short, follow the RFID lock suggestions given here. That should help out, but it may be only a matter of time before he picks up a carelessly left bracelet.
How about a proximity alarm? (Score:2)
If the child unit strays more than 1 to 9 meters (your choice) from the parent unit, or if the child unit is turned off, the parent unit makes some noise.
It might be possible to rig it so that the child unit turns off if the child tries to remove it (by attaching it to your child by a wire that is connected to the battery, so that if the wire is broken or unhooked, the circuit is broken and the unit turns off).
It's not quite the same as keeping the kid locked in, but it will at least alert you if the kid goes too far away.
Invisible Fence! (Score:2)
Re:Invisible Fence! (Score:1)
Skidata and Swatch (Score:3, Informative)
In many electronics do-it-yourself magazines you can find schematics for RFID readers that can connect to an electric door using cheap parts. The watches cost about 45 USD maximum. And kids will love the designs...
Since the watches are read from a distance, there is a large chance that your 8-year-old won't even notice that the watch is the key to the door.... Good luck! Please let us know what you eventually choose!
Instead of locks, how about noise? (Score:3, Insightful)
You could go a step further, and attach some sort of biometric device to the main doors that disables the sound temporarily if the fingerprint or voiceprint matches. You wouldn't need the device on each side of the door, but it wouldn't hurt.
Hooking a biometric device to a buzzer sounds a lot easier and safer than hooking it to a lock. You might be able to find one that stands alone and doesn't need to be hooked up to a computer. Or, you might be able to hide a small, old computer near the main door and use a computer-connected fingerprint scanner or something. Then you'd have to figure out how to get the computer to disable the buzzer, but that shouldn't be too tricky.
Re:Instead of locks, how about noise? (Score:1)
I was thinking holistic tracing kind-of biometric device. One could design such program whose job is
to capture input from the biometric-recognition system(maybe). Such device would then implement holistic tracing; as in "it is
possible to infer the existence of an attack if a set of observations (that
are perhaps superficially unrelated) can be approximately matched to a
structure that represents knowledge of the methods that attacks employ at a
high(er) level" - sasha description of holism - because we could *do* system_calls tracing as the core holistic mecanism. Such tracing is the 'key' or "knowledge of the methods" to holistic approaches, in my humble opinion. Now I dont want to pretend how we could (or not) make use of biometrical technologies as you folks says, but let's pretend that tracing under biometrical circumstances (foo) might requisite some kind of transport/proxy whatever-else supporting layer. This transport model would then feature adaptative comodities, as requested. Comments ? It is unsure if tracing is the right thing to use for that application. Yet, tracing might not even be the best way to do it. See, systems_call tracing may be one way(*) of doing behind-the-borders (holistic) detection.I was thinking of posix compliances, too.
in a nut shell,
[exterior]---data---->[biometric processing][custom micro kernel/mach service]
- Adapted system_calls for the biometric device.
- Intrusion detection system builtin (near realtime would be ideal but not realistic... imho.)
- Holistic approache (see Phrack #57) seem good to me, seem good to me.
- Could *it* have a use for first-aid/emergency response(??)(not to over-do-it, btw...)
- Hmm, could this thing fly?
Finally, this kind of 'holistic concept' applied to biometrics is rather unclear to my point of view.I suggest we push stronger the holistic debate, to the extend of knowing particulary what appliances these kind of technologies might become benefit for.. Is it really suited to exterior(read realtime) condition ? What operating system you think is best suited for this job ? Anyways, i was foreseeing this as a real challenge for the hurd. To some extend, it would be easy to setup some translators for biometrical-recognition use. Perhaps that the device would have to transport his "utter packet" to some daemon/switches/whatever ? Thinking of features, I was thinking of the common SSL Leay functions in order to 'secure' the designed protocols under some Hurd/settrans translators. (for info: http://www.8ung.at/shell/guide.html)
That said, this is just my two cents and I dont expect comments or emails.
I wish you all a good day and keep the good job, as in keep the sources open.
incidah
references/greets:
1. sasha,HOLISTIC APPROACHES TO ATTACK DETECTION Phrack # 57 www.phrack.org Volume 0x0b, Issue 0x39, Phile #0x0b of 0x12
http://www.phrack-dont-give-a-shit-about-dm
2. The Hurd Hacking guide @ http://www.8ung.at/shell/guide.html
3. THC @ www.thehackerchoices.com (read the almost done very, very nice guide to system_calls hacking)
Cheapo Mag-Cards (Score:1)
Re:Cheapo Mag-Cards (Score:1)
Gate Mechanisms and RFID (Score:3, Interesting)
At the group home in which I worked we had a gate which required a semi-complex procedure to open, one had to lift a ring, turn a knob, and slide the handle of the gate all the way to the left in order to open the latch. I could possibly diagram the mechanism for you if you were interested. This would probably not work for your child if he is able to observe and remember keypad sequences.
As for the RFID devices, what about attaching or implanting them in the shoes of your children? Most children only have a few pairs of shoes and they aren't likely to be leaving the house without them. Nor is it obviously apparent to your other child what is unlocking the door (especially if you can get your children to be nonchalant about the device)
Re:Gate Mechanisms and RFID (Score:2)
"I have seen him play in the snow for twenty minutes, barefoot before we realized he had gotten out of the house."
so much for shoes.
maybe glueing it to his toenails?
Re:Gate Mechanisms and RFID (Score:1)
You'd use the RFID tags to allow the people you want to have free reign exit the house. The autistic child would not have an RFID tag and, hence, couldn't get outside the door without stealing the other children's shoes.
It could work...
Ask your local nursing home... (Score:1)
A company (the name of which I don't know off hand) makes a magnetic lock system for doors. With enough force (running into the door at full speed) the door will break the mag-seal and open in an emergency. You can also turn specific locks off temporarialy with a keycode (punched in near the door) or use a remote keylock (like they have for cars). The doors will also automatically release in a fire emergency.
It's pricey, though... But professional and safe.
Thumb scanners (Score:1)
Simple Solution (Score:4, Informative)
But really, the problem was that we needed to be awake when he left the room to ensure our safety. So my mom and dad bought a sensor that would detect when the door opened. The sensor was on the outside of door and could be turned on and off by the parent. (The sensor is out of reach because of it's height, and because you can't open the door without setting it off.) When the sensor sensed an open door, it set off an alarm that woke everyone in the house up AND the next three houses down. This type of system is available at radio shack for $20.
Result, foster brother learned very quickly that at night he could not open the door without triggering the alarm. And the alarm was loud and annoying. So it was very good in training certain behaviors. (The loud noise is almost like a pain stimulator in modifying behavior).
In short, put a sensor on every door and window in the house, like your standard security system. You can probably do this within your budget if you install it yourself and don't subscribe to a monitoring service. You can even drill the sensors into the door and the door jam to deter tampering when he gets old enough to tamper. You don't need to keep your son in the house, but you do need to know if and when he leaves. With such a system, you will know.
This will require for some adjustments in your living habits. Ie, your other kids won't be able to run in and out of the house (that will save you some heating bills too). They may have to ring the doorbell to come back in from playing, to avoid setting the alarm off, and you may have to get up to temporarly unset the alarm. But they will learn that very quickly as well, as the loud sound is as affective as a pain motivator in modifying behavior. Also, strangers will be safe as well in your house. If a fire breaks out, they can still physically exit your house, although a loud alarm will go off.
Finally, you and your wife can affectively keep the secret code to the alarm safe without burdening your kids with remembering it or protecting it. You can also set the alarm up to simply chime when a door or window is open. Maybe, you can find a system that allows you to set a very loud chime, or you could even place speakers in every room of your house.
Re:Simple Solution (Score:1)
One, this kid can be determined. I don't know if Autistics are more determined then most or not but when this kid has a purpose, its his only purpose in life. I chased him for six hours once when we went to a family reunion which happened to be in a park by a river. His purpose in life that day was to get to the water. I positioned myself between him and the water and ran for six hours to keep myself there. Sometimes he would run the other way, to lead me away from the water, and then would try to circle around me to get back to the water. Various family members offered to relieve me but my wife and I agreed that no one would watch him closely enough to be allowed that responsibility. If you let your guard down for a moment, he would get by you. He got by me twice but never made it to the water, and I watched him CLOSELY. After six hours I was too tired to move, so we scooped him up and headed home. It was my wife's family so I ran while she socialized
Two, he doesn't sleep. Actually, he sleeps about four hours a night.
Third, the family is nearing a breaking point already. We watch this kid 24/7. He can be aggressive, difficult to handle, and determined. The effort required to instill rules and behaviors into a kid like this can be massive and the first time he sees an opportunity to do what he wants he will. Then all of the effort put into it is wasted. You cannot know how frustrating and discouraging that can be. A couple of weeks ago, I was teaching him how to color with markers. We were doing great and been at it all day. Take a marker out of the box, color, put the cap back on it and put it in the box. We were doing great. My daught called and was ready to be picked up. I told the five year old to get his shoes on and had to help him find one. I had my back turned for two minutes and when I turned back, he was blue. Literally, my son was blue. He had colored his face, his eyes, in his ears, his teeth, everyting. He took the felt insert out of the marker, colored himself blue and ate it. He ate the insert. I cried. Thank GOD for nontoxic, washable crayolas. By the way, the school called a couple days later, slightly concerned about the bright green bowl movement that he had at school that day.
Sometime I will have to tell you about the time we tried to do Sparklers with him. He tried to put one in his eye. Now we know better.
Re:Simple Solution (Score:2)
It sounds like you need nothing short of a cage
I hope you find a solution.
An important safety point (Score:2)
Re:An important safety point (Score:1)
I do have nine of them wired together. Why nine? Since so many of our doors are kept locked all of the time, it seemed like a good idea to make sure that each zone was monitored, and that other zones would be alerted to an issue.
Thanks.
I'm suprised no one has mentioned... (Score:2)
How hard would it be to make the collar bigger?
You can also get the version that has cables at the perimeter of your yard... the kid will never wander out into traffic again.
Re:I'm suprised no one has mentioned... (Score:1)
Re:I'm suprised no one has mentioned... (Score:1)
Or having the kid arrested. Believe it or not, I have heard of that situation. There are probably other non-custodial solutions available, but from what I've read, you're right, there probably isn't any help available for you, if you want to keep your child in your home. Check with your county health department or Visiting Nurses Association. Sometimes you can get four or six hours a week of nursing care for loved ones in your situation.
Of course, I'm the sort of bastard that thinks that children should be kept in cages anyway... and that parents should need a license to have children. But then, I also got a vasectomy when I turned 25.
Flame away on that topic.
Alright, now I'll try to be more helpful.
Perhaps you could call the local assisted living community (*cough*Nursing Home*cough*)and ask what they do about wandering alzheimer's patients. The situation has some similarities to that condition as well. I have a grandmother with alzheimer's. She's still fit and can walk unaided. Sometimes she's even coherent. But she has no impulse control and no desire to hang around the bedridden folk.
Somehow, the facility she lives in manages to keep her in the building.
I don't imagine you'd need too much work to get a german shepherd to keep your son inside, either. Whoever said that before me probably had the best idea of the bunch.
He might just follow the others out (Score:1)
Re:Possible Solution (Score:2)
In other words, very possible to do.
Voicerecognition (Score:1)
- Key Systems of any sort - you explained to us why this will not work, kids hate stuff to look after, they lose things etc.,
- bracelets - are somehow Inhuman (and unpraktical) ever weard one of these on a festival or something? after three days you just wont to get rid of it. there are variants to be implanted or swaloed, but i think one should not do this to kids.
- Keyboards, keypads - you explained they will be destroid, tamperd with. As the middle kid is able to type, he will get past this.
- biometrics expensive, overkill just to devide in to two groups - takes time to get past
- watchdog - a dog is great, BUT its expensive to get a traind dog, espcially if insurance dosnt pay for it, then it needs constant looking after it itself, food, water 2hour walks etc. the dog could only alarm parents, but not really stop a big child, i believe.
So i think voicerecognition really is the anwser:
- a short command would not be unpractical, one could speak it while walking to the door smth. like "open door" would do
- if your autistic son gets past this, he learnd to speak, (or speaks a little allraedy)you could combine this with a spoken question(voicesysntehsis)
- you could lock the hardware, incl. micro, pc etc. away in a tempersafe box
- in case of fire, a simple button conected to a sirene and the door opener could be an emergency way to get out.As its normally not used, the children will not bother with it (?)
- an other firesafty mesure would be to look on the way the door behaves in case of powerfailiure- the door should unlock then!
so the cost and efort for voice-recognition? afforable i think speaking about 50$ for the software i dont now but believe voice synthesis is about the same, a pc (an old one, pentium1 should do) a little trainig the software (to understand 5year old and grown ups also - mybe a weekend) an i/o card with relay for the signaL from pc to door, about 50$, a little programm conecting use of voicerecg. to i/o-card - you need someone with about a little c++ knolege, or something alike The point that the big kid pushes past the smaller is a problem, but the small one could inform the adults.I think finding a programmer, that implements this is the biggest part of the problem, but that may be a personal view - when your done, you should really tell here, maybe in autistic childrens parents forum al so, might interest a lot of people.
Number 1: Talk to professionals (Score:1)
Ferinstance, whatever system you have, it needs to open in case of fire, but stay closed in case of power failure. So you are looking at fail-closed electric strikes with a battery backup and a tie in to a fire alarm system for override. That's IF local officials can live w. battery backup for the case of fire AND power outage.
Basic point is don't try to do this half assed. It's going to cost real money, but it will be infinitely cheaper (in all ways) than the hospital bills or, God forbid, a funeral.
Also, a question - You intend to let your 9 and 5 year old outside at will and w/o your explicit permission?
Re:Number 1: Talk to professionals (Score:1)
erh, when the house burns down, the power may fail so you really want a door opening on powerfailiure, and maybe a batteriebased alarm going of with this.
I thought a 5 year old should not leave a house allone, but there might be situations like: Go get your bike out of the garden, or go fetch the kindergardenbus where you would not want to stand behind the door with a key.
Re:Number 1: Talk to professionals (Score:1)
A good solution...for everyone (Score:1)
When he was 9, and i 6, we moved out, to a large(r) house, in the country, on a road with only 5 other houses. There are few cars that come up the road, and we have a large(ish) garden.
We used to simply keep an eye out for him, both me and my older sister. As we grew up, he learned what was dangerous, and what not to do...As any other child would after time. Believe me, it just takes time. My brother also went to a monday-friday residential school, this helped, and he has now left to an adult placement, which he can stay at all week, even though we like to take him out on visits at the weekends.
I know that this may not be an ideal solution, but believe me, it's the only solution, nothing technological will beat it.
He now uses my computer, and he has learnt "i don't go into control panel, and i dont touch which i don;t know what they do"
Just try getting your other kids to help with him. And i know exactly what you mean by their smartness, after around a week using my computer, he discovered many things i didn't know!
a human (Score:1)
Re:a human (Score:1)
Re:a human (Score:1)
Asymmetric Locking (Score:2)