Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Printable handouts are online at autism.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/ARI-Elopement.pdf
Description -- Elopement, running or wandering away from supervision, is an incredibly dangerous behavior that is prevalent among autistic youth. This talk will review preventative and safety strategies that parents and providers can incorporate to reduce the risk associated with elopement. We will also review tips and considerations when applying well-studied function-based treatments to the specific topography of elopement.
Objectives:
Attendees will describe different types of elopement commonly exhibited by autistic youth.
Attendees will identify safety strategies related to elopement and practical ways to implement them.
Attendees will describe modifications to commonly used function-based treatment strategies that may be needed when targeted elopement.
Mindy Scheithauer, PhD, BCBA-D is an Associate Professor at Emory University School of Medicine and a Psychologist and Behavior Analyst in the Complex Behavior Department at the Marcus Autism Center. Dr. Scheithauer is an established researcher, focused on developing novel extensions to function-based assessments and treatments using both single-case and clinical-trial research designs. She recently completed a grant from Autism Speaks focused on evaluating a manualized intervention for the assessment and treatment of elopement, which was the largest study to-date analyzing treatments for this prevalent concern. She has presented on the assessment and treatment of elopement, as well as other forms of complex behavior, at several national and international conferences and she has numerous publications on this topic in top peer-reviewed journals in the field. She also acts as an editor for the Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities. Clinically, she manages programs that use treatments based in applied behavior analysis to target behaviors such as aggression, self-injury, and elopement in youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities, with a heavy emphasis on parent-training.
Printable handouts are online at autism.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/ARI-Elopement.pdf
Description -- Elopement, running or wandering away from supervision, is an incredibly dangerous behavior that is prevalent among autistic youth. This talk will review preventative and safety strategies that parents and providers can incorporate to reduce the risk associated with elopement. We will also review tips and considerations when applying well-studied function-based treatments to the specific topography of elopement.
Objectives:
Attendees will describe different types of elopement commonly exhibited by autistic youth.
Attendees will identify safety strategies related to elopement and practical ways to implement them.
Attendees will describe modifications to commonly used function-based treatment strategies that may be needed when targeted elopement.
Mindy Scheithauer, PhD, BCBA-D is an Associate Professor at Emory University School of Medicine and a Psychologist and Behavior Analyst in the Complex Behavior Department at the Marcus Autism Center. Dr. Scheithauer is an established researcher, focused on developing novel extensions to function-based assessments and treatments using both single-case and clinical-trial research designs. She recently completed a grant from Autism Speaks focused on evaluating a manualized intervention for the assessment and treatment of elopement, which was the largest study to-date analyzing treatments for this prevalent concern. She has presented on the assessment and treatment of elopement, as well as other forms of complex behavior, at several national and international conferences and she has numerous publications on this topic in top peer-reviewed journals in the field. She also acts as an editor for the Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities. Clinically, she manages programs that use treatments based in applied behavior analysis to target behaviors such as aggression, self-injury, and elopement in youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities, with a heavy emphasis on parent-training.
