Safety Needs

Moniza Pereira Borges

Safety needs
• Safety needs in Maslow's hierarchy is the second stage and refer to the need for
security and protection.  
• Safety and security needs include: personal security, emotional security, health and
well-being and safety needs against accidents/illness and their adverse impacts.
• Children are vulnerable to various dangers and threats, and related safety concerns
come in many forms and circumstances. 
• Safety becomes a parent’s constant goal and one that is even more challenging and
stressful to pursue when a child has autism. 
• Autism presents its own set of vulnerabilities—whether is child, a teenager, or an
adult. 

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 Why are individuals
with autism at risk?
Safety becomes a bigger issue for someone with autism
because of challenges with:
• Recognizing danger. Children with autism are less likely to
grasp things intuitively. Thus, they may have problems
interpreting which situations are safe and which are not. 
• Sensory issues. Sensory processing challenges can put
children with autism in situations that are not safe. For
example, a child who is sensitive to loud noises—in an effort
to escape sensory overload—may unintentionally wander
away from his family during a fireworks celebration.

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 Why are individuals with
autism at risk?(Contd.)
•Communication. Some individuals with autism are
nonverbal, as a result, they may be unable to ask for help
when they need it; also, there are other individuals who
can speak quite well but are not able to communicate
their experiences or express their feelings or even make
eye contact.
•Fixation with objects or narrow interests.  Some
children with autism develop very narrow, focused
interests or hobbies, which may pose little or no risk in
isolation on normal circumstances. For example, a
fascination with trains may mean that parents need to
take extra precautions when standing with their child at a
station platform. MONIZA
Why are individuals with
autism at risk?(Contd.)
•Generalization. Due to their direct or literal thinking,
children with autism often have trouble generalizing
information or applying skills learned at home or
school to other contexts such as different
environments. For instance, a child with autism may
understand not to answer the doorbell at home, but
may respond differently while at a grandparent’s
house. 

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What Are Some Safety
Concerns Related To
Autism?

•Elopement;
•Wandering;
•Failure to understand safety (climbing, ingestion of
poisonous substances and medications, weapons);
•Abduction;
•Sexual assault;
•Drowning;
•Fire safety;

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What can Parents and Professionals
do?
1. Understand: What makes a child with autism
safe or unsafe in a particular situation?
2. Prepare: What does the child need to practice
this safety skill?
3. Practice: Parents should pick one or a few skills
to practice at a time, and build them into daily life. 
4. Share: They also should sharing safety skills with
the familly, caregiver, teaches etc.
5. Update: means see what works, what doesn’t
work, and then revise and update if necessary. 

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Examples
1.Nathan's parents wants to reinforce important home security skills. They want to create a home
environment that is not only safe, but also provides ongoing learning opportunities for Nathan. As
PSW, I can assist Nathan learning not to leave house by placing pictures of "stop” sign on any door
that leads outside, to a stairwell, or on cabinets that are not meant to be opened. Also, by having
symbols, photos on items that are relevant to Nathan’s safety; so Nathan can see where things go
and more easily associate pictures with instructions such as a picture showing “please do not unplug
the television”. It will help him learn my expectations and discourage unsafe behaviours. Always
providing positive reinforcement for skills performed correctly.

2.As PSW I can assist Nathan by keeping the house and things organized and in their appropriate
places. Knowing where things are and where to put them away to creates order and structure,
helping Nathan feels more comfortable, and less frustrated. This hopefully will make him less likely
to engage in inappropriate behaviors with particular household items

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Examples (contd.)
3. Two weeks before Halloween, Nathan's mom asked me to monitor Nathan within the
neighbourhood on Halloween’s day. Considering that Nathan is energetic and speaks
only a few words, I decided to start with a social story ("It’s Time to Trick-or-Treat!“) in
order to reinforce important social skills for the Halloween day. Every day, for two weeks, I
take time to do activities like flash cards, mixing them up to Nathan reorder them until he
has internalized the requirements of the story, always providing positive reinforcement for
skills performed correctly. Once the action/behaviour from the social story is internalized,
it is time to practice and guiding Nathan appropriately. On the day of the task a “walk
through” with Nathan is the opportunity to giving him the chance to practice once again.

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It’s Time to Trick-or-Treat!

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REFERENCES
Cherry, K. (2019, December 3). How Maslow's Famous Hierarchy of Needs Explains
Human Motivation. Retrieved March 23, 2020, from
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-4136760
Organization for Autism Research, Inc. (2014). Life journey through autism: a guide to
safety. Arlington, VA.

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