Ds is 6, recently been diagnosed with asd (supposedly high functioning) and pica. He has no sense of social distancing or personal boundaries. Will lick his hands, car hub caps, anything he can get hold of. He is verbal but won't have a conversation or seem to listen when someone is talking to him. He is also a runner, but also sometimes very clingy, there seems to be no in between. Before covid we had strategies. We went to a lot of places like soft play where he couldn't escape from and we would take extra adults (usually PIL ) on days out or trips to parks with no gates. We went to groups for children with disabilities where there would be extra adults on hand.
Now all our help is gone. The disability groups have been closed for a year and pil are shielding. We have another child who is CV so I feel very nervous about going to the park unless there is nobody else there. We can't just walk round the housing estate as he won't hold my hand, won't wear reins and runs into the road if he gets the opportunity. Every time I have tried taking him for a walk in the last year I have had to phone dh to come and get us in the car because he's broken another set of reins, nearly been run over or is lying on the floor refusing to move. But if I don't take him out his sleeping, which has always been bad, is even worse than usual. I'm tempted to get him a buggy so at least I can take him out safely but they are so expensive for something that hopefully we won't need long term and it wouldn't help the lack of outdoor exercise.