11 year old not allowed out

[flea101]

11 year old son is autistic and has adhd. He wants to go to the park on his own, I am reluctant to let him as he isn’t the best at keeping friendships and can be full on. Also there was a case of children (13-15) assaulting a woman this week, the youngest being only 2 years older than my son worries me as my son could realistically play with these children and I wouldn’t necessarily know. He seems to get on better with younger children but you never know. Am I wrong to go with him when he plays out? I don’t mind him playing outside our front door as it is a quiet street and I can keep an eye, but the park is down the road and I can’t see it from my house.

ND kids typically have the emotional maturity of children 2-3 years younger, so in your shoes I probably wouldn’t. You’d have to ask yourself, how likely would he be to wander off with a stranger? Can he advocate for himself? Would he know to come back at a certain time? IMO 11 is young to go to a park alone without adding in the ND, but appreciate that may be because I live in a big city.

added- I live in a small town on a quiet family estate, so it isn’t big city or anything.

Start to sometimes walk with him to the park and see him playing and give him one hour to be home. Essentially training him to act responsibly over time. Put a tracable tile in his shoe and give DS a dumb phone in his back pack maybe.

I wouldn’t let any 11 yr old go to the park on their own unless they were meeting up with other children.

When you say on his own do you mean to meet friends or completely by himself?

Is he going to secondary in September? If so, will he need to be walking to and from school?

In our area kids tend to start going to the park at the end of year 5 and into year 6 but it completely depends on your own child.

No
Mum of ND Teen and tween.

At that age, I let them go to the park with a friend and back from the park with a friend
They started walking the 10 minutes to school And back on their own at nine. However, they were instructed to come straight back home after and if they wanted to go to the park (Which was halfway), they had to come here first to drop the school bag and I suggested they bring their friend with them then go back to the park together

It enabled me to check they were okay and not being bullied or Dysregulated in someway by The School day. I.e. to check that they were safe To be out without an adult

A ND 11 year year-old Is developmentally more like an eight year-old. So if you wouldn’t let an eight-year-old go to the park on their own, then don’t let the 11 year-old

Do they have any local friends?

Thank you. He goes to a special school and has friends in our street who he plays with, so would be going to the park with them.