Unfortunately this is common for a lot of us and it is not a safe situation. My daughter got away from my wife one time in a store parking lot when she wanted to see the bikes out front, but my wife had our son with her as well and he is only a year older than our 7 year old low functioning non verbal daughter. Fortunately my son is HFA and listened and stayed by the car while my wife ran after my daughter, so he was safe from being hit by a car , but he was still a distance away from them and something bad could have happened. He did do a lot of stimming until my wife calmed him down though.

Anyway what we did was get a harness for my daughter so that she had the freedom to walk on her own but could not go far. Trust me it was not easy to get her to wear it but it did work until we could get her to just hold hands without running . We put it on her for a few minutes at a time at first doing outside things she liked doing and did some walks around the neighborhood first until we did it at a store. She did finally understand that she was not going to do certain activities without it. Finally she would actually get it from the coatrack by herself to let us know she wanted to go for a walk or the store.

This did take a while and we did get some snickers and looks from people when they saw her in it, and we have heard the under your breath comments from people but I just do not let that bother me anymore. The only time we really use it now is when we are going to be at a place where there are a lot of people.

The other option you have is to get a full size stroller. You will not find them at a store you have to get them the same way you get a disabled child a wheelchair with a dr script from a mobility company. A company named Convaid makes them, look them up they have a few models to choose from.

If anyone needs any information about the process let me know, I am a manager at a national mobility company and I can tell you how to do it. We have one and they are very nice and hold up well.

I had the same issues with my son when he was younger, he is 12 now. I did the harness as well after I learned my lesson the hard way! His Dad and I are not together so we meet to drop off and pick up at the local mall. My son was fine when being dropped off to Dad but when he would bring him back we would have an issue. Sadly his Dad wasn't very attentive at the time and had let go of his hand. He bolted out of the doors and took off running into the parking lot. He was so quick that Dad or myself could not catch him! My heart was in my throat for 2 hours while mall security was alerted and an "amber alert" was issued. He had taken off and was hiding in the maintenance room in one of the malls hallways. They only reason they found him there was a janitor had just clocked in and was starting his shift and was getting his clean up gear. I was relieved that he was safe but now we had another issue the local police had us interviewed for at least an hour thinking we neglected him! We explained what happened and the cop didn't have a drop of sympathy. Finally the guy who found my son had walked in the room while the interview was taking place. My jaw dropped! The wonderful guy who found him had down syndrome his name was Charlie :) That great guy stood there and defended us by saying "its not their fault, dont blame them!" He was visibly upset too. I said to him "its ok calm down" :) He had gotten so upset because he believed the authorities were going to take my son or us to jail. The other cop assured him that wasn't the case and not to worry, but this guy Charlie stood his ground and refused to leave till he saw all of us get in the car. "I had asked him if he was ok and his response to me was heartbreaking. He had the same issue as my son with eloping and had gone through this almost 20 yrs before and the cops removed him from his home and had placed him in foster care till it was proven that his parents were suitable to care for him. He said "I was in that place for 3 months and missed school, missed my sister, and my family and I was not going to see that happen to your little boy!" I was in tears! All I could do was give Charlie the biggest hug I could muster up and thanked him repeatedly! He went a step further and volunteered his phone # in case we needed any help. He was the sweetest person I ever met, and he wanted to "stay in touch" now 6 yrs later he still calls us once a week to check on our son that he is behaving himself! lol The funnier thing is that my son has really grown an attachment to him and they have become fast friends. Since this incident my son has never taken off since :)~~lesson learned!

It goes to show how much society has changed in 20 yrs!

When I first started as Lilly's nanny, she would absolutely not hold hands. She would squirm, bite, refuse to walk, and bolt as soon as I let go. I started by doing 15 min of practice everyday. We went out side and she was allowed to lead and choose direction, but only if we held hands. If she sat down and refused to walk, she would be carried. She fought very hard at first, but then realized that she would not be walking without holding hands. It only took a week. Now, she holds her hand out for me to hold it as soon as we are outside. It is no longer an issue.
It was hard at first. Being consistent is crucial! Don't give up. I know a harness may be nessesary but I hope it would be a last resort. Sooner or later, holding hands will have to be addressed. Good luck!

We use a harness on our 4 year old grandson when we have him out in crowd situations. He does let us hold his hand but sometimes tries to pull away if he sees something he is interested in. One thing we found to be effective was when we got the harness we initially would put just the harness on him (no strap attached) and let him wear it around the house while he played. In a very short time he became so used to having it on that he did not fuss when we used it outside of the home. Being grandparents, we can't run fast enough to catch him and the harness was a wonderful solution. We quickly learned to ignore the idiotic statements some people made about the harness. We even had one lady accuse us of treating him like an animal. I told her we were treating him like a child we dearly love and if it bothered her that was unfortunate but his safety was more important than her approval.

I have 6 year old twins, one with ADHA and one with moderate autism & non verbal. I am a single mom & handicapped myself and very thankful I have a 17 year old to help run after these two. Like others when they were little they would run in opposite directions leaving me decide which was in more danger and go that direction first. Finally about 3 1/2 the son with ADHD learned to stay put while I chased the autistic brother. My son with autism is also a master of locks. We have replaced so many locks and tried so many alarms that I honestly keep the local lock & alarm companies in business. We have even had custom made locks put on our doors that we had to train every person who came to our house and the fire department on how to activate the door to get out or get into the house!! Now at 6 yrs old despite custom locks, door alarms, and window alarms he has now resorted to breaking the windows and I've nearly replaced every window in the house with very thick plexi-glass. Shane loves play outside and even though he plays outside for hours each day he would rather live outside which of course can't happen. He runs to neighborhood pools despite us getting our own. He also runs right into traffic and never realizes that cars are about to hit him. At a 4th of July city function he got away from me and even though my older son and I were both running to get him and right behind him, he ran right into a moving car striking the driver's door. I almost lost 2 sons that day while crowds of people just sat by and did nothing. His first 2 years at school I was an anxiety mess because I was terrified that he would get away from them at school and they were just as terrified. They started out with paper stop signs on doors (they can't lock classroom doors due to fire regulations). Then they moved to red (for stop) masking tape on the door and across gates on the play ground and across thresholds of doorways. His physical therapist was behind this and she even came to the school after hours to train him on the playground and in the hallways. The next year he moved to a school who knew better how to teach autistic children. Within 1 school year, they had him walking independently in the hallways...sometimes they still have to jog to keep up with him but he doesn't run away and this school does not have a fenced in playground. But, just in case, to set everyone at a little more ease, we have also added a gps tracking devise. It's by Amberalertgps.com it only cost 24.99 per month & the device was free with a 3 year contract. It's easy to use from a computer or Iphone. And when he gets older (teenage years) if I ever suspect that there is bullying going on, I can secretly listen in to what ever is going on in his surroundings without anyone knowing. There is also an SOS button on the device that he can push so that we can hear & speak to each other just like a telephone (hopefully he will be talking by this time).