Occupational therapy also teaches the safety rules to kids on spectrum.

Parking lot rules - hold hands. Crowded place rule- stay close. Store rule- have to be in arms distance. We started teaching these since she was two after years and years of repetation she has learnt to follow them. We dont reward or punish, but tell her rules are there to keep her safe. During a meltdown all rules go out the window, but thats to be expected, at which point we go to the bathroom and let her play with soap and water.

yes OT helps. Apart from that I practised tip toe - walk- run sequence at home/park . When my 3.5 year old runs when we are out, I ask him to tip toe and we both do it together. He seems to enjoy it and quickly stops running across when we play the sequence in crowded places. we do a bit of running when its safe to do so.

Mine is not a consistent runner, it sounds like you need big help with this issue. What I did is explain the concept of moving cars and that the cars can’t see him and will make him a gush mark if he’s not careful. Then we hold hands and walk down the sidewalk and stop before every driveway and I ask “do you see a moving car?” I don’t know if it’s sinking in yet, but we get lots of practice doing this- I hope it becomes automatic.

Someone suggested to me last week to use weighted backpack when outdoors to calm him down. I have used yet however it may be worth giving a try! I plan to use a regular back pack with some of his stuff to start with xx