The dangers of swimming pools: In memoriam Jaden Fournier, 3 years old.

by Kristina Chew, PhD on June 17th, 2006

On the very morning when we are planning to take Charlie to the town pool for the first swim of summer 2006, a three-year-old autistic boy is reported to have drowned in his backyard swimming pool on Thursday, according to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. Jaden Fournier of Henrietta in upstate New York apparently walked off a deck into an above-ground swimming pool. Jaden was non-verbal and loved Elmo.
In Thursday’s case, “the parents had taken measures to restrict the boy’s access to the pool area by placing a number of barriers in the way. But the boy was able to overcome those,” said Cpl. John Helfer, a spokesman for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
Summer has yet to start and already three autistic children—Tyji Chester, 7, in Maryland earlier this month and Korey Penwall, 5, in Indiana on May 26th—have drowned. I can barely imagine what Jaden’s mother, Jessica Fournier, is thinking and feeling.
I can understand why a family with an autistic child might have a backyard swimming pool. More than a few autistic children (my son included) love the water and, in summertime, pools are a constant temptation. We take Charlie to a town pool to swim but—it being a public setting, with lots of bodies splashing in the water and rules like “adult swim” for fifteen minutes every hour—-the delight of swimming can sometimes be erased by an upset child who sees the water and must get into it NOW. Some families that we know have a pool in their backyard to help their child, and them, get through long summer days without the structure of school. We know of a family whose son was—-like Charlie—an excellent swimmer, but who drowned in the family pool one morning.
Pools are too much fun; pools are dangerous.
I will be watching Charlie both in the pool and (more unlikely) beside it, and thinking of the Fourniers, and of Jaden.

Dr Chew writes for www.autismvox.com