My son was 3 and 1/2 when he was diagnosed with autism.Up until that point his mother (my ex wife) had kept him close to her. She did not feel comfortable at mother & toddler groups, and she would turn the home visitor away when she came to check on my sons progress. So it was not until he started to attend nursery that another grown-up with experience of children was able to interact with him. Until that point it had only been my self and his mother, as my ex also shunned most other people that came into our lives.

We had both felt that something was different about him but were completely in the dark about autism. He was always fascinated by water. Once he had learnt how to turn on the cold tap he would stand at the sink and move his hand in and out of the running water. He could do this for 45 mins at a stretch, longer if I let him. He was always organizing his bricks into colours and lining up our DVD boxes; he just did not play like other children. In fact it was not like play at all, it was like he had a higher purpose. A little disconcerting at first, but to me it was utterly fascinating, not so his mother ...