During the six month diagnostic period my son attended a special school attached to the main hospital in our area. For the first two visits I was asked to bring him and collect him. On the first day the special needs teacher told me, “He has a long way to go.”, which I found a little disheartening. But on the second day she said, “What a difference. He must have been paying very close attention on his last visit because today he was much more responsive.” 

This is very much how my son behaves. He observes and when he feels he can take part he does. At the school they had various communication techniques. One was to use 'flash cards' with words or pictures on them. A picture of a toilet would be shown to him if he looked distressed, like he needed to go, and so on. They also discovered that to calm his hyper activity if they put him in a part of the room with low lighting he would immediately calm down. Another alarming thing they found about him was that he had no depth perception beyond about six inches. All of these facts helped a lot in better understanding his behaviour. And along with attending the special school the staff at the nursery were helping him to play with the other children in an effort to encourage him to socialize more.

I have been told on more than one occasion that early diagnosis is the key to helping autistic children go on to lead independent lives, get jobs, make friends and generally get the most out of their lives. Now that my son is 11 this is proving to be true.

The name of the special school is Dolphin House. A very fitting name I thought, as I have often looked at my son as either a dolphin in a human’s body or possibly a dolphin from a previous life. I think any parent of an autistic child will know exactly what I am talking about: they are effervescent ...