| Jay | Jay spoke well and early and was reading long before the start of school. When he moved into an all-boys private school however, it was the beginning of his private hell, details of which were not learned until many years later. At 21 he was wrongly diagnosed with schizophrenia. |
As a baby, Christina screamed like an irritated animal and she didn't sleep. Now she engages little with the outside world, has a poor sense of danger and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). |
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Michael appeared to be in a little world of his own. To this day I still hear my daughter's voice over the telephone saying “Mum Michael has autism”. But then another dreadful shock, his brother Christopher was diagnosed with high-functioning autism. |
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At 10 months he would push his wooden trolley filled with them round the kitchen and living room making the exact noises you would expect to hear from a Massey Ferguson tractor. By 17 months there were no sounds, no eye contact, no smiles. The fact is that our little boy had disappeared. |
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Giles was our only child, a beautiful baby. I'd aimed to give him a quiet, secure life and he was so contented as a baby that at first I thought we were doing rather well. |
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The fact that my son Cameron, at 6, uses the simple sentences he does is due to myself, his school and a local autistic charity rehearsing them over and over again with him. |