About Sam
I am the proud mum of the two children you see on the photograph – Sam is 12 and Erin is just 3 years old. Sam has Asperger’s Syndrome.
I want to tell you about a project I have been involved with which Autistica has helped to fund, in the hope that you will make a donation. It is the Autism Baby Siblings project – also known as BabySibs.
Like Autistica, my husband and I really want to know what is causing autism so that we can find ways of making life easier for Sam. BabySibs has been an ideal opportunity for us (and Erin, of course!) to make a difference.
The BabySibs project follows a group of babies who have an older sibling with autism, who they compare with babies who have siblings, but with no autism in their family. The researchers are looking for early signs of autism so that in the future, we can have earlier support and interventions for our autistic children.
This could have made the world of difference to Sam. Sam was officially diagnosed with autism at 10 but I believe that the signs were there when he was just 18 months. I feel that a crucial year was lost in Sam’s development. If he had been supported at a younger age, he may have been given the tools to cope better than he currently is. I home school Sam now because mainstream school is a traumatic place for Sam.
So, when Erin was just 6 months she became a Baby Scientist! It was actually great fun for Erin with the researchers playing peek-a-boo and other games with her, while observing her responses. With Erin on my lap, they put a hat on her head which recorded her brain responses while she happily watched a range faces and objects on a screen. The team also recorded her eye movements to see if she was more focused on faces than objects. It is all very impressive and fascinating stuff. We returned with Erin when she was a year old and we will go back again one last time when she is two years old.
Having been a part of the research process, I am convinced that research into causes and early intervention is one of the most important areas of autism today. The progress of autism research in the last few years is very impressive – and we may even have some answers before too long.
But we are concerned, as the economic downturn is causing people to stop making donations. We can’t allow this to happen to Autistica – we must continue to support them, as they must continue their level of research funding.
Please make a donation today, so that Autistica can continue to enable pioneering researchers get closer to finding the answers we are all looking for.
Thank you for reading this.
Sarah Carritt
