Mothers Day morning is the most precious time of the year for me, as I’m certain it is for all mothers.  My boys jump into our bed, smother me in hugs and kisses and proudly present me with their cards and gifts.  It is truly the best morning of the year.  Yesterday morning was wonderful and following the kisses and gift giving I settled down with a huge cup of coffee to watch the Sunday program on the telly.  In my opinion it’s one of the best shows of the week on Aussie TV.  This week they ran a story that was rather poignant to my own mothering experience, titled “Living with Autism” and after watching it I felt a real sense of validation.  

As many of you know I have a 10-year-old son with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).  We know that we are extremely lucky that he’s high functioning and unless you know he has ASD you may just think he’s got a few oddities.  He has some tell tale traits like repetitiveness, a need for routine, he misses social cues, his hand writing is atrocious and he chews things up destroying them for all time.  He’s rather loud and stubborn and if left to his own devices would eat me out of house and home.  But with all that said he’s also tremendously loving, intelligent, independent and socially responsible.

 When Lee and I were presented with the overwhelming news that Bailey had ASD we literally felt like someone turned off all the lights and we found ourselves in this deep dark pit of disappear and sadness.  The prospect of our beautiful little boy spending the rest of his life locked within himself was heartbreaking and very painful.  At this point in time I can clearly recall a voice in my head screaming, “NO, this is not going to happen to my child”.  With those words wringing in my ears I set about doing everything in my power to give Bailey the very best prospects of a happy, productive and “normal” life.   Sadly there were very few positives available to us, it was literally all doom and gloom.

I have made it my personal responsibility to only report on the positive side of our experience so that anyone who reads about our journey will walk away with a true sense of hope, knowing that there are children living with ASD who fit into society and have fulfilling and meaningful lives.  This week I was delighted to see two separate TV pieces reflecting my own views on a positive outlook on ASD.  The first was an interview with the dreamy Geoff Sewell who has a daughter with ASD.  The thing that made me smile as I watched the interview was how enthusiastic he was, he literally didn’t stop smiling as he chatted away about their experience.  Then the Sunday programs segment on Autism reported a real change in the approach to children with ASD.

(There had been a link here to the Sunday program but it no longer works so I have deleted it.) 

Two of the most appalling things that we encountered in the early days was the long delay in getting our child assessed, we had to wait over six months to see the specialists, this waiting time has now blown out to an unacceptable 18 months.  Also the extremely low level of government aid allocated to early intervention programs here in Australia.  Bailey’s total government funded aid was 2 hours a week for approximately 40 weeks, that’s it!  Without essential early intervention we miss the core time of growth and development so vital in the process of teaching children with ASD to learn how to live with their fears and develop real coping skills.

Nicole Rogerson of Autism Awareness (NSW) is campaigning to have 1000 Hours of Early Intervention per annum for 2 years for every pre-school child with autism in Australia.  You can help by registering your support here.  If we all put our heart and soul behind this campagne we can make a difference.

TTFN