Well the first time I took him was when he was seven months old. He just stopped eating. He had been sick and he had started to vomit when he was eating some food and then after that he just wouldn’t eat anything else again. It was like he remembered or something and he refused to eat. And I took him to the doctor's and I was like you know, “He doesn’t have a smile. He doesn’t put his arms out to me. You know he just refuses to take food. He ignores other people completely.” And the doctor said, “Oh no, there is nothing wrong with him. Some children are just like that.”
And I kept taking him and taking him and because he had had a problem with his arm when was born, so he had to see a physiotherapist, so every six months he had to go to the hospital anyway and this was like the [hospital] and he saw the doctor there and he was about two then and I remember the waiting room was full of children and all the other children was playing together and he was off in a corner by himself as always and when the doctor took us in he said to us, he goes, “He is very much in his own world isn’t he?” And I was like, “Yes, that is how he is.” And he was like, “Oh I will make a note of that.” And I thought ooh may be somebody has noticed. But then still nothing. Still nothing happened until [younger brother] came along and that was three years later.
So what happened then?
He became almost uncontrollable. I suppose it was having somebody else in the house, you know, it throws your routine out completely. And we were talking back… we moved to [hospital] then and he saw the paediatrician there, still about his arm, but that was all fine and then she asked us if we had any other concerns and I told her. I said, “I have been taking him to the hospital all the time, telling them my problems. They just make out that it is me. There is nothing wrong with him.” And she said, she listened to everything, she asked me loads of questions like you know does he play with other children? Can he ask for things? Can he point to things? Can he talk? Because at this point he couldn’t even talk and he almost three and I told her. I answered all her questions and then she said to me, “To be honest with you it sounds like he has got autism.” And she goes, “We will put him down on the list to be assessed.” This was in September, she goes, “He will probably be assessed around the January time.” And she said, you know to go home [laughs]. So we just went home and then in January he was assessed, and oh he was autistic.
