Text Gracie Ann Marie

When Kim Faulkner noticed that her two-year old son was unresponsive when someone called his name or talked to him, she felt that something was amiss. Thinking that he might have been hearing-impaired, Kim brought him to get his ears checked, but was told that everything was normal. The delay in his speech also alarmed his parents, who then sought the help of a well-known speech therapist in Britain, while there on holiday.

"I was surprised that he couldn't even call me 'mummy' at three. He invented strange sounds like 'masden' for banana and would point and grunt when he wanted something and throw a tantrum when we couldn't understand him," Kim recalls. "So when we took him to the speech therapist in Britain, he was diagnosed with a semantic pragmatic disorder and that he was on the spectrum for autism."

A quick help
A second opinion at KK Women's & Children's Hospital later confirmed the diagnosis. Though upset, both Kim and her husband chose not to grieve for too long for fear of worsening their son's situation.

"For us, the diagnosis of autism seven years ago seemed so severe. It wasn't as widely covered in the media or discussed by educationists as it is now. We were fortunate that we found Anita Russell, the therapist that worked with our son, as she was not only sympathetic but was also inspiring," says the mother-of-three.

Daily chores could prove to be challenging for a child with autistic tendencies. Kim observed that her son would throw tantrums when he had to brush his teeth in the morning and get dressed. "This is why the therapy was good for him as it didn't just deal with his speech and communication issues but it also taught him how to deal with the changes in everyday life," shares Kim.

Impact on the family
Kim admits that she had to do a lot of explaining to her eldest daughter when her son was first diagnosed with the disorder. "She was five at the time and was not old enough to understand her brother's condition," she recalls. "She resented the fact that we were less tolerant of bad behaviour from her than we were from him."

"But after a lot of reassurances and talks about how her brother is different and that we need to help him get along, she has become more understanding. Having a third child when our son was four helped too. The baby was a big hit with the other two," she quips.  

The progress
Kim experiences the same kinds of anxiousness as any parents of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) kids – worries about the child's social and communication development, the joy of his learning a new skill and succeeding in something that most children take for granted, such as attending a birthday party and not having a tantrum.

In any case, Kim is positive about his son's future. "I am optimistic about his ability to integrate into mainstream society," she says. "But I also understand that he needs to be equipped to deal with every social and emotional developmental milestone in his childhood, teenage years and adult life."

Grab this month's issue of Family, available now at all major newsstands and bookstores