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| Who am I? |
My name is Sam. I am the husband of Gill, and we have 3 kids:
Grace, Jake and Nicholas.
Our youngest, Nick, was diagnosed in March 2010 with autism. It was
heartbreaking to have the diagnosis in black and white in front of us,
but in reality, we had been pretty sure for several months that Nick was
autistic. So sure in fact that, following much research and consultation
with autism professionals, we had already decided upon a programme of
intensive early intervention therapy for him.
Such early intervention
has been much researched and the evidence clearly suggests that the
earlier an autistic child receives intensive help to improve their
communication and social interaction skills, the greater their
development is.
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| One Problem... |
Intensive, early intervention programmes are not funded on the NHS.
So any parents of autistic children who want to get their kid effective
help during those vital pre-school years have to bankroll it themselves.
With upwards of 20 hours per week of therapy, the cost is prohibitive
for the majority of families affected by this disorder.
So, we faced a major dilemma. Should we:
- Live within our means, accept the government stance on this and
accept that our son may never learn to talk or communicate in any way,
may never play with another child, may never have a friend, never mind
a place in society or a job?,
OR
- Take a leap of faith: embark on an early-intervention programme,
try and fund as much of it as we can, and figure out the rest as we go
along?
You can probably guess the answer. Please read on...
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