About Cameron
The fact that my son Cameron, at 6, uses the simple sentences he does is due to myself, his school and a local autistic charity rehearsing them over and over again with him.
Immediately after diagnosis we relocated to a new area where there was a ten-week course called “More than Words”. What do distressed parents like us do if they don’t happen to have that kind of provision in their locality? I observed sessions with a play therapist and learnt that coaxing words out of him needs a specialist approach.
It’s no good insisting on a “please” or “thank you” from a boy like Cameron – he soon picked up that “please” associated with hand gestures could be a shortcut to getting what he wanted. So we had not only to work out what it was that he wanted, but also to find the simplified words for him to repeat … and repeat until voicing his needs became instinctive.
He’s now coming out with phrases that I’d love to believe he’d constructed himself – but mostly he’s heard them on the TV, in the playground or from books. Nevertheless he is loving and sociable and if the children around him can be persuaded to be patient with him, they can unwittingly be performing my job as unqualified - but passionate - speech therapist.
Autistica is equally passionate - about finding out what causes autism. It is the only UK charity set up to fund research into the reasons behind the disorder and - ultimately - interventions to prevent or treat it. Then one day, words might come as easy to children like Cameron as they do to his mainstream peers.
Debbie
