Mark Kent

THIS INTERVIEW WILL BE DONE IN TWO PARTS ,POSSIBLE THREE PARTS

PART ONE..    tell us little about you and your son Alfie .his age

1.my name is Alison Hardy.i work in marketing ,i am married to Alex .we have two children .lizzy who is 17 who is neurotypical and Alfie.age 7 .who has Autism.Alfie is almost completely non-verbal.he pursues his own agenda for much of the time.which means that he takes far longer than other children learn how too do things .../he takes less notice of what other people do so his oppertunities for social learning are fewer../he all so has some sensory challenges.he seems acutely sensitive to noises .particularly noise ,which can be very distressing for him.conversely he does not seem too feel hot or cold at all .and is in danger of burning himself on hot surfaces or  freezing to death .as for example when he took all his clothes off in th snow.

2.age when Alfie was diagnosed .has it helped you.with being diagnosed .how autism effects Alfie /family how you parent feel

REPLY ,..Alfie was diagnosed when he was two and a half years old .we probablly know for longer or at least suspected  tha Alfie was different .but it took us a long time to talk to one anther then to contact the health professionals,the process of diagnosis was quite lenghy .not because our local nhs was slow,but because it was a thoughful and considered process.four different professions .a health visitor ,a community paediatrician .a  speech and lanuage therapist and an occupational therapist..saw Alfie  on three settings home,the clinic and his nursery.we received lenghy and thoughful written diagnosis .exsplaining what observations had been made and why the professionals considered this was consistent with asd .followed up with a face -to-face  meeting through out the process .i kept hoping that some one would tell me i was wrong that i was just a pushy middle-class mother kicking up a fuss be cause her son was not hitting developmental mile stones as fast as other children ,so when we got the diagnosis .i felt a mix of vindication and sorrow .i cried at the face to face meeting.i kept thinking what if he never learns to talk.what if i never hear my son say i love you mummy.i confided this in Alex and he said rather crossley ...,this is not about you.it is about Alfie .it sounds harsh .but  of course he was right and from that point i was able too pull myself together and focus on getting Alfie the best care for Alfie .

more from Alison will follow within a few days .

                                 mark