Being a grandparent and watching the effects of Autism on the whole family gives us an insight into how much help is needed to protect some very vulnerable children and adults who have the condition.

Schooling is unquestionably the must cost effective way of helping parents and the children, for effecting the child’s ability to communicate is fundamental in the progress that can be made. Since my grandson started school his progress has made for some wonderful moments in our lives and has such an effect on everyone including his teachers his parents and the other children within his school.  

Giving schools the ability and funding to effect such change is vital; the better able any child is prepared for adulthood will have enormous social and economic benefits in the future. Awareness is extremely important, thousands of children and adults in this country go undetected, its not always obvious to people; how many times would one think” naughty child in supermarket having a tantrum”, the possibility of that child simply going into meltdown because his sensory functions are going into overdrive, possibly because of ludicrously loud music or extremely bright lighting inside most shops these days. The words awareness is a vital part of educating everyone, those with the condition are able in their own behavioural way telling us all something is wrong for them, those who are not effected have choices simply telling mummy or daddy don’t want to go to that shop or restaurant. The reluctance in society to adopt differences in people is not lack of tolerance but lack of knowledge, thousands of parents of children with autism are reluctant to interact within what we call normal day to day functions within their community; and now because there are more autistic people being identified it also has an effect on the economy,  restraunts and other attractions don’t do enough for everyone, simply having a quiet area that has lower lighting and noise levels and offering gluten free food  would encourage more family’s to spend more time simply going out to eat in a public place which helps the economy and the child’s interaction skill’s.  

The Autistic society needs and wants more help in bringing together everyone’s understanding of the conditions that seriously effect family’s, many parents simply think my child not going to play with “that child” because he or she is different.

Many autistic children are not invited to birthday party’s because different is difficult, when making an effort to find out what the child with autism would be able to cope with; rather than excluding them totally. Lots of the parents of autistic children would gladly offer all the help necessary to involve they’re child into everyday experiences, as in many instances they themselves get excluded, that isolates them and the child even more. A large part of autistic behaviour derives from the child’s inability to express the terrifying experience they are going through, the challenge for us all is to make AWARNESS and understanding our priority; only then will we fully understand the HELL that some children are going through every day sometimes every hour of every day.

Grandad to my beloved xxxxxx.