Jennifer's story

When your baby boy fails to develop as expected, most people will tell you not to worry – all children are different, and they take their own time to speak, interact and take an interest in people. That was the strangest thing. Our youngest lad never looked at anyone. A lively group of people could enter our house, exchange excited hellos and news, and our independent two year old just continued to line up his trains, as if nothing at all had happened. The public health nurse suggested that we try to “play with him”, or maybe “introduce him to some books and other stimulating toys”. Like we hadn’t thought of that. Then a radio programme featured an item on autism, and to my deep and lasting horror, they described my little boy – to a T.

So we made some calls and went to visit the esteemed Professor Michael Fitzgerald, who informed us that our boy displayed classic symptoms of autism. At that point, there was nothing on offer for us locally, or even in the county, and although we were able to avail of an excellent home tutor, who got him started with ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis), he needed more. It was only when St Catherine’s Barnacoyle Pre-school opened in February 2004, that he was given his best chance to become an integrated member of society. Timing was key, as we had been told that at preschool age, his brain was malleable enough to accept new ways of doing things, and new ways of thinking. Trying to break into his world was no easy task, but they did it. The staff of Barnacoyle are heroes in our house – they unlocked our little man’s psyche, persuaded him to share himself and his ideas with the world, and forever more, we will be grateful. ABA is something of a magic wand, in our opinion, and the ABA experts and tutors at Barnacoyle are nothing short of magicians. It’s not an easy magic wand, but it’s the one thing that works step by step, day by day, term by term and it transformed our son from an antisocial, self-absorbed, obsessive into a happy, carefree and capable person, who is making great strides at mainstream school.

Autistic children need the investment of time and financial backing when they are young enough to have a fighting chance at a typical life. A typical life means they are unlikely to place a financial burden on the state in later life, so in purely financial terms, it’s a good investment. A few years of the right sort of training at the early stage, versus a lifetime of being locked in their own heads and never sharing their brilliance, perhaps never getting the chance to earn and contribute, and needing huge amounts of help for the rest of their lives. Our son will get through school, and hopefully college and go on to earn his living and hold his head high. Barnacoyle gave him this gift. It was the best gift he will ever receive, even though he himself doesn’t know that yet. All we are asked for is to set up a standing order of €5 per month to help save this facility. For us, we don’t even need to think about it. Anybody out there who may consider helping in the same way, please know the good you are doing. Please know how much your contribution helps people like my son. There are hundreds of charities asking for your support, but you never know when a child close to you may be diagnosed with autism, and if we don’t help, there may be no facilities available to help them.