Thursday, 26 March 2009 00:00

Sebastian was born in April 2003. He was diagnosed with autism in March 2005. Privately funded therapy started in July at 20 hours a week. The cost of therapy was too high for me, a single mother with little assets, so therapy was reduced to 10 hours a week; these hours could only be continued thanks to private sponsors. Government funding started in February 2007. The government decided to terminate Sebastian’s therapy after a September 2008 public assessment, in which they said that after 18 months, Sebastian improved by 89%, in spite of his severe autism. He is now learning to communicate using pictures.