Lachlan's Story

My son, Lachlan, was born in August 2005 and appeared to be a happy, healthy baby reaching all his milestones just like every other infant. At 18 months, Lachlan woke one day and appeared not to recognise us. He held his head and screamed constantly as if in pain. He lost all his speech and the ability to communicate with us. He lost the ability to feed himself or tolerate any food that wasn't smooth in consistency. He sat and spun the wheels on his toys constantly. His tantrums and meltdowns lasted for hours on end, screaming and hitting his head on the floor. He would not sleep, and when he did he would wake up, stand on the end of the bed and throw himself to the ground screaming. He had no eye contact and didn't recognise if anyone else was in the room with him.

Despite many visits to our GP they could find nothing wrong with him – mind you, these visits were difficult with Lachlan being uncooperative and other patients passing judgment on us in the waiting room. Eventually I insisted on being referred to a paediatrician. His diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder changed our lives dramatically.

I spent every minute of the day trying to communicate with him, trying to avoid tantrums, trying to avoid him banging his head and hurting himself, teaching him how to feed himself and how to play with his toys again. I survived on no sleep for days on end while my husband worked 80hr weeks to support us. I was forced to retreat from the outside world since leaving the house or having visitors was too stressful for Lachlan to cope with. Even buckling up in the car could take 2 hours. Friends and family have difficulty understanding our situation and the degree of planning required for every aspect of the day. A simple trip to the park could end in tears when he got hyperactive, became aggressive towards other children and struggled to change activities. We needed to forewarn him of what might happen that day by showing him pictures in the order they would occur and ensure that sequence was followed to avoid a meltdown.

When Lachlan was offered a place at the AEIOU Foundation in Toowoomba we jumped at the opportunity. We re-mortgaged the house to provide his first year of fulltime early intervention and haven't looked back. Even though the financial stress is overwhelming we're seeing improvements all the time.

I learned about AEIOU through my brother-in-law in Brisbane and started the program in 2008. Lachlan's first day was exciting and scary at the same time. After forcing him from the car, we got inside and met his teachers. They took him screaming and thrashing about and I was embarrassed to leave him with other people. What if he attacked them? What if he vomited on them? I arrived at 2.30pm later that day and found him in the sensory room asleep. I couldn't believe it. Within a week, the staff at AEIOU were able to ask him to sit on the floor in a circle and he could do it. I never thought it was possible. We tried to follow through at home as much as we could and his progress has been a miracle. All the hard days have been worth every minute when you see Lachlan now.

Lochie is now dressing himself and helping with the groceries every week. He loves the park and has started asking other kids to play with him - something we never thought could happen. We even have Sunday breakfast at a local café and enjoy our pancakes with ice cream - he is one of the most well behaved boys there.

We're proud of Lachlan and are grateful to AEIOU for helping him communicate again. We have another year in the program and look forward to what the future may bring.

Nicole Dennis