Maria Box and Trish Duffy, Crawley, UK– are both full time carers to their autistic children. Both are calling for better awareness and acceptance of autism.
Both mothers stress the importance of early intervention. They have both decided to share their own experiences in order to raise awareness.
Maria Box, 27 of Pound Hill is mum to Ryan 5 who was diagnosed with severe autism at 2. She told the Crawley and Horley Observer that she was only given a leaflet at the time of diagnosis and that it was only through the National Autistic Society (NAS) that she found out there was a local support group.
Maria became the chairperson of Autism Support Crawley 2 years ago.
She told the Crawley and Horley Observer:
“I just want people to understand and have a bit of patience and think before they judge.”
Trish Duffy, 27, of Bewbush is mum to Kaitlyn, 5 and is fighting to get an autism diagnosis.
It is reported in the article that Kaitlyn has recently had a provisional diagnosis for pathological demand avoidance (PDA). Trisha voiced that her daughter has received very little support.
“It’s taken a year and a half of fighting to get to this stage and she could have been picked up at two.”
One of the reasons for confusion Trish says is because her daughter has good eye contact and one teacher believed that she could not be autistic.
Kaitlyn has been excluded from school five times in six weeks.
She told the paper:
“I’m trying my best but I’ve had my parenting questioned lots because she has no diagnosis.”
The full article on the Crawley and Horley Observer website can be read here