The sessions were held in a children’s centre. Ahmed, a three and a half year old, had a probable diagnosis of autism. The family had support from the county council’s early years portage team, who were helping the family to access programs and facilities such as speech and language therapy. Despite this, it appeared that our programme was the only service they were accessing at that time.
Ahmed had not yet had a confirmed diagnosis of autism, but his mother was prepared for this to happen as he had been going for assessments and a diagnosis of autism looked likely. Ahmed presented as essentially non-verbal, with challenges in the areas of behaviour and in his ability to interact and socialise with others. He also appeared to find it difficult to focus. He was very much in his body, running, jumping, walking, and hardly stopped to sit. The first three sessions seemed to be challenging for both the mother and the child. The mother was very uncertain of participating in the group and tend to watch as her child ran around the room, not really settling or focusing at all.
There was one session that seemed to change both the child and the mother. They had had a difficult journey in and the mother came to me talking of how hard and wearing the day had been so far and how she thought her child would be resistant to the session. Our therapist helped facilitate and support this family through changes. The mother became more confident and more accepting of her son, and this lead to greater bonding, cuddling and music making between the two of them and were part of a cohesive group that had taken part in a shared experience with other families that have children with special needs.
