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Trevor 135
while my gaze was directed at the car going round and round in circles.
Trevor looked at neither me nor the toy. I then gave him the remote
control. A typical child will proudly show his parents how he can make
the car move and might even offer to share the device with them. Unfortunately,
Trevor displayed none of these social–communication skills.
The diagnosis was obvious, and I delivered the bad news.
Alice had been present many times when bad news had been delivered
to other parents on the ward, and so she was quite prepared to hear
it. “OK, so what do we do now?” Alice was eager to start working with
her son on his social and communication skills as soon as possible. “I
want to have a closer relationship with him. I want him to get better. I
don’t want him to be shunted aside as he grows up. He is my only child.
I’m prepared to do anything.”
I tried to reassure her that if we could get him into a treatment program
soon, it would make a big difference to his development. There
now was some persuasive research on early intervention and the difference
it can make in improving outcomes. But the first step was to identify
his treatment needs more specifically and for Alice to learn more
about the various treatment options that were available. This takes
some time. She turned to our treatment team to help her through this
next phase. Alice went to information nights we ran at the hospital on
treatment, joined the local parent support group, talked to team members
about situations at home and to other parents who had older children.
She read many different books on treatment, including the testimonials
of miraculous recovery “if only one followed this or that
treatment program.” She also read the more sober textbooks and treatment
manuals that provided a more balanced account. Then she went
on the Internet and read about other treatment options that were less
well known, that had not been scientifically evaluated but had received
a lot of press and testimonial evidence of success.
But at the end of all this information gathering, she felt no farther
ahead. Worse, she was beginning to feel frantic. She did not know
where to start—so many options, so many choices to make. Alice found
all this information bewildering and disorienting. She was terrified that
if she made the wrong choice, or delayed treatment any longer, all hope
for Trevor’s progress would be lost. Some of the information she read
applied to Trevor, but certainly not all of it did. Some interventions she
could implement at home, but others were not appropriate either because
Trevor already had some basic skills or else Alice did not have the
resources or the time to implement the more time-demanding strate-