When our son first attended the A.T.T. clinic in Edinburgh two years ago aged five, he was incredibly withdrawn, rarely responded to questions, had very limited speech and play routines and got anxious and upset if his line-ups of cars were altered in any way. He had no interest in reading or writing (apart from laying out the alphabet in order, which he’d been doing for years); indeed he was not interested in putting pencil to paper at all. He also often hit out at other children, usually when they’d upset one of his routines which they were unaware of.

The changes we have seen him undergo since then have been amazing. Firstly, the gluten-free casein-free diet seemed to bring him out of his dazed detached state. Then elimination of sugar and probiotic supplements etc which stopped the hitting (within two weeks he’d gone from four to five hits a week, monitored on a chart by the school, to none – and it has remained none ever since). Next, B12, glutathione etc supplements seemed to help him focus far more – his speech suddenly improved dramatically, as did his reading and writing. He now writes and draws constantly, is fascinated by spelling words, and can read slowly.

He is fully involved in classroom activities and learning (not isolated at all) and has an excellent and empathetic classroom assistant, who helps him when required, and is continually working towards increasing his independence.

One of the best moments for us was when other children at the school started commenting that they could now speak to our son and play with him

It’s been a long road, and there’s still work to be done – more supplementations to continue/introduce, and continuing developmental input (it’s as if he suddenly woke up and now has to catch up on lost years), but his progress has encouraged us to continue along this path.

We now have a happy, sociable child who is keeping up with his classmates at schoolwork, and will hopefully now continue to catch up with them in other ways.

We are so grateful to Lorene and the A.T.T for the treatment that has enabled this change to take place. There is definitely new hope for autistic children, and the ATT’s pioneering work is leading the way.