So, you sit in Woolies and tell your friend over a Cuppachino that you are worried about your son. You tell her that he was such a lovely, lively, normal little guy, inquisitive and energetic, talkative and intelligent… but recently you and your husband have notices that his behavior has changed. He tends to withdraw, doesn’t come for hugs and cuddles, seems to not look at people – even worse, he tends to astutely avoid eye contact when people address him, and most worrying of all is that his play has stagnated and become quite obsessive. He sits in a corner, peering at objects out of the corner of his eyes, endlessly amused by spinning objects, the wheels of his little cars, the rotating blades of a ceiling fan, the rotations of the clothes in the washing machine. He has lost words out of his vocabulary and he relies more and more on body language to communicate what he wants. He tends to pull you and your husband towards his favourite objects, demands things with tantrums and can’t seem to stop making high-pitched screeching sounds. He seems fascinated by the colour purple and whenever you take something away which he’s been staring at for hours, he throws a tantrum so large, that your neighbours must be thinking of reporting you to the Child Protection Unit.

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