AT THE tender age of 8 months, Sam’s behaviour was already unusual. He smiled, but not in response to other people. Nor did he look at people’s faces or babble like other children. “He was a very quiet baby,” says Sam’s mother, Kathy Powell of Tallahassee, Florida. “We dismissed it at first – we thought ‘he’s a boy, it will probably just happen a little slower’.” Six months on, things hadn’t improved and Sam’s paediatrician persuaded the family to screen him for communication problems, leading to a test for autism.
The test was positive and Sam began behavioural therapy. He is…
