Athaliah Reynolds, Staff Reporter

Sixteen-year-old Delano Douglas shares a hug with his older sister Donique Fearon. Delano, who is autistic, is a member of the Spanish Town Seventh-day Adventist Church where he plays the keyboard. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Sixteen years ago when Andrea Hylton gave birth to her son Delano, she didn't know he was any different from the other infants around him. But at 18 months, Delano lagged far behind in his development, in comparison to other children his age.

At almost two years old, he was barely responsive.

"He wasn't sounding any words, like 'mama' or 'papa', and he could hardly walk," his mother told The Gleaner yesterday, following a thanksgiving service in recognition of Autism Awareness Month at the Webster Memorial United Church on Half-Way Tree Road, St Andrew.

Hylton said she took Delano to a paediatrician who told her he was autistic.

"I didn't even know what that meant," she said. "The doctor took out this huge medical encyclo-paedia and looked up the word and showed it to me and then began to explain the condition," said Hylton.

Struggles unknown

But even with this information, the single mother was still unaware of the struggles associated with raising a child with autism, and the skills that would become necessary to manage the physical, mental and social challenges.

One of Hylton's first challenges was to find an organisation that would help her to better deal with Delano's learning and social disabilities.

"It was very difficult because he dealt with everything differently from other children, and if you didn't understand him it could cause tremendous problems," she said.

"For example, at one point he had a problem with the colour white, so if someone was wearing a white coat or had on anything white, he wouldn't respond to them, but would just run around and scream and shout," Hylton explained.

"Now, for someone who doesn't understand this, they would think he was insane or just rude."

Luckily, Hylton was able to discover the Promise Learning and Training Centre, an institution that caters to children with autism and similar learning disabilities.

The privately owned school, which started out with just five students in a small building on Old Church Road in St Andrew, now houses over 34 children on North Avenue, Kingston.

Difficult journey

Although the journey has been difficult, Hylton said she is thankful for the assistance and expertise provided by the teachers at the institution.

Education Minister Andrew Holness yesterday acknowledged that the country was in need of more learning institutions that cater specifically to the needs of children with autism. He said the ministry was, in fact, working on developing a special-education policy for children like Delano.

"We recognise that there are many persons in our population who suffer from some form of learning disability, some form of special needs in education, that is not being catered to in mainstream education," Holness said during the church service.

"Where persons have learning disabilities, we are also moving to introduce tests and stream mechanisms to identify and treat those special learning needs," he added.

But Holness said the ministry was currently grappling with the issue of finding adequate funding for such programmes. He further said he would be willing to partner with privately owned institutions to provide quality assistance and education to children with learning disabilities.

"We will, as far as possible, buy spaces in such establishments," he said.

athaliah.reynolds@gleanerjm.com