One of the big things that I find myself worrying about is, will Leon ever realise that he’s different. Now for a neurotypical individual, feeling as though you’re different is a scary thing in itself. If I put myself in Leons shoes, it does appear to be even more daunting. In no way am I saying all children will feel this or should, of course not! But for me personally it does bother me that one day Leon may think to himself why do people not interact with me the same as they do everyone else. This may actually never be the case and instead Leon carries on being the happiest little boy in the world. But for me, as his older brother, it does upset me that for one, he does get treated differently and two, at some point in his life he may realise this.

This is again one of the reasons why I developed this platform. To address the fact that Neurodiverse people in some cases do get treated differently. Why is that the case? I know their needs may be slightly different to the average Neurotypical individual, however bar that, why do they get a different treatment?Why is it that when councils need funding for something, the first thing they turn to is pulling funding from a special needs school? If anything the SEN school needs it more than anyone else. We could very easily go as far to say its discrimination, which quite frankly it is.

I learnt my lesson the other day at work, where an autistic child came in. Without thinking I had changed the way I spoke to this child, to the way I would speak to my brother, to allow it to be clearer. This really sweet little boy turned around and said to me ‘ why are you speaking differently, speak normally’.(In no way was I being patronising or anything, I just reverted to how I speak to Leon) Which of course did make my laugh, however it did get me thinking. Every child is so different it’s impossible to think that one way will be best for them all. From this interaction, I’ve learnt I need to try gage how the individual interacts whether this be sign or partial speech or whatever it may be, before I just simply assume that the way I talk to my brother is the best way to talk to this other child.