By ANDREW WHITEHOUSE
There are few experiences more life-changing than having a child.
Nine months of anticipation are followed by hours of intense excitement, until a squawk and a squeal signal the beginning of a new life – for all of you. There, in front of you, lies a human being, who not only you have made (!), but who you will nurture, support and love through the most vulnerable times of their life.
This is why having a child with developmental problems is so gut-wrenching. Parents imagine the potential distress that their beloved child may experience, and often the hopes and dreams that all parents implicitly have for their child (happiness, health, grandchildren), and even those they had for themselves, need to be re-written. Guilt, heart-ache, and grief.
This is a common tale in my own particular area of research interest, autism, but could easily apply to other developmental conditions such as Downs Syndrome, ADHD and language disorders.
These tales drill down to the core of the human condition and touch people so personally that many are desperate to help.
This passion is clear to see in the sheer volume of theories about what causes children to develop differently, and what can be done to help them reach their full potential.
Taking autism as an example, there exists theories that vaccines, wi-fi, electronic media, and milk, cause the disorder. We also have people claiming that diet changes, bowel bleaching, and homeopathy can ‘cure’ the condition.