One of the common characteristics of autistic people is having narrow interests. This could be anything – dinosaurs, solar system, flowers… trains. This story tells of Carrie’s caregiving journey from buying her son Thomas & Friends trainset to trainspotting with him in Switzerland.
Carrie’s son, Ethan, was barely 3 year-old when his parents were told that he has autism. After getting a second opinion that confirmed the diagnosis, they bombarded themselves with the ‘why?’, ‘what did we do?’, ‘what went wrong?’ – questions that nobody could answer.
“There was a lot of information online… all kinds of different treatments. We didn’t really know what was reliable. We just did everything we could afford. Our mentality was to leave no stone unturned. We even tried this energy patch, which we stuck on different points of his body… It was supposed to help with healing him through energy. You see, how desperate we were.”
Eventually, Carrie got in touch with an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapist, who helped her to focus on what really mattered.
“I still remember what she said. The first six years are the most important. Early intervention is most important. Our approach changed to, find someone reliable and stick with it.”
With a grounded determination to not waste time in those 6 years, Carrie decided to focus on an intensive 1:1 behavior therapy programme for Ethan. At the same time, he also attended preschools like most children his age. As a family (Ethan has a younger sister), they did activities every typical family would. They went on trips, self-drove to Johor, went on outings and staycations, ate at hawker centres, etc. She is grateful that her husband simply agreed with all her decisions and went with the flow.
“I know this (situation) could make or break us. Many couples break up… For us, aside from the intensive therapy, we did normal things, just like any typical family. I am so lucky that he (her husband) just came on board with me, went on the ride with me.”
Throughout his childhood, there was a constant source of happiness for Ethan. He loved trains. The theme song of Thomas & Friends was played excessively during his therapy sessions and at home. It was a fantastic way to catch and sustain his attention for learning. He had to hold a small train from the trainset in his hand wherever he went, and especially when he went to school. His toy collection slowly became a trainset collection. There were Thomas & Friends, Chuggington, Shinkansen and many other lesser-known trainsets that nevertheless, held his attention and interest. Trainsets were also built into his reward system as he went on to study in primary school.
