Desperate mum is trying to raise £15,000 for her autistic son to get specialist help before starting mainstream school

Samantha Booker, 38, has spent the best part of two decades working as a behavioural therapist and has worked with countless parents whose children need extra support in a school setting.

Already knowing the systems and routes to take with children who have special educational needs, she was the first one to spot autistic tendancies in her own child, Koah, when he was only four months old.

After having Koah, who is now three, she began noticing his behaviours including his lack of eye contact, food aversions to the point where he would cry looking at pasta or pureed foods and he would make repetitive noises –and she began to try and get him the help he needed.

She said: ‘In my head, I was linking all of these things together, they were fitting together like jigsaw pieces coming together but getting others to listen was really difficult.

‘Over the years, I have spent so much time with people giving them my professional opinions and now that I am a mum my opinion doesn’t count any more.

‘When we put the Christmas tree up, he was five months old and he would scan the room left to right and the moment his eyes got to the tree they would drop to the floor. He wouldn’t make eye contact with it. The same thing with Christmas Day, we bought the presents out and he wouldn’t look at them.

‘I would hold his hand or try to cuddle him but he would physically remove my hand and that was very difficult for me as a parent.’

She had to begin sensory integration early on and she would have to fill plastic bags with different textures so that he could play with them without getting anxious about how they felt on his skin.

Samantha has been working with him since she began noticing the signs of autism and has used her training and understanding to help him as best as she can.

She said: ‘We were told to ween him early but he couldn’t even touch or look at pureed foods, he would physically heave. He couldn’t have food on his hands or he would cry – I started doing sensory integration from six or seven months. The only thing he handle well was water, he would splash about in water, but if it became unpredictable he would cry.’

She went to the NHS to try and get the diagnosis early to put him in good stead for getting the right support which would include language and speech therapy, but it has been an ongoing battle for over a year.

She went to a paediatrician who she begged for help and he began the referral process.

Koah had a number of tests for food intolerances, allergies, sensory delays and he saw many paediatricians and therapists, all of whom agreed that it was highly likely that he had autism.

As the process continued Samantha found that Koah was labelled with sensory processing disorder, food intolerances, eczema, autism but at every point where Samantha thought there was some hope she found herself with no additional help to get her son the best support.

She added: ‘It is unusual to spot it in a child so early but because I am trained and have done it for so long.’

The 38-year-old is waiting for an official diagnosis of autism but what she fears the most is her son going into a mainstream school and not getting the correct help.

Currently, Koah would not be able to cope in a mainstream school as he barely talks to, or looks at, people he is not comfortable with, he has speech delay and he will only eat a small number of foods.

Samantha said that he has come in leaps and bounds, however, when it comes to dancing and playing with animals, and she can see that he desperately wants to make friends but he does not have the confidence.

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She thinks that with the right support, he would excel in a mainstream school more than he would in a special educational needs school because he would have more opportunities to bond with others.

Samantha sees the potential that her little boy has and wants to give him the best chance in life so she has set up a GoFundMe page with a target of £15,000 which will pay for a private specialist consultant who will support him every week up until he starts school.

They will also document all of his needs and skills and will take them to the local authority to ensure that the support is continued in school if it is needed.

She said: ‘I have sat side-by-side parents saying we will get there but it becomes a game of money. Money talks and that is the truth of it.

‘The diagnosis process takes a long time so even if you spot it early, you can’t do anything, it is like banging your head on a wall because no one is there to help you.

‘If you don’t build up the foundations by the time they go to school, the curriculum is so fast-paced that they end up miles behind.’

‘The money will go towards a consultant who will start behavioural intervention therapy which will be intensive, they will teach him the core skills that he is missing and they will be with him for 20 to 25 hours per week. They will also take the data which will go to the local authority.’

The fundraiser has currently raised £2,505, but there is still a long way to go. To donate, click the link.