TEACHERS believe that more children are showing signs of autism now than five years ago. It is a condition characterised by self-absorption and social withdrawal. During National Autism Awareness Week, Jane Bullock asks if they are right and what can be done to help youngsters with the socially isolating condition.

MANY parents fear that their son or daughter could be suffering from autism, a condition which can leave the child isolated in a world of their own, unable to interact with the world around them.

A new report from the National Autistic Society suggests the condition is on the rise, leaving more mums and dads unable to understand their child's behaviour.

The dossier also claims there could be three times as many children with autism in primary schools than in secondary schools.

Bolton man Dave Scowcroft, whose seven-year-old daughter Rachel has autism, also fears there could be hundreds of children in Bolton's secondary schools who have slipped the net and never been diagnosed.

Mr Scowcroft, whose daughter was diagnosed with a form of autism called Asperger Syndrome which means the child is bright, but faces problems in forming relationships with others, claims his family was lucky to even receive a diagnosis.

He said: "Some experts do not want to give a diagnosis in case they pigeon-hole youngsters.

"But we think diagnosis is important because families can't move on until they have been told something definite.

"We only tend to meet families at the support group who have received a diagnosis and then they come to us to find out more, but there must be lots of children out there who have not been told what is wrong with them and that's very difficult."

Richard Exley, who runs an autism consultancy group in Leeds and has Asperger Syndrome, is well respected by the members of the Bolton support group, many of whom have listened to him speak at conferences.

His quote "diagnosis is a signpost and not a label" is a favourite of the group.

But even if families are able to receive a diagnosis for their child at primary school age, the move into secondary school can create huge amounts of stress for the youngster.

Mr Scowcroft and his wife Gill, of Embleton Close, Breightmet, who also have a ten-year-old daughter called Jade, are hopeful that by the time Rachel starts secondary school a specialist autism unit might have been built in Bolton.

They claim 99 per cent of the parents in the support group are terrified at the prospect of their child leaving the safety and familiarity of a small primary school.

"Children with autism can become highly stressed at the slightest change of routine.

"They can face real difficulties and confusion at secondary school because they tend to take things so literally and can seem rude because they just say what they think out loud," said Mr Scowcroft.

A worrying time for parents in the Bolton autism group is the annual review of their child's statement of special needs in school.

Children like Rachel, who is a pupil at mainstream Roscow Fold Primary and is strikingly articulate and intelligent, find it difficult to convey to a stranger why they need a special classroom assistant.

Rachel's father is chairman of governors at Tonge Moor Primary. He added: "We worry every year that she might not continue to receive the 15 hours help per week from the assistant because if she lost that support we're sure we would see a regression in her behaviour.

"You meet her and think she is a perfectly normal little girl, but get to know her better and you find she is petrified of being with people she doesn't know and simply goes into what she describes as "shutdown" mode if she is in certain situations, such as a busy supermarket, and will actually lie down on the floor."

It is impossible to estimate how many children suffer from autism as there is no central recording system in this country and studies into the disorder have proved to be costly and problematic.

However, recent surveys completed by the NAS estimate there could be as many as one in 86 children who have some form of the problem and the Autism Research Unit at Sunderland University carried out research which suggested there had been a ten-fold increase in diagnosis over the past 10 years.

While the statistics relating to the condition and the full scale of the problem might not be known for some years, the National Autistic Society says that to continue to help families like the Scowcrofts, more money needs to be pumped into research and support.

For further information contact the national autism society website at: www.nas.org.uk, or you can call the local branch on 01204 371768.