Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Theories to digest

JAMES COOGAN, 15, loves holidays in Lanzarote, having cups of tea in bed every morning and sitting at the back of the cinema with his dad, watching action movies and feeling the sound vibrations.

Diagnosed with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at three, James currently attends a special unit attached to a mainstream school and can read at a sixth class level. But he hasn’t always functioned at such a high level of ability.

At a special pre-school for children with ASD, James struggled to recognise and name simple pictures. “Every day, he looked at 26 pictures of a cat or a ball or a dog, and his score was seven,” says James’s father PJ Coogan, chief reporter for Cork’s 96FM radio station.