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Simon Baron-Cohen, professor of developmental psychopathology at the University of Cambridge, has a theory that autism may be an extreme form of "maleness". Perhaps. At present, it's accepted that about one in 167 children may be affected ("may" because these are shifting sands) and it is four times more common in boys than girls.

What's also clear is that diagnosis often comes too late when much damage has inadvertently already been inflicted on a young person. Autistic children are not asking for more than other children in the way of education and support, they are only asking for as much.


One reason why there are so few services for them is that the issue of what really helps the autistic individual is barely addressed in many areas of the UK. That's why Dame Steve Shirley's efforts are so vital.

Shirley, aged 71, is a software millionaire and came to the UK as an unaccompanied child refugee. She was the mother of Giles who died, aged 35, in 1998, after an epileptic fit. He was diagnosed as autistic in the 1960s. He was violent as a toddler and, over the years, lost the power of speech. Shirley told the Daily Telegraph how she had a nervous breakdown when Giles was 11.

Sadly, mental fragility is often the ultimate destination of many unsupported parents of autistic children. Eventually, Giles went to live in a hospital. "It was him or me," Shirley says.

She went on to set up a therapeutic home which is now the Kingswood Trust, caring for 39 profoundly disabled young adults. She also established Prior's Park, a school which equips severely autistic children for simple work.


Now, she is trying to raise £400m to enable the National Alliance for Autism Research to fill in the many gaps in our understanding of the condition. Last year, the Shirley Foundation commissioned a survey of all research in the field and found there isn't much that is satisfactory.

Shirley believes that autism, like cancer, covers a very wide spectrum of conditions. She has dedicated £50m of her own money to provide a more accurate map of that spectrum. "When Giles was alive, 99 per cent of my efforts went on being his mother," Shirley says. "Now I can concentrate on being a friend to autism."

It is to be hoped, 10 years from now, we'll look back in wonder at how we understood so little about this condition.

• Further information www.naar-uk.org
• Yvonne Roberts' novel, Shake!, is out in paperback, Headline, £7.99