Adventures at turn of a key

A charity for autistic children tells Jack McKeown what a difference winning our minibus would make

Raising a child isn’t easy but bringing up one with autism can be even more challenging and difficult. That’s why Spectrum was set up. The Dundee charity looks after children with the condition to give their parents some respite.

Based at Mains Parish Church Halls, on the edge of Caird Park, Spectrum helps around 40 Tayside families with children aged between five and 18 who have what are called autistic spectrum disorders (ASD).

It hosts an after-school club from Monday to Fridays during term time, holiday play schemes and a Wednesday youth group for the older children.

Evelyn Patterson is a senior play worker. She said: “We do things like baking and teaching them to cook. We teach them about hand washing and get them to wash their dishes after them – things that will help make their parents’ lives a little bit easier.”

The team also tries to make sure the children go home with smiles on their faces.

“We have a gym and we’ll play games, get on bikes, do crafts,” she said.

“Many of them thrive on routine and don’t even like it if you move to a different room.”

She said winning a minibus would let the group take children much further afield and would reduce the stress they suffer. “At the moment we have to use public transport. A lot of the children don’t like getting the bus,” Evelyn said.

“If it doesn’t turn up at the time it’s expected, some of the kids get distressed and it sometimes triggers behavioural problems.

“If we had our own minibus it would give us so much more scope to do things with the children. We had a great time at Muddy Boots in Fife recently and a bus would let us do more trips like that.

“At the moment the only park we can easily get to is Mill O’ Mains.”

Spectrum is run by a team of five – a manager, deputy manager and three play workers.

It gets no government funding so is entirely reliant on donations, fund raising and fees from the parents of children who use its services.

Evelyn said working with children who have ASD was exhausting but tremendously rewarding.

“I really don’t know how parents cope with doing it 24/7,” she admitted.

“It is really rewarding, though. The best thing is when they do something they’ve never done before. We had one boy the other day who rode a bike for the first time. Those are the moments that make it all worthwhile.”

If we had our own minibus it would give us so much more scope to do things with the children. EVELYN PATTERSON, SPECTRUM

Youngsters looked after by the Spectrum charity enjoy a visit to the Harry Potter Oor Wullie statue that was in the grounds of Morgan Academy.