The boy who loved windows - Patricia Stacey

When in 1996, Patricia Stacey gave birth to her second child, a baby boy, she quickly noticed an emptiness in his gaze
a vacant quality that emphasized her sense that he was ill at ease in his own body. By the time Walker was five months old, his gaze was obsessively directed towards windows - light had become his true north.

Despite the reassurance of many health professionals that Walker was fine, during the weeks and months that followed the family continued to question the experts, who finally arrived at a diagnosis of
sensory integration problems
; a term inextricably linked with autism.

Refusing to accept that this diagnosis would lead to the finality of an autistic disorder, the family dedicated four years to incessantly drawing Walker away from the sirens that seemed to call him inwards, using the latest play-based techniques. Progress was often painfully gradual, and yet sometimes they made astonishing leaps on the back of seemingly bizarre treatments like simply rubbing the roof of Walker
s mouth.

Not only a story of Walker
s development, The Boy Who Loved Windows also follows his parents
journey of understanding and coming to terms with Walker
s difficulties.

Today, Walker still suffers from allergies and occasional gastrointestinal difficulties, but he has attended a normal preschool and looks forward to everything you would hope for for a child. Not bad for the kid they said would probably never walk or talk.