Autism is a complicated and often misunderstood condition. In this film, child psychologist Laverne Antrobus goes on a quest to discover the different way that the brain works in children with autism and to explore the latest scientific research.
Laverne meets Tony, a severely autistic teenager who requires full-time care from his family, and learns some of the difficult sensory problems that children with autism can have. The autistic brain cannot always process light and sound in the correct way, leading to an overwhelming and exhausting overload of noise and color. Laverne travels to the University of Cardiff to investigate new research into the link between sensory issues and the autistic brain. She also goes to the University of Nottingham to try and uncover why people like Tony appear to be so socially isolated. She begins to learn the amazing way our brains work when confronted with social situations and how we understand the social cues that we encounter every day - and what happens when this goes wrong.
With a better understanding of Tony's difficulties, Laverne then continues to follow his story as this family go through the difficult and highly emotional transition of putting their son into full-time residential care.
Laverne also meets a family with two young boys, Jake and Zaine. Jake has been diagnosed with high functioning autism - the opposite end of the spectrum to Tony. By spending time with Jake, Laverne sees some of the social difficulties associated with the condition, such as the daily struggle with school and making friends. Jake's younger brother Zaine is also beginning to show autistic traits and in a particularly poignant sequence Laverne attends a diagnosis session with the family. With amazing access to this emotional day, Laverne explores the complicated process of diagnosis and the symptoms that are looked for in order to reach the correct conclusion. Laverne also investigates some exciting and pioneering research being carried
