Tuam school pilots major advance in autism language learning

LANGUAGE is the key to communication, and with that a vital tool for learning for each and every child. But for many children with special needs, delayed speech and language development can confine them to years of locked in frustration and a litany of missed opportunities.
That was the how the future looked for a Claregalway couple, whose twin boys Conor and Eoin were diagnosed with a sensory neural hearing loss over 15 years ago. Frustrated at the lack of services to help their sons, Enda and Valerie Noone travelled to an oral deaf school in the United States where they were given a further series of diagnoses for both boys, including autism, pervasive development disorder, and global dyspraxia.
The family were facing limited options in terms of treatment and education possibilities on their return to Ireland, so they took the brave decision to move trans-Atlantic in search of better opportunities for their toddler sons in San Francisco.
Ten years later, the family have returned to their Galway roots with Conor and Eoin, now 19, who are heavily involved in the pioneering software they and Enda have devised which has helped to lift them from the isolation of autism.

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