When my second son Liam was born, I felt blessed that I had a full-term healthy baby. While he was difficult to settle in hospital, both of us eased into life at home without any major difficulties. Liam was easy going. When he was crawling, he would scamper off to the block corner in his brother’s kindergarten to build towers. The kindergarten teacher commented on his advanced building ability.

As he reached 18 months to two, I became concerned about his lack of speech. He rarely said Mummy or Daddy, called out to his brother or pointed at anything. He seemed like a dreamy little fellow, with a beautiful smile, but in a world of his own.