An AYR mum has told how lockdown affected her autistic teenage son and how they found help.

Lorna Cullen said her 14-year-old boy, Dafydd, was sent into a spiral of meltdowns when the coronavirus shutdown came into effect in March.

She said: “Dafydd went into his shell, he became extremely emotional.

“He didn’t want to leave his room and didn’t want to communicate with anyone in the house.

“He put a lot of pressure on himself to do online learning. It was hell.”

Lorna said she has been fighting to get Dafydd the support she knows he needs since he was very young.

She said: “Every time I tried to get help I was knocked back.

“I had nights and days were I broke down, days where I felt a failure because I couldn’t get him the help he needed.

“I’ve felt like I was worthless because I couldn’t provide for him what he needed.”

After hunting to find Dafydd a place that could help him, Lorna was eventually put in touch with Ko-Nekt, a support centre in North Ayrshire that caters for kids with additional support needs (ASN).

She said: “Dafydd had never been able to connect with another child of his own age until he went to Ko-Nekt.

“He has gained so much confidence, he will talk to me, and he is happier in himself.

“It’s a place where he can be himself. He loves to play the guitar there, which he would never do anywhere else.”

When the government announced that lockdown restrictions would be eased for those with autism, it meant Dafydd was finally able to make the essential journey from his home in Ayr to Ko-nekt in Ardrossan.

She said: “I contacted Marianne at Ko-Nekt and she came up with the solution to get him into the centre with one member of staff.

“As soon as he knew he was going to get that little bit of normality back, he started to speak to us more and his emotional state improved.”

Ko-Nekt is operated by Ayrshire Children’s Services, a social enterprise that was recently awarded National Lottery funding to provide free one-to-one respite care for children with ASN not currently covered by council provision during COVID-19 lockdown.

The organisations chief executive, Marianne Greenway, said: “We’ve still been able to give that invaluable support to families and we want to let people know we are still here.

“I think with lockdown, what spurred me on, was how amazing the staff are, that they just embrace this period of time, amongst the chaos around them. To say we’re still here.

“To see him go from retreating into his bedroom to suddenly com back up, it’s a total transformation.”

You can find out more at ko-nekt.co.uk.

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