Learning disability is certainly not a term to describe Alex.

Although this term is used globally for individual with autism and some may have some form of learning disabilities but I believe the right term should be developmental delay.

Alex certainly learn from what you teach him but only when he is ready to do so. Like any neuro-typical children, if they have not reach the level of understanding for a certain thing, and no matter how many times you try to make them understand, they just cannot. But once they are ready and at the right time, it's called a milestone.

The Education Authority has written to us this week asking us to submit a report as to why Alex need a statement for special education needs. We were told by everyone that we should concentrate on the worst of Alex and not his best in order to get any help.

Everyone is trying to get the most for Alex and I know that, but it's hard to see this in paper when the experts writes about your child being "slow" in his development and he has learning disabilities. If they don't, Alex may not get much help and will fall out of the system completely.

We learnt this from our previous application for Disability Living Allowance. The first time we submitted the application, we were rejected because he was considered not disabled enough - if there is such a term. We failed to emphasise the number of hours we spent doing things for him. Any parent would do anything for their child and not count the hours spent.

We were told by some friends who went through the same situation to resubmit our application -this time to picture the worse days. It was hard to see it on paper but we submitted it anyway.

Two weeks later, we had a letter saying that our application has been successful and he was awarded the middle level DLA. This shows that if you are happy with your situation (no matter how bad), you won't get help unless you admit you cannot cope.

I have no experience bringing up a neuro-typical child and I do not know what Alex should know at his age. All I know is that I have a happy, healthy and intelligent little chap that makes us very happy every minute of the day. We are so proud of him and we love him so much.

It's hard to write a report to say that we are not happy with his development and we need a lot of help to get him where we want him to be.

If only they would award positivity and not penalise.