My son Hunter is 4 years old and was diagnosed with autism when he was 2 1/2. At this time i was devastated and admittedly i was in denial. As a Dad to a boy most of us know that right away we have all these visions for our boys

the football stars or the next tiger woods or whatever our aspirations for our chldren may be. when i found out about my son i thought that none of this would happen now and didnt cope well for the first few days. But my partner soon made me see that not all is lost when your child is diagnosed with a disability.

Hunter has come so far and he loves doing all the activities every other 4 year old boy loves doing. He gets so excited about everything he does. He has become such a awesome little man and is growing up so quick. He loves to cook and garden. He has strawberries growing and he goes out and checks them everyday to see if there is a strawberry on his plant yet. ( much to his disappointment there hasn't been one yet). He loves going to preschool and playing with the kids. He can be a bit rough at times but he thinks it is all a game till someone gets hurt.

He is fascinated with reptiles and insects (that cant fly, he hates flying ones) he picked up a huge blue tongue lizard on two occasions the first he came running with it by the tail to show everyone saying "look what i found" i paniced naturally. The second time he found one at his Aunties house and held it by the tail and had a big stick holding his head down on the ground saying " whoa mate its alright" "its alright mate" with visions of steve irwin flashing in front of me i didnt panic so much this time. he finds the little skink lizards in the garden and keeps them in a container with grass and water and dirt until they drop their tail and go limp he puts them back in the garden.

He is such an amazing kids and has come so far in the last 2 years it unbeleivable..

Any dads or parents who have had a child diagnosed with any sort of disability and have had doubts and felt disappointed that their chld wont grow up how they wanted them to Dont panic and just relish in the person that they are. Every person has qualities that make them unique and Hunter is as unique as they come.

Who knows he might be the next Steve Irwin or Crocodile Dundee :)