Now the Springdale Heights mum is writing a book about an experience she describes as an exhausting and frustrating merry-go-round of medicos.

“I was watching Oprah and Jenny McCarthy came on and I just was sitting there going that’s my son,” she said.

The Oprah episode featuring actor and autism activist McCarthy confirmed Mrs Gonzalez’s first suspicions that Coen was not developing normally.

“Coen regressed at about 14 months, when he turned one he lost everything, he didn’t talk, he went quiet, he was withdrawn,” she said.

After consulting pediatricians, health nurses and psychologists Mrs Gonzalez became frustrated at the lack of advice.

“They mentioned ‘oh you might want to get in contact with this person, or you might want to do that’ but never why or what was essential, what was really important,” she said.

She hopes the book will help parents and the wider family recognise autism early: “Many children still go undiagnosed and are being written off as badly behaved”.

For more information contact Rebecah Gonzalez at bek@writeforhelp.com