When paediatric therapist Julia Harper flew onto the Island last week to meet with autistic children and their parents she knew her time with them would be limited.

But it's amazing the difference an hour can make — as was proven by one little boy who was unable to speak with a normal voice due to vocal nodules and breathing problems.

After 60 minutes with Julia, the change in Geoffrey Crow was dramatic. She pinpointed the fact that the 11-year-old was breathing from his chest, putting his body into a constant state of anxiety. His mother Trish had told Julia: "My son walks around as though the world is attacking him. "

"That's how it must have felt to him," said Julia. "He was talking in a very restrictive manner and he really sounded like a cartoon character.

"I did some breath work with him. I showed him how to breathe and talk with a regular voice and he did that. Tears came into his mother's eyes because she said: 'I have never heard my son's voice'. It's hard in an hour to think that you can affect somebody's life but that child connected to it. He felt it; he understood. I have had some wonderful experiences with the children."

Julia was brought here for three days by Bermuda Autism Support and Education Society (BASE) to hold hour-long sessions with 15 children and a lecture for parents and therapists.

The idea of the sessions was for her to assess each child's therapy needs by trying to find the source of their deficiency. In some cases, she was able to provide parents with follow-up exercises to do at home with their youngster.

A specialist in sensory-motor integration therapy and neurodevelopmental work, Julia describes what she does as "brain-based intervention".

"My approach is to say: 'He has an attention problem? What's causing it? He has a handwriting problem? What's causing it?'. I work with children across the board with special needs. The focus is on any child that's having difficulties."

Julia, who is based in the States and runs a paediatric therapy company called Therapeeds, said many autistic children lack body awareness. Geoffrey's brother Michael, ten, was having trouble learning concepts such as up and down.

"For you to understand up and down in an esoteric manner, you have to understand that your body can move up and down," she said. "For somebody like Michael he was having a lot of trouble with that. He doesn't know how to move his body up and down.

"In intervention what you do is teach children to move their own bodies. With Michael, instead of teaching him it at a cognitive level, I was trying to show him from a motor place. I was actually on his body and I had him pushing me up and pushing me down. He then started to connect the words to the experience. It was a fun experience for him. He was giggling. You try to give the kids fun."

Two occupational therapists from the Island — one who works for Government and another from the private sector — shadowed Julia during her sessions with the children in order to learn her techniques.

"The slogan of my company is: 'Helping therapists, helping kids'," she said. "The goal is two-fold. There is only one Julia so the more therapists I can teach, the more children we can help."

Julia said that despite its tiny size, Bermuda is pretty progressive when it comes to dealing with autism. "I have to say bravo to BASE. BASE is about empowering parents. The parents here are extremely motivated and excited and very happy to get the information. They are really thirsty for information and to share the information.

"That a country this small is this organised and that they have this organisation trying to give parents this type of support is astounding to me."

She said there were children here who she would love to have spent more time with but does plan to return later this year. "I'm just itching to get my hands on them because it could change lives," she said.

All of Trish Crow's sons — Geoffrey, Michael and Michael's twin Richard — had sessions with Julia. Trish, 37, from St. David's, said: "It's explained a lot and it's also really helpful because it just gave me a different perspective to look at if from. I think it's going to make a really big difference for them.

"The session with Geoffrey explained why he is struggling all the time. Actually hearing his real voice, hearing him talk not in that high-pitched, freaked-out voice was like 'wow! He can do it. It's in there'. It was quite amazing for her to find that in him."

Anne Currie's daughter Ellen, six, had a session with Julia. "Julia is so great with the children and she's really practical and she explains her ideas and her knowledge in such an applicable way that you are not left thinking: 'what does that mean?'," said Anne.

Thea Furbert, whose nine-year-old son Cire Furbert-Lambert, is autistic, said: " From just talking to Julia and having the workshop I know it's going to improve his programme. I think it opened our eyes as parents that we are missing some aspects."

* To contact BASE call Ms Crow on 535-7277, Ms Furbert on 236-8307 or email basebda@yahoo.com.