Asperger’s on a remote island

On a remote Greek island in the Aegean, K. and K. have built their life that includes a small bookstore and a beautiful house. They face many difficulties, not having access to things that seem self-evident to those of us in big cities, but they decided to stay put and fight. Then their son was born and their problems started to grow. A. was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a neurodevelopmental condition on the autism spectrum. He is brilliant - he learned to read before he was 3 - but he has limited social and reduced communication skills. There is no neurologist or psychiatrist on the island, nor are there occupational therapy options. The family is forced to travel frequently to Thessaloniki, where specialists monitor their son. This not only entails an unbearable cost but also a feeling of insecurity: If something goes wrong, they have to cope all by themselves.

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