The choices made by parents.

Violet Agbodo's daughter Ella is now in her third year in Donnycarney. She is seven years old

"I work, so Ella was being minded in a crèche every day. It didn't work out at all. It got to the stage where they wouldn't take her in. They kept saying 'She needs one-to-one care.' I was thinking what do they mean?

"When I changed her crèche the lady in the new place advised me to get her assessed. I had been bringing her to speech and language therapy, but she thought that a doctor should assess her. It took a very long time, but we eventually got an assessment Ella was diagnosed with autism.

"I had an offer of a place from here and from another school. On seeing how things worked here, I was very happy to send her and I think I made the right decision.

"Ella has made great improvements. She can talk and communicate so much better now. She maintains eye contact and she can calm herself down in situations where she used to have a tantrum.

"She loves going to school. The relationship between the school and the parents is excellent. Teachers keep a diary of what your child does each day and they send it home. I talk to Ella about everything that she did. It's a great idea and it's a way of letting the school know what she did at home too.

"The special classes are very much a part of the school. Ella joins the mainstream class for computer classes or football or drama. There is a big change in her behaviour. There are still challenges but she is much better than before."

Vivienne Maguire's son Oscar has at the school for three years. He is five-and-a-half and attends a mainstream junior infant class three mornings each week

"When Oscar started in school he had two words - 'up' and 'go' - both of which meant yes. He wouldn't point at what he wanted, but if you gave him the wrong thing he would hit out.

"I initially thought there was something wrong when he was nine months old. He slept a lot and he would make these harsh sounds. He had various tests, and was diagnosed with epilepsy. For a while I sort of clung to the idea that that was delaying his development.

"If he had been happy I wouldn't have worried so much, but he was a very unhappy child. We eventually got the diagnosis in March 2005, but we had to wait until September before we got the report so we could avail of any support services.

"We were lucky enough to get a cancellation here. I thought that starting school would be very traumatic for Oscar. After just a few days he was a different child - not developmentally but he was happier in himself. He adapted to the structure and they communicated with him so well.

"He has made huge progress since. He plays imaginatively now. He never did anything of the sort before. Academically he's not far off his classmates in the mainstream class. I used to wonder if I'd ever hear him say that he loves me. Now he tells me all the time."

Olive Moore's son Frankie is seven. He has been attending Our Lady's for four years. He will enter second class in his local school in September

"I actually did a course in ABA. I think that ABA would definitely suit some children, but I felt the approach that we chose for Frankie was right for him.

Frankie was diagnosed in October 2003. We were nervous wrecks, but our philosophy was that he'd be the same child after diagnosis as before and we loved him as he was.

"His downfall was motor skills. He had some speech but he couldn't even hold a pencil at the time. We knew there was something wrong by the time he was about 14 months old. He had huge sensory problems. He couldn't bear loud noises.

"The school helped tremendously. The approach they used for teaching and communication worked wonders. They take the child's personality into account. Frankie was capable of gaining independence and they helped him to do that.

"The mainstreaming has been amazing. He really wants to be like his classmates, so he has made huge improvements. Don't get me wrong, he does go off into cloud cuckoo-land every now and again but he joins in in class.

"We were lucky in a way. Frankie was at a good end of the spectrum. He has come such a long way. He actually won a prize for his handwriting last week. He couldn't hold a pencil to begin with. I'm not saying that it hasn't been hard. He still has his quirks, but what child doesn't?"