World Autism Awareness Day

“Having a girlfriend would be my biggest dream”

Barbara Gottlieb and her daughter Rebecca, who has autism, talk about their everyday lives.(Bild: Christa Blümel)

Today is World Autism Awareness Day. But what does a diagnosis like this mean for those affected, how do they deal with it, how do those around them? A mom from Graz and her daughter tell us.

When Rebecca was born 13 years ago, her mother quickly realized that something was "different". "She couldn't suckle and I couldn't breastfeed her either," says Barbara Gottlieb. And: "She simply never smiled." Rebecca only learned to walk late in life and spoke her first word at the age of three. From an early age, she wouldn't let anyone hold her, didn't want to cuddle or give kisses.

Everything within the normal range
"'I'll be fine', the doctors told me, and that everything was within the normal range." At kindergarten, she was also "different" to the other little ones, didn't make friends, didn't look anyone in the eye, kept to herself. As if she was invisible. Or wanted to make herself invisible. It wasn't until she was at elementary school that she was diagnosed with autism. Not in a severe form, "but in such a way that it was socially noticeable. And therefore also a problem in society," explains the Graz native.