When her son, Nicholas, was a year old, Romina Borg realised there was something wrong.

"He did not point at things that struck him, like so many other children, and used to be obsessed with certain toys," the mother-of-one said.

The first time Ms Borg gave her son a box of coloured felt pens, he did not start drawing - or scribbling - like the majority of other children would. Instead, Nicholas started lining the pens next to each other and getting very distraught when one would fall. Then, when Nicholas was 18 months old, he started throwing tantrums.

"He did not have the language skills, so tantrums became his only way of expressing himself," Ms Borg said.

That was when the young woman spoke to the Speech Language Department, which is part of the Health Division, and Nicholas was diagnosed with autism.

Three years on, through regular therapy and the dedication of his mother, Nicholas has improved by leaps and bounds.

"He has learnt how to behave in different situations and has started to coin sentences," his mother said.

Although autism is known to affect social skills, Nicholas is keen to make friends and play with other children. "The fact that he can communicate with others has also improved his social skills," Ms Borg explained.

Nicholas is one of about 4,000 Maltese nationals believed to suffer from autism. Although there are no statistics about autism sufferers, one per cent of the population is believed to have autism, similarly to the rest of Europe. In the US, autism is more common than childhood cancer, juvenile diabetes and paediatric Aids together and is being considered an epidemic.

Speech language pathologists are often the first professionals to see autistic children because the parents' first complaint is that they are not speaking properly. According to speech language pathologists Christina Agius and Kurt Castillo, the Speech Language Department is seeing more children with autism.

"Before it was less common for children who come to the clinic with language delays to be diagnosed with autism," Mr Castillo said, adding that this could be because of more information and a widening of the net.

Ms Agius continued that, today, children with mild forms of autism were also being diagnosed, which was pushing the numbers up.

Moreover, an increase in awareness about autism means that more parents are taking their children to be seen by experts as soon as they realise that their language is not developing properly.

However, through therapy and support from the family, most children can lead a relatively normal life, even though social skills are affected by autism.

"A lot depends on the level of intelligence of the child and the support they get from the family," Ms Agius said.

Children, Mr Castillo continued, learnt how to adapt to live with the condition. The two stressed the importance of early diagnosis so that children could start being treated.

"Sometimes there is the misconception that if a child is not speaking, he should be given more time, at least until he goes to school. But we have children coming to us at four years and we would have lost two crucial years, if not more," Mr Castillo said.

He said parents had nothing to lose by going to the department to make sure their children's language was on track. Children tend to start uttering two-word phrases when they are two years old, with girls tending to be more advanced.

Throughout this month, the pathologists are going round schools conducting quizzes on autism and last night they screened a film about autism. They have also distributed flyers about autism.

More information on autism can be obtained by contacting the Speech Language Department on 2123 0822 or via speechlanguage@gov.mt.