A MOTHER who helped her autistic son communicate by using their family dog has launched a scheme to help other Scottish children with the condition.

Nuala Gardner's son Dale was severely autistic as a child, but she encouraged him to break his silence by pretending her words were being spoken by the family pet, Henry.

Now she hopes her successful method will allow her to break down the communication barriers in other autistic children using specially chosen gun dogs.

Dale's autism was so severe that he suffered obsessive behaviour and rarely took any notice of his parents.

However, when they bought him a dog, Henry, they noticed he immediately forged a connection with the animal and talked to it in a way he had never talked to his own family.

Gardner seized the opportunity to talk to her son using the dog as a mouthpiece and was soon able to persuade him to do anything that his dog "asked", whether it was to eat his dinner, stop having a tantrum or go to sleep.

The family's story was made into a film, After Thomas, and researchers believe dogs could play a role in improving the lives of autistic children.

Yesterday Gardner revealed she has embarked on work with two more autistic children, with gun dogs used to dealing with unpredictable situations and loud noises. The scheme is the first of its kind in Scotland.

Gardner, from Gourock, Inverclyde, said she hopes to work with the Scottish Society for Autism on the initiative. "I knew this was not going to be a one-off and that there was something in this approach," she said. "It has been successful in other countries such as Ireland and Canada. But there was nothing available in Scotland and that was my passion and my motivation as this is a brand new area.

"From what I have learned from Henry and Dale I have started with two families and devised a programme.

"We use the child's obsessions and adapt the dog, using things like their favourite obsessive colour. So it would be, for example, a green lead for the dog and a Thomas the Tank Engine toy on the dog. We have made lots of breakthroughs already that show that we are going on the right lines.

"These gun dogs are impeccably trained, socialised and used to guns going off. If they can take a gun shot they can take the noise of an autistic child screaming."

Gardner's scheme is in the early stages but she hopes to achieve the same successes with the two autistic children as she has with her own son.

Dale is now 20 and his condition has improved so dramatically he has passed his exams in a mainstream school and plays in a rock band.