How do I tell my child he is autistic before someone else does? For World Autism Awareness Day, I want my son to understand what being autistic means – and why he should see it as a positive 2 April 2021 • 5:00am Anna White, photographed in 2018 with, from left to right, Benny, Agatha and Alex Credit: Heathcliff O'Malley This week in school, my eight-year-old daughter Agatha fielded questions from the class on what it is like to have an autistic twin brother. They asked why Benjamin bursts into her classroom for a hug, why he has his own one-to-one teacher and whether he will “grow out of it?”