Carol Ng has tried hard to look beyond the disruptive behaviour of her son Hugo, who is now seven. He was unwelcome in his mainstream primary school as he was commonly referred to as 'dangerous'.
Slapping a schoolgirl on the face was his response after she said goodbye. Throwing water bottles around, stopping an escalator from running and chucking his schoolbag over the rail track in a MTR station are other examples of Hugo's behavioural problems.
'The other parents think this crazy boy can't stay in a normal school because they don't know what's wrong with him,' said Ms Ng, a primary school teacher.
However, Hugo is lucky that his parents can afford to send him to a special school for autistic children that charges HK$17,500 per month. Many autistic children in Hong Kong are excluded from this specialist service for whom affordable specialist education is still a long way off.
In a recent interview at Autism Partnership School in North Point, Ms Ng said she often felt helpless because of the enormous pressure of dealing with Hugo.
'He is no good at maintaining eye contact. He doesn't know I'm Mummy. He could recognise the colour of my pants but often would end up grabbing a stranger wearing pants of the same colour,' she said.
Frustrated and humiliated by her son's behaviour, Ms Ng once thought Hugo was the worst boy in the whole world. He had autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and experienced difficulties with reading and writing but had the IQ of an average child.