The dad of a non-speaking, autistic boy has had the alphabet tattooed on his arm so his son can always communicate with him.
Dan Harris, 45, had the £180 tattoo completed on his left forearm two weeks ago after he became concerned that son Joshie, 10, can't always tell him what he wants.
Joshie, who was diagnosed with autism when he was two years old, uses an iPad, also known as his 'talker', to communicate his needs using simple words and pictures.
However Dan said the iPad can run out of charge or become damaged or lost which means that Joshie is left without the means to express his feelings.
Dan, from Peterborough, Cambs, said: "Joshie comes into my room and touches my arm first thing in the morning to check the tattoo is still there.
Dan Harris, 45, had the £180 tattoo completed on his left forearm two weeks ago after he became concerned that son Joshie, 10, can't always tell him what he wants.
Joshie, who was diagnosed with autism when he was two years old, uses an iPad, also known as his 'talker', to communicate his needs using simple words and pictures.
However Dan said the iPad can run out of charge or become damaged or lost which means that Joshie is left without the means to express his feelings.
Dan, from Peterborough, Cambs, said: "Joshie comes into my room and touches my arm first thing in the morning to check the tattoo is still there.
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FunTranscript
00:00My name's Dan Harris. I have an amazing little boy. He's 11 years old. He's a non-speaking autistic boy.
00:07We call him the Joshy Man. And Joshy communicates in different ways from other children.
00:12Joshy can't use his voice to verbalise words so much, but what he does use is he uses the power of technology.
00:19We have a talker which he's using right now, and that allows him to express his basic wishes and desires,
00:25which has been transformational for us.
00:28What we've also realised, however, is that sometimes the talker runs out of battery, or we lose it, or it breaks,
00:34which is why I got the alphabet tattoo, which, again, he really enjoys using because it allows him to spell out words and tell us what he wants.
00:43Just yesterday he told us he wanted ice cream.
00:46Autistic people deserve a place in our community, and particularly for non-speaking autistic people.
00:52Just as you wouldn't expect non-hearing people, deaf people, to go their life without technology to support their hearing,
00:59equally we're calling on governments and health authorities globally to be funding these devices because communication is a basic human right.
01:08And what we're saying is that these devices are really cheap, easy to implement, easy to train,
01:13but most families don't have access to it, let alone understand that these are available.
01:18The first thing I'd say about autistic children and the needs that they have,
01:22and this applies also to other neurodivergent children, is early screening and identification,
01:27because what governments are increasingly waking up to is the fact that you invest in these children early on,
01:33and actually the total cost to the public purse across their lifetime is a lot lower than what happens currently,
01:41which is that their needs aren't identified early, that they don't have the rapid support put in place.
01:46And we've just seen a great example with the Joshie man, where we were told that he wouldn't be able to spell,
01:51that he wouldn't be able to read, that he wouldn't be able to talk,
01:54and actually giving him access to therapeutic inventions, interventions, and also technology, have just transformed his life.
02:03Look, yeah, you're right. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H.
02:13So I founded a charity called Neurodiversity in Business.
02:17We've been set up to transform the life chances of neurodivergent employees and potential employees,
02:23and we've got a thousand of corporate members, the likes of Google, Amazon, McDonald's and JP Morgan,
02:30and we'd encourage other businesses to join us to create neuro-inclusive workplaces.
02:35You can visit our website at neurodiversity.org.
02:39And these communication boards are springing up globally, so we've got Kenya, South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia.
02:46It's been amazing, and if you wanted to install a communication board locally in your community,
02:52the image is available for free on our website, and we've also got installation support there.
02:57So if you go to neurodiversity.org forward slash communication boards,
03:01you'll find out everything you need to take this into your community.
03:08What's next, tea?
03:11Look at that. It's on my skin.