LZ Christmas campaign 2024: 15-year-old from Lucerne has autism spectrum disorder

On this Saturday afternoon, 15-year-old Sandro is sitting at the living room table with his parents Lucia and Sascha. «Sandro and I took out a boat in the morning and made it winter-proof. “We can spend more time together again today,” says 47-year-old boat builder Sascha.

This is precisely what is anything but self-evident. Sandro is affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and lives during the week in an institution in another canton. He only spends weekends and holidays at home. A shared moment in the warm room has been a rarity for the family for five years. Her life changed drastically in November 2019 when Sandro had to go to a psychiatric clinic. The trigger was the moment when Sandro shouted with his arms flailing: “Look, Mommy, I can move completely normally, but everything inside me is tired. I don’t like it anymore.”

Roller coaster ride of emotions

From then on everything was different. Nothing worked anymore. «One day Sandro stopped in front of the stairs at the school. He was blocked and couldn’t take a step further,” says mother Lucia. Even making cider, Sandro’s favorite hobby at the time, no longer gave him joy. “Then came that November when we had to put him in the psychiatric clinic. We knew there was no other way, and he didn’t object. “We were relieved that we finally got help,” says Sascha. “And yet it was bad for us.”

From that point on, the family was gradually separated. They went through a roller coaster ride of emotions, as father Sascha emphasizes: “No one wanted or could have foreseen that our son would have to leave home.” Challenging years followed with countless trips to clinics, institutions and examinations.

The strain on the family was enormous. Sandro’s sisters – then 12 and 15 – got under the skin of the whole thing so much that they both later also needed external help. «Our children are very close to each other. Everyone suffers with the others, a vicious circle arose.”

It became clear early on that Sandro was a special child. “From the age of four, maybe earlier,” says Lucia. They had babies that were easy to care for. Over time, Sandro became more temperamental, which was reflected in smaller or larger outbursts. When these piled up and the kindergarten teacher noticed that although he was intellectually capable of entering school, his behavior was special, the parents took notice and asked whether there were signs of ADHD. That wasn’t the case. «We were at a loss and wanted to know why Sandro kept having angry outbursts. Of course we worried about whether we were doing something wrong in our upbringing,” explains Sascha.

“Once Sandro even locked me out”

After a nine-month stay in the child psychiatric therapy ward in Kriens (KPS), he went back to school in the village. Support came from the autism specialist center. Adjustments were made to suit him at school, so he was allowed to sit alone and close to the teacher, which was important for him because a lot of things depend on his caregivers.

“The school lessons went without any major incidents. But we felt the overwhelm and the pressure of suffering at home. There was often a lot of confusion and sometimes things really went off the rails. “Once Sandro even locked me out,” says Lucia, describing an example, and Sascha adds: “Learning with him was impossible.” This meant that, despite support, he could not be reintegrated into class. The search for alternatives followed. Neither primary school nor KPS was a permanent solution.

Today the situation is no longer hopeless. There are lively discussions at the table, Sandro always gets involved, but sometimes gets lost in details that give an idea of ​​how much he suffered from constraints and fears.

Interested in a variety of careers

His goal is to leave the institution and enter professional life. The sisters have already succeeded in this and are both in training. Sandro’s wish is also a lesson. The search for an apprenticeship is supported by the IV. Last week he was able to get a taste of the plumbing trade. He generally enjoys crafts. Sandro also wants to get a taste of working as a carpenter, in business maintenance, in horticulture, in the IT industry and in logistics. Training with EFZ is not realistic due to his level of schooling. But the family agrees that he will pursue training with an EBA professional certificate. To do this, he would like to improve his mathematics, and this is where the Christmas campaign comes into play. In order to close the gaps, he needs tutoring, the cost of which puts too much of a strain on the family’s budget.

Sister Marina has now arrived. She sits down in the group and listens attentively. Then the question arises as to whether she should be in the photo because the other sister Livia isn’t there. When taking photos, the mood is relaxed. Sandro walks ahead. He is interested in the photographer’s equipment, in the type of picture. “We shouldn’t look happily into the camera, that’s not right,” he says. The fact that there is only one sister in the picture fits with the family’s situation in recent years, when everyone was rarely able to be together.