Wei Zhiyao is seven years old. He was diagnosed as autistic when he was two. A sign of his condition is his obsessive jumping up and down, which he does constantly unless something can be found to keep him occupied.

"I tell him to stop jumping. But he doesn't listen. I'm mentally exhausted," Zhiyao's mother, Mo Lijian, said. 

As a last resort, she sometimes wraps him tightly in a quilt. It's her way of stopping Zhiyao from possibly injuring himself, and also of earning herself a few precious moments of relative peace.

Both of Zhiyao's parents have had to give up their jobs in order to look after him. 

"We'd never heard of autism before my son was diagnosed," Zhiyao's father, Wei Yijian, said. 

The couple used to have good jobs, but now: "We're spending money, but not earning any. The worry causes us to argue frequently."

They've visited many cities and special schools in a desperate attempt to find help for Zhiyao. Eventually, his parents found a specialist training center in Beijing, which agreed to take him on for an 11-week course. There have been noticeable improvements in Zhiyao's behavior, and his parents are a little more optimistic about the future. 

However, despite the improvement in his condition, they're still struggling to find a school that will accept him, and this is a major concern, considering he's now at an age when he should be receiving regular schooling. 

"It's not so important whether or not he learns anything," his father said. "At least he'll enjoy a sense of community there. And we, his parents, can relax a bit."

Beyond that, the future for the family looks even more uncertain. 

"It's difficult to think about the future," Yijian said. "He's growing up. We'll find it harder to look after him. As a last resort, he could go to the countryside to work as a farmer, so he won't need to communicate with the outside world."

It's a scenario that Zhiyao's parents wish they wouldn't contemplate. As his father puts it: "Things won't get that bad, I hope."

Rediscovering China is a 30-minute feature program offering in-depth reports on the major issues facing China today. It airs on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. BJT (02:30 GMT), with a rebroadcast at 11:30 p.m. (15:30 GMT), as well as on Monday at 8:30 a.m. (00:30 GMT) and Thursday at 6:30 a.m. (22:30 GMT).