Babies Born ~ September 2007 #75

[Ginger]

Hi mp- going along quite well here. J is doing kinder 3 days a week and then does a day of state based early intervention at an autism specific centre. He also does speech therapy. It's pretty busy but seems to be making a difference. He is enrolled to start prep at a mainstream school next year which is awesome. Hoping that goes well but if not we will reconsider out options next year. Did you end up getting a dog?

Arte- an occupational therapist could really help w with all the sensory issues, particularly the clothes etc. I hope you don't take me the wrong way, I have just seen first hand the huge difference that intensive therapy and early
Intervention can make.

[Cassius2]

hello people!

Arte: i was wondering if the move and all the new things would have some fallout on W :hugs: what support services are there in your town? do you have any friends or know of people with kids that are ASD? It might help to see if there are any support groups. Maybe a chat wiht the principal as she/he might have some good contacts and recommendations. i agree that it would suck majorly to do this all on your own especially without the tools to help. what were the things that you did last time? massive hugs Arte :hugs: it really sounds like a tough gig but maybe the silver lining is that now you are closer to support and services and it might just be the ticket xx

afterschool activities...Miss L has a free after school sport thing on once a week with the school and she really wants to start circus next term. also for home i have just bought these reall naff books with plain faces on them and the girls have gone ballistic each day colouring them in and drawing the hair and clothes on etc. Miss L is really into writing so have also bought her one of those feint ruled excersise books for all her letters and stories. it gives me so much peace and quiet with the two big girls...until the paper starts running out and then it is banshee apocalypse hahahaha

MP: i also played instruments when i was growing up and would love my kids to have that experience...espeically through highschool as it was a bit of a chance to break away from the crap social stuff going on with the larger school population and just hang out with other creative peeps and have our own camps etc. I was thinking of investing in a keyboard as i reckon that piano is a good basis for musicality...seeing that you can basically transfer all piano stuff across to other instruments.

G: cannot believe that Mr J is going to be at school next year! wow time is just whizzing by! How does he do at kinder? Do you think that it could be a problem at the school, or are they pretty well versed with spectrum kids? There is a boy in Miss Ls class who has a TA and is there for only some days for the whole day and the other days are half days where he has intervention stuff etc.

MD: Miss L has also just started taking the initiative to read chapter books one after the other...she just churns through them! so now we have quite a big pile each week from the library lol. i am so so stoked as I am a HUGE reader and just love the escapism. you dont want my book recommendations at the moment...it's all about young adult fiction although i am revisiting 'the bride stripped bare'.

[Artechim]

I think I would like to read Brandon Sanderson's Alcatraz Vs the evil librarian and the rest in the series. It is a youth book but I just read his Mistborn series that was awesome and he is the guy they picked to finish the Wheel of Time series when Robert Jordan died.

Cass, I also love finding W in his room reading a book just because he actually likes it Yeah, it seems like the move has really unsettled him. We weren't without problems before but now he is just so, so angry. Any attempt to talk/play anything with him results in him yelling back. He actually tipped over furniture and threw things tonight in a massive red faced rage. He hasn't been so angry before. And so down on himself and everything that comes out of his mouth is negative and nasty. That is what I really need to focus on. Last time he was morose like this was when his first school wasn't working for him. We changed schools and it was fixed. Can't do that this time He needs to learn some ways of dealing with anxiety that isn't just taking out his frustration on everyone else.

G, thanks. Not taken the wrong way at all. It probably frustrates you that I haven't done anything so far. I always think I can manage it. There are times when everything ticks along fine. Then there are times when it doesn't but we always seem to scrape though. I guess making it through the day isn't really living though. What do OT's do? It would be super helpful if we could get past the clothes thing. Velcro on shoes not being even, not wearing more than one layer of top unless it is literally snowing - then he might wear a jersey and then he has to strip down to one layer to put his seatbelt on, the wrong f***ing pants!! Are there real practical ways of making that feel alright to him? Because that would make day to day living quite a bit easier
Does J have clothes issues?

MP, you wouldn't be *that* stage mum though - you would be the awesome lady behind the scenes making costumes and bringing amazing finger foods! Does J like performing too?

After school activities - W is doing Kea's (Scouts) one night a week and the ice skating rink is opening again shortly so I think he might do that a time or two a week. He has amazing balance and was really good at skiing so hopefully he will be naturally good at ice skating and get some confidence from that.

And after 6 years of driving around my little town with a bare minimum knowledge of road rules with no problems, only one month into living in a bigger town and I got pulled over for blowing through a stop sign! Sucks!