March Maddness

It has been a crazy month here and not all for the right reasons. The last blog post was written when we were given some much needed respite from Thomas's Grandparents. We really enjoyed this time until suddenly this mummy fell ill. It was the start of hospital visits for the parents.

During this time saw a major regression in toilet training and some great frustration for all the hard work we tried to achieve. But understandably the anxiety took over in this little man. But we are working our way back to where we were slowly.

Stimming has also been pretty high up there. Showing signs to us that his world is not doing so well right now. But in the coming weeks it is all going to be about routine, routine and more routine. Even if the school holidays about to decend upon us.

Back to making more and more pecs cards as well to help with the routine and changes as there are going to be a few with school holidays coming.

We have also noted at lot more lining up of his toys. Whilst this is a classic asd trait it was one that was not really common for Thomas to do this with every toy until the last few weeks. I have tried taking photos but as soon as the camera comes out he deliberately messes them up if I get caught.

We have also noted whilst he knows how to say his alphabet and count out loud to 13 perfectly well he has no ability to recognise the written letters that well. so we have started the letter of the day. Using flash cards, and colouring sheets creating activities that hold his attention and give him the chance to know his letters. Then be able to work on his name.

Autism has also featured very heavily in the media this last few weeks, with parents speaking out about how it really is. One mum even allowed them to film her taking her son for a hair cut. Yes life is that hard. Whilst the interviews were cut short the snap shot they did show was very real.

Services are hard to come by in some areas of Australia, Funding is not always reaching everyone. And when you don't have this funding Raising these children is incredibly expensive. With the world standard being that these children need 20+ hours minimum of therapy a week. And simply many families can not afford to do all of this professional therapists.

So many try and make do with 1-2 hours of outside therapy and do the rest at home.
We worked out that Thomas gets 5 hours EI at ECDP a week, 2 days of kindy - not essentially therapy but is social interaction, then he does 1 hour a fortnight with the OT or speech therapist. The rest we do at home.

Next month is Autism awareness month. It should be a great month. I will be hopefully attempting to blog a lot more through out this month.