Friday 9 July 2010

My good boys!

We've had a few good days with Sam at the moment and I thought I would share what's been going on.

He had a brilliant afternoon at nursery a couple of days ago. When Andy went in to pick him up he discovered him in his full spare set of clothes wearing his wellies. It turned out that a teacher had been filling up the water table outside with a hose and Sam decided to have a bit of fun! It took 2 days for his shoes to dry out! Later that day, seeing as he was in such a good mood we decided to try cutting his hair. Last week Andy bought some brand new clippers that were much lighter, cordless and quieter than the old ones and I think this made all the difference because his hair was cut in record time and with absolutely no fuss whatsoever. It's his best haircut to date!

Yesterday was Sam's first dentist appointment and I was dreading it. Up until recently, trying to brush his teeth was a nightmare, he barely let me get the brush into his mouth. We got a battery powered toothbrush which he seems to really like, must be something to do with the vibrations. But he was so good at the dentist's, Andy took him in and the dentist actually managed to have a quick look and feel of his teeth and said we were doing a good job with him! Relief!!

Sam had another good day at nursery today which was amazing seeing as his support worker (who is lovely and he's really bonded with) was in a meeting with myself, the health visitor, the speech therapist and the specialist advisory teacher for autism. When we caught up with him after the meeting he was happily jumping up and down outside in the garden.
The meeting went really well. We mainly discussed how Sam had been since the last meeting. The nursery has put in a referral for statutory assessment for his special educational needs. He really does need a lot of support. Reading his support workers statement about him and hearing the specialist advisory teacher's report was very hard, no one particularly likes hearing about their child's 'profound' difficulties or reading them in black and white. But I know they have to paint a difficult (but truthful) painting of how severe his problems are in order to get the maximum amount of support for him. Some positives were mentioned in the meeting as well though, the other day at nursery Sam tracked and followed a little lad on a bike, lost him in a crowd of children and then found him and continued to follow him to see where he was going. He's not done this before so that's great! Any interest he has in watching the other children has got to be a good thing. Lots more was said as the meeting lasted a long time so I won't bore you with the rest!

William is getting even better with his crawling and has now figured out how to cruise around holding onto the furniture. He pulls himself up onto anything he can! He's pretty much the exact age that Sam was when he started cruising too so we might have another early walker. One funny quirk he has is that he seems to have some kind of love of the hoover! Not sure why but I can't bring it out when he is around as all he does is chase it and feel it, strange child! He also finds Sam very funny and giggles at him a lot. Sam is noticing William a lot more and just today thought it was very funny when William put his hand in his mouth! He didn't try and remove it, just let him have a feel with a smile on his face. A real brotherly bonding moment!

Thursday 1 July 2010

June

Wow, I can't believe it is already the 1st of July. June has just whizzed by and I only did one post!

Well I went on the PECS workshop and it was great. I feel I've gained a lot more confidence to try Sam with it again. And also working through the practices in the workshop means at least I feel I know what I'm doing! We've bought a selection of sensory toys to try and use to start him off with the first phase. The last time we used bubbles as a reinforcer which we shouldn't have done, they are his ultimate favourite thing and afterwards we couldn't change the reinforcer without a tantrum. Now he's had a break from it all for a few months I hope we can start again fresh, not using bubbles!
Also on the course was a lovely lady who is the specialist advisory teacher for autism for our area and will be taking Sam on under her wing from September. Was great to meet her and she is going to be at our meeting next week.

William has just started crawling a few days ago and he is getting very good at it! After only a tentative few starts on his knees he's been all over the place! He also keeps trying to pull himself up onto things, but hasn't quite made it yet.

We are trying to get loads done at the moment, feels like there is so much to do and no time to do it. We want to convert the office into a nursery for William as he is not going to be able to share with Sam just yet, maybe in a few years time. We also need to clear out the loft room as it is full of junk, sort out stuff to do a car boot sale in a few weeks, and finish the dreaded DLA form (which is nearly there). As well as doing all the other bits of decorating/DIY that still needs finishing!

I am really looking forward to our holiday in a couple of weeks, just to be able to forget about everything for a week and de-stress!