Taylor counted up to 10 all by himself today which he can do and has been able to for a while, though lately he gets to 6 then stops and starts again from 1 so i was really pleased when he did it again today by himself and went all the way to 10 as it shows he still remembers how to do it.

We went to his Behavioural Psychology meeting yesterday and she seems quite happy with his progress and has told us she will see us again sometime in March now. She has put our names forward for a information course called Early Bird. We go (parents - kids not allowed, and she is looking into sorting a creche out for parents who can't find alternative carers for their children during session times) and meet lots of other people with children on the Spectrum (group of 12 parents) they give us shed loads of information about Autism and it's many different forms and routines and techniques that work for other children (highly recommended routines and techniques that have been seen to work for 90% of children with Autism) and then we compile a portfolio with all the information, take it home and decide (during home visits after the course has finished) what information links to Taylor (in our case) put it all together and try it out to see what happens, if it works then BINGO we've hit jackpot. If not then there has been nothing lost as along the way we've gained a better understanding of Autism and how our child's brains work and how they think/see things that we don't always see. I am really looking forward to it and can't wait until March when it begins.

She was ecstatic when we told her about him going to the toilet and weeing (no poos yet!!) as apparently at Taylor's age Autistic children tend to fixate on 1 single thing/place to do their business in and that in most children's cases is nappies/pull ups and they refuse to do it anywhere else. I was really pleased when she told us that as it's a massive leap forward and he's done it all on his own with no help or persuasion from us, he just decided he wanted to go and went (obviously we praised him lots after he did it) i am so proud of him i could cry. I can't put into words how i felt yesterday when we came away from that meeting. I had a million and one emotions all at once. Excited, happy, relieved, proud etc etc.

We took him to Nursery today and he ran in with a big smile on his face to his new support worker Salma. He really really likes her, even Sue the manager commented on how much he likes her and how quickly he has bonded with her. She is from an Agency and Sue has arranged for her to go into Nursery earlier and stay later than she is supposed to and the Nursery are paying her wages themselves for the extra hours and I'm glad she said yes as Taylor gets longer with her too. Normally with his Voucher's he'd have her for 2hrs a day, whereas now he has her for maybe 3/4hrs a day (except Tues & Thurs as he only there 2 1/2 hrs) i am so pleased. Everything just seems to be nicely falling into place at the moment in time and i like the way it's going :D Take care everyone and i hope you're all having as good a week as I'm having so far. Will post again on Friday and update you on how his Nursery meeting goes.xXx