Sods Law

Bloody typical, we spent nearly 2yrs trying to get Taylor a Speech & Language Therapist, now we finally have one, she's getting on my nerves and i am on the verge of telling her to (BLEEP BLEEP)

Anybody with or dealing with Autistic children knows damn well they don't take too kindly to strangers and lots of them, now you'd think a 'professional' would take note and respect that? NOT in Taylor's case. His Speech Therapist decided it would be good fun to go to Nursery to see him and give them a bit of advice on how to help with his speech and communication. Rightly so, that's her job!!! The problem was she turned up at Nursery with 4 other people and wondered why he was so upset, frustrated and angry. Nursery staff weren't very happy and neither was i when they told me.

She came on Tuesday at 11am to do some PECS (Picture Exchange Communication Skills) with us and asked me for a list of things (foods) he really likes, then asked me to try and put off his dinner until she'd been. So i did. She came, with an assistant (Taylor didn't seem to bother, so i allowed her to be there) she talked to us for about 5 minutes first then we got started. She put a Hoola Hoop, Smarty, Raisin and a Crisp (ready salted walkers) on the table and let him choose which one he wanted. He went for the Hoola Hoop (recent obsession) she did this 4 times in a row and all 4 times he went straight for the Hoola Hoop and completely dismissed the others (smarties and raisins are a no no with him anyway) so we came to the conclusion Hoola Hoops won hands down. She then gave him another one then cut the front off the crisp packet and stuck it onto a piece of paper. Then she wanted Taylor to give her the picture then she could give him the Hoola Hoop (people who know about PECS will already know about this) Taylor didn't like this idea and said "no" threw the picture on the floor and said "scrisps please" she picked the paper up off the floor, gave it him back and asked him for it. He once again said "scrisps please" and threw the picture on the table at her. By this time i was getting wound up never mind him. (Still no crisps given to him) she did it again and he threw and almighty tantrum (expected) and gave up, ran off into the living room and watched Cbeebies. She followed him and tried a few times but to no avail. She then got us (me & mum) to try and he did it once with mum as she wanted him to then got upset again when she tried. I tried it with him and he wouldn't do it, he climbed on my knee looked at me and said "scrisps please moma" which upset me, if they'd have been his crisps I'd have given them to him but she fetched them herself and had them in bag in her hand. After almost 25minutes of this she decided it wasn't going to work and gave up, taking the packet of crisps with her and leaving Taylor heartbroken that he'd clearly asked for something and got nothing in return (stupid BLEEP) He put the picture in the bin a few times too!!! I waited for all of 10 seconds after she'd gone and gave him a big hug and a bag of Hoola Hoops, he smiled and said "thanks moma" and gave me a kiss. She is coming back next Tuesday at 11am to try again. I am not happy about it, but I'll give it another try and see how it goes. If he gets upset again, she's going to get told that's enough. We have already been through the PECS stage and got passed the pictures and onto words so he obviously doesn't want to go back to them and I'm not prepared for her to upset him and make him do something he quite clearly doesn't want to do. As a parent you have to 'put up' with a lot from the professionals which is fair enough, if it's the right thing to do. I don't want him going back to PECS if he doesn't want to as i think he'll regress and go back to not talking and just using pictures instead.

Anyway, on a much happier note. My Carers Allowance was granted and the money went into he bank yesterday, so that was a very nice surprise. I knew I'd get it but didn't think they'd be that quick. They backdated it to 13th December 07 so i got £535 odd backpay and payments start either Tuesday or Thursday next week. £48.65p a week. I spent around £70 of it last night on www.play.com on books about Autism and i ordered a DVD I've been told about by 6 different people now. It's called After Thomas and I've been told to buy a big box of tissues as I'll need them. Mum says it's like watching Taylor now and what could be his future, so it hit her hard as she wasn't expecting it!! I've also just spent about £30 on a massive book done by the people who do the Hanen Course (which we're doing in 3 months time) and it's called More Than Words (By: Fern Sussan) we was shown a copy of it yesterday at Nursery and it looks like a really great book so i thought, stuff it buy it!!! At the moment i am reading a book called Autism Spectrum Disorders - The Complete Guide. By: Chantal Sicile - Kira. I have found it really interesting so far, although I'm not that far into it yet. Me & reading really don't go well together!! Plus i hardly get the time. I have to read when i go to bed and a lot of the time I'm too tired, so it will take me about 6 months to finish this book lol. It will probably take me about 6 years to read the More Than Words book as its 445 (or something like that) pages long!!!

Here is a quote from the book that i really like: "I know of nobody who is purely autistic or purely neurotypical. Even God had some autistic moments, which is why the planets spin." (Jerry Newport, Your Life Is Not A Label)

I thought that was great. This book has had really good reviews. I ordered it from Amazon and read some of them. I haven't got that far yet, but people have said what's really good about this book is she has given numerous websites to go to for all sorts of useful things and information. Right at the beginning of the book she writes about an appointment she had at the doctors with her 3 year old son. She says people were getting annoyed by him obsessively walking around the room touching every chair he saw even ones with people sat in them. She went to the receptionist and said "my son is autistic and can't wait no longer (after an hour)" and the receptionist replied "well, if he's artistic, have him draw. Here are some crayons to keep him busy" and walked away mumbling about how badly behaved some children are and how impatient their parents can be. Jesus Christ if that had been me i would have raised the roof and kicked up such a commotion they'd have had to throw me out. The ignorance of some people is unbelievable. The thing is, it would be quite easy for someone to mishear you but reading that, that receptionist gets me as the type of person that if you'd have said "i said autistic, not artistic" she still wouldn't have give a toss and had the same attitude!!!

I will update more on the book when and if i ever get round to finishing it!!! I have ordered a whole load more but can't remember off hand what they are all called, mostly informational books and i will also write one of my pathetic attempts of a review on the After Thomas DVD when it comes and I've seen it. Enjoy your weekend, whatever you're all doing and HAPPY LEAP YEAR!!! xXx