Speech Therapy - AT LAST!!!

HOORAY finally on Thursday 24th Jan Taylor had his first ever Speech Therapy session. He really enjoyed himself and she's really nice. He was really well behaved and played really nice, although the little monkey decided it would be good fun to not speak at all!! He's spent the last 3 weeks singing to himself, talking none stop (clear words, although not always making sense) and on this occasion decided he was having a 'mute' day, which i was a little undecided whether or not was a good or bad thing. I had visions of going, him talking away like he has been lately and them telling us he doesn't need the sessions as he's doing well enough on his own. We told her about his speech, no point lying as he'll prove us wrong at some stage lol. She was really impressed with him and the way he responded to her playing with him, although she decided it was good fun to wind him up to get a re-action and hmmm boy did she get one. He had some balls in his hand and she wound him up to breaking point, he came right back with his hand, clenched his fist with balls in it and swung at her and hit her on the cheek bone (i couldn't stop him, it was so quick, yet it felt like slow motion) and he left a red mark on her face. I could tell it had hurt her but she never flinched, screwed her face up or anything, and carried on playing with him. He was fine after that. I was so shocked i nearly cried. I've seen him get mad before but not like that and it scared me. I appologised to her a million times afterwards and she said it was fine and all part of the job. By the time we'd finished the session she had a bruise coming up on her cheek bone. I felt so guilty. She has reffered us to a course called the Hannan Programme. It's a 12 week course in a group session and home visits too. I'm not going to go into much more detail as i'm going to create another page on this site with info about the courses we've been refered to and are attending soon.

I didn't hear from his Therapist about the Hannan Programme in time before it started last tuesday. She rang me up on Monday saying it was too short notice to go on this course and to lave it until after we've done the Early Bird Programme course at Easter. That's a 12 week course too. I'm glad in a way that the other course was canceled as it was on Tuesday evenings 6.30-8.30pm and it interfered with my Maths course at College. Taylor has to come first so when we got back from his session i rang my tutor and explained that i'd have to leave it until september then go back and do it again and she was really understanding and agreed that Taylor should come first. When his Therapist rung me on monday and said to leave it until we've done the Early Bird one i was really pleased. The Early Bird Programme starts at Easter and it's a day course, it's in the mornings and doesn't interfere with Nursery times either so i'm pleased as i can go back to College Tuesday evenings. I rang my tutor and explained to her that it'd been cancelled and was it ok for me to go back and she said that would be great, so i went back on Tuesday.

We decided the other week after everything that had happened between xmas and nowwe needed a break so we booked a weekend minicruise to Bruges (Belgium) 25th-27th Jan. We went from Hull. Taylor went to mums on friday as usual and Dana went to her dads for the weekend as usual. Mum had Taylor for the extra night on saturday so we could go. We got there at 4.30pm, sailed at 7pm (the boat didn't even leave the harbour, 1 of the engines packed yp so it took them 3 1/2 hrs to fix it!!) spent the night on the boat, got to Bruges at (should have been 8am) 12pm and spent the day there. It was really good and i loved it. The weather wasn't too bad, it was cold and windy but not too bad. We got the coach back to the boat at 5pm and then we sailed back home at 7pm (on time!!) we got back to Hull at 8am sunday morning. It was a well deserved break and we really enjoyed ourselves. Anybody that's lucky like us to have people supporting them (look after kids when you need them too) I'd definately recomend going away for a weekend like we did. It gives you time to recharge your batteries, spend real one on one time together alone and also if you smoke or drink do your annual fag/beer run!!! Also a weekend seems a long time but it's not. Last year we went on a 3 night minicruise to Bilbao (Spain) but we were away for 5 days altogether as we sailed from Portsmouth and it took us 13 1/2 hrs to get there and then the same to get back as we live quiet a way from Portsmouth. If you're lucky you can get 2 for 1 offers with P&O where you pay for 1 person and the 2nd person goes free. We've arranged with mum & dad to have Taylor for the weekend so we can go at least 1ce every 3-6months. I'm glad we went but it's good to be home!!!

Nothing much has happened since last time i blogged other than what i've just posted. I checked my bank account on Tuesday morning as i couldn't remember if i got paid or not and Taylor's DLA (disability living allowance) money has been granted and put in. I didn't even know it was there!! They put it in the Wednesday before!! They backdated it from 12th december 07 to 22nd jan 07 and his payments start on 19th february. He's been allocated the Middle Rate Personal Care side of it and he has it till 13th July 2009 (day before his 5th birthday) as when he's 5 we can apply for the mobility side of it for him. I'm really chuffed. I need to get in touch with mary now, his Specical Needs Health Visitor and ask her what to do about claiming for Carers Allowance for me, if i'm entitled to it. I'm not bothered if i'm not at least we've got something, it's better than nothing at all. We've decided we're going to put the majority of it (it's paid every 4 weeks) every month into Taylor's savings account and use the rest of it for new clothes, shoes etc and petrol money for mum for taking him and picking him up from nursery etc. We can use what we put away fro things he really needs like birthday presents, educational toys, days out with him etc as during summertime (when we get a decent summer) we're never in we always go out to places like Blackpool Zoo as they have a Dinosaur section there now and he loves it in there. We can also use that money to pay for his additional Nursery payments that comes out of our money every month which will help us a lot as on a none-voucher week we pay £45 a week for his 3 sessions. When his Education Vouchers are in force we only pay about £18 a week as they knock money off for us out of his remainding vouchers we don't use. It's complicated but it works and it's good for Taylor as it's his routine and he really enjoys Nursery. I can't believe he's leaving in September to go to school. It's going to break my heart when he leaves, i will miss them all so much, they've been absolutely fantastic and they're all like an extended family to us. I just hope Taylor copes with the change and copes at school as well as he has at Nursery.

Anyways, i've got to update my other blog now and create a new page for this site about Early Bird and Hannan Programmes so i'm going to leave it at that as i've noticed i'm just rambling on now about things that aren't relevant to this particular blog!! Once i've updated my other blog which i've had since 2004 when taylor was only a baby i'll put a link to it on this site's home page. There are a few things i need to tweak on it first to be able to link it to this site!! It's more of a diary of daily events involving Taylor and the rest of the family whereas i try my best to keep this blog and site revolving around Taylor's progress, updates and information on Autism as and when we learn more. The other blog is kind of a mixture of information, daily events and typical moaning and letting off steam!!! I didn't link it to here as i didn't think it would be of interest, yet i've had emails off a number of people asking me to link it as it's nice for people to read about the rest of the family and how it affects them too and other things that have been happening within the family too. Anyway as i said i'm going to go and tweak it a little bit then link it to here on the home page and i wouldbe gratefull for any comments, advice or complaints anybody may have. Please feel free to email me on autism.help@hotmail.co.uk thank you. xXx Vix xXx