Fun!

After cancelling last week’s speech therapy appointment due to illness, I was a little apprehensive about today’s session as Elizabeth was still quite grisly, which usually translated into teary tantrums. But I need not have worried. Kate, her Speech Therapist, along with Natalie, her Occupational Therapist, had set the room up with all sorts of interesting toys to try to get Elizabeth to engage with them more. And as Elizabeth is very adept at unlocking doors (she is not quite three), they set up a clam filled with balls right in front of the door. This worked perfectly as Elizabeth not once tried to escape; she had too much fun playing amongst the balls.

Through trial and error we have moved away from PECS (picture exchange) and have decided to concentrate more on Makaton (signing) and vocalization ques. Today the goal was to get Elizabeth to ask for ‘more’ through signing. Whilst she loved the bubbles, today it was music time that proved the most successful. Kate would play a favourite song of Elizabeth’s for about thirty seconds before switching it off. Elizabeth would then have to ask for ‘more’ before switching it back on. The whole scene was very animated, as we would all dance along with Elizabeth to the song.

At the end not only would Elizabeth ask for ‘more’ by placing her hand over her stomach (the sign should be ideally over her chest but any attempt at the sign is accepted at this stage) but she started vocalising the word ‘fun’. Clapping her hands together she yelled out ‘un’ five times in a row without any prompting. Like the signing, we would always repeat the correct word back to her in a sing-song voice that children particularly respond to. The word ‘say’ is banned from our vocabulary as it puts too much pressure on children and they respond by withdrawing more within themselves.

An advocate of play therapy I strongly believe in gentle encouragement rather than some of the heavier handed tactics employed by some of the programs designed for autistic children. Floortime and RDI are both excellent programs and encourages the child to engage with you through play. It is no wonder that one of my daughter’s first words is ‘fun’.

Ill

I take my daughters hand into mine, her face flushed with fever she lies sprawled on the sofa watching the television through half-lidded eyes. I try everything to keep illnesses and infections at bay; a diet of good organic foods, exercise and sunlight. Yet despite every effort, you simply cannot prevent your child from getting sick. Hypersensitive, I must administer Panadol suppositories as Elizabeth would gag and chock on any medicine taken orally. Along with plenty of fluids, the Panadol is the only defence we have, short of being admitted to hospital and being placed on a drip.

I learned this the hard way last year, just before she was diagnosed with ASD. She caught a virus that induced very high fevers. I tried to give Elizabeth some Nurofen but she gagged on it and threw up all over the kitchen floor. Desperate I tried to put it in her bottle but after one sip she refused it and every other liquid we tried to give her. A couple of hours later her temperature had reached 40 degrees, at which time she was also very dehydrated. I called my Dad and raced straight up to the hospital. By the time we saw the triage nurse thirty minutes later her temperature had reached 42 degrees. At this stage Elizabeth was crying unceasingly. A drip was put her arm to re-hydrate her and a suppository was administered, but not until they attempted to give her some painkiller orally, despite our protests, for which she threw up immediately. It took two days for her take a bottle again and three days before she began eating. Altogether she spent four days in hospital. Other little ones I knew who came down with the same virus recovered quickly with regular painkillers and plenty of fluid.

The Panadol finally taking the edge of her fever, Elizabeth sits up and gives me a beautiful bear hug before climbing down off the sofa and dashing over to her toys.