Therapy Update

It has been five, very busy, weeks now since my daughter started Kindy at the special school. She seems to be settling in well despite the teacher being sick one week and the teacher's aide the next. While she is still reluctant to participate fully during arts and crafts time, she has a ball in the playground, having it over the older and bigger kids when it comes to the climbing gym, and she seems to genuinely enjoy circle time. Each week I've dashed off to the local shopping center to enjoy a coffee before retiring the rest of the time to the parents room to write and catch up on assignments. I find by doing something purely selfish for a couple of hours on a Friday seems to recharge me for the rest of the week.

From the parents room I can clearly see Elizabeth's classroom. Last week I watched amused as Kieran and Lydia lead the students towards the Hall where they were to enjoy a puppet show. At first Elizabeth was holding Lydia's hand, but soon enough she was putting her arms up to be picked up. She seems to be completely comfortable with Kieran and Lydia and won't hesitate to crawl into their arms for a cuddle. She especially seems to like cuddling into Kieran, but then he is a good looking man and who wouldn't.

On the home front, for the last four weeks I've had a speech pathologist attend my home for a couple of hours each Thursday. These sessions have been wonderful as she has been able to observe Elizabeth in her home environment. As the result of these sessions I now have introduced activity boards into Elizabeth's routines, that is, photos of activities or events placed on a board in the order that they will be undertaken during the day. For example, breakfast, dressing, packing lunch, car, and school. Of course, these activities can get broken down even further, for example, putting on pants, socks, shirt then shoes. These boards are meant to help Elizabeth process what she will be doing and hopefully allay any little anxieties she may have.

I've also re-introduced communication books. These are little photos albums showing Elizabeth going down the slide at the park, or reading a book at the library or being piggy-backed around the complex by Grandpa to help prompt memory recall, something autistic kids struggle with. We've also re-introduced PECS (picture exchange and communication system). If she wants a DVD on she needs to hand me a picture card of the DVD, and the same if she wants to go outside or wants a snack. All these strategies are aimed at helping Elizabeth to communicate by non-verbal means and alleviate the frustrations of not being able to express herself verbally.

This week I’m having an Occupational Therapist drop in for a few hours to help Elizabeth with her sensory issues and her feeding. Age three and she is still gagging on a lot of foods and still has no interest in spoon-feeding herself. It is at these times that you get reminded about how far we are yet to go with Elizabeth’s therapy.

On another note I've found out recently that my Grandparents regularly read this blog (hi guys!) so I'll make sure to add some extra photos of Elizabeth when I can. The above photo is of Elizabeth and her Grandpa enjoying her new favourite pastime: bike riding.