#70 Saturday 25th September 2010

Yesterday was the last day of school and Kaylia had a dance to go to! It meant that all the children in her class were in dress-up clothes .... not school uniform. This was very upsetting for Kaylia and it took a while for her to accept the change in routine. It all ended well though.
Today is a happy day .... we started the day (after breakfast) with a drive down to Midland to visit the bank .... that's an excuse for a "CAR" drive! I had intended to combine this trip with several other reasons but the shop I wanted didn't open till 10am and I forgot the library books which needed to be returned .... so we did a quick trip, then headed back again! This time we called in at the $2 shop ..... I said to her "You like shopping, don't you?" and she responded "YEAH!"

We're noticing more and more instances of contextually correct responses and speech. The words aren't alway 100% clear ... but from the sound & context, it seems that she is using language correctly. We just need to work on her ability to make the sounds that she needs. At present she speaks in her own language .... we can understand much of it but sometimes we struggle. Last night we had an "AH HAH" moment when we realised that the strange sound we had been struggling to interpret was meaning "salami"!


It's school holidays now so the next 2 weeks are a logistical exercise of working out who is able to look after Kaylia
(Are there any volunteers out there? Just a car drive for an hour would be great.)

Yesterday was her monthly program review with her psychologist ... things are going well ... the data from her therapy sessions is showing real progress in important areas. The gains that have occurred over the past 9 - 12 months make it clear that she is close to gaining the ability to acquire new knowledge herself from peers and general surroundings. Once this stage is reached, she will then make rapid progress without having to be directly taught. This is the knowledge gaining skill which we take for granted in the typical child.

Wednesday 22nd September 2010

Excuse me playing a bit .... I'm experimenting with a new 'app' on the iPad which let's me create and edit the blog posts on the iPad - which means I can do it anywhere!
Kaylia has just got home from school ... she has walked home for the first time (with Tina). This may not be a big event in itself ... but it's a little milestone. ... and we need lots of those.
Today I visited an OT who made a special support for my wrist. I've also made an appointment with a surgeon to talk about the surgery option.

The following video is worth watching .... made by an adult who is autistic and non-verbal .... the first half is hard ... persist to the part where she 'speaks' using computer generated speech. Some interesting concepts ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnylM1hI2jc

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Monday 20th September 2010

Well ... last night was a doozy! Kaylia was over-tired from a day of 'slee-poo-poo' and she didn't settle easily .... which should have meant a good night's sleep! ... but noooo! She was up at about 3:30. She has a new tactic lately ... she stays downstairs for about 20 minutes ... then comes back to bed (as an iceblock of course). But she doesn't settle! She gets up 10 minutes later and goes downstairs again! Then repeats this process 3 or 4 times! This does wonders for our sleep ... NOT! Of course, when you're in that half-sleep mode, it is hard to think about the best way to manage this new habit.

After that bad night, today's therapy session was not really very good ... Kaylia was yawning through most of it. She was behaving the way I felt!!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727783.900-autism-drug-aims-to-balance-brain-signals.html
This is a link which Peter gave me to a drug firm in the US which is developing a very new approach to autism medications .... very interesting! Assuming the lengthy testing and approval process time, it may still be available in time for Kaylia as a teenager.