#872 Saturday 19 April

It's 6:30am and the so and so dog has just dragged me out of sleep by barking at the cat/kangaroo/dog/person outside. He regards the road going past as his personal domain .... Woe betide any foolish intruder!

In a few hours we will set off for Wave Rock.  Kaylia is suitably excited and wants to tell us about the salt pool.

Yesterday we began the final bit of painting .... the doors.  The house is looking smikko!  Chris has done a marvelous job.

5pm .... at Wave Rock

The pool is just perfect again .... a little lower than before but still a great experience. The rock is still the same and Kaylia was very excited to run all over it.

Back at the chalets and we're ready for a BBQ .... but there's no way to light it!   (Mental note .... bring a lighter next year!)

#871 Friday 18 April

Yay for holidays ..... we've all had a big sleep-in.  I think Kaylia is getting a good workout with Lara during the day .... so she sleeps well at night.

The recent senate election has had one good outcome at least ..... politics is more balanced now because we've got a left wing Wong and a right wing wang.

#870 Thursday 17 April

We have been very carefully avoiding any mention of  W-A-V-E  R-O-C-K   ...... we didn't want to start a nagging session.  So we decided that last night would be the "Announcement"!

After tea we prepared ... I had the camera ready to capture the expression of delight that I expected when Kaylia realised what was in store.  Naomi got out the calendar to show where she'd written "Wave Rock" on the space for next Saturday. 

We stepped through the days .... and when Kaylia got to Saturday she just read it out with no surprise at all!  She had obviously been reading the calendar for some time and it was nothing new to her.  Phizzog!

#869 Wednesday 16 April

A friend wrote to me recently saying:

  Does her anxiety come from difficulty to communicate or is it more than that ... like not understanding how “our” world operates on a larger scale.  Will she not catch up in development as the therapy progresses?

My reply was:

Anxiety .... I think that the anxiety is not 'caused' by factors such as you mention .... in a normal person, anxiety has causes .... but in an auty one the anxiety is a physical condition .... which can be triggered by external causes but the 'cause' need not actually occur.  The anxiety just is.  That's why it responds to medication .... because it's a chemical imbalance in the brain.

She will probably have this problem all her life and if she becomes sufficiently self-aware as she grows older, then she may be able to manage the problem to a point where she can remove the artificial aid (that is the medication). 

The therapy does not help in this area.  There are two aspects to her autism ...
1) too much Anxiety  .... which shows are melt-downs and lack of ability to control emotions
2) too little Concentration ... or ability to think ... or awareness of the outside world ..... which shows as stims and difficulty with learning and with social cues and responses.

Therapy does nothing with the first but is vital for the second.

The therapy cannot happen if both aspects are not controlled.  Lovan for the anxiety and Risperdal for the ability to think.
  Without control of melt-downs, therapy simply can't begin.  Without control of stimming, therapy cannot "get through" to her.  I have a visual image of her mind without Risperdal .... as being Kaylia inside a bubble and constantly whirling round and round.  The Risperdal breaks that cycle and allows her to actually be aware of questions ... of outside events.  This then allows her to begin learning. 

Because this ability to be aware of outside events had almost totally stopped when she was around two or three, she never learned "how to learn" .... this is what the therapy is doing .... teaching her how to learn and teaching her the skills that she missed out on in her early childhood. 

#868 Tuesday 15 April

Day Two ..... waiting for Alison!

She's had another good day .... she came home with Lara at about 2pm ... she was grinning from ear to ear! It makes a difference if we avoid the stress triggers early by doing a run to a playground straight after breakfast.  After that she's mellow and the day just gets better.

Tomorrow we will tell of the trip to Wave Rock on Saturday.  I'll try to capture her expression as she realises what we're saying!

#867 Monday 14 April

First day of the holidays ....
The holidays are usually a trial .... Kaylia wants things to happen all the time and this is then an anxiety trigger.  We manage it by having visual schedules that tell her what will happen for the next few hours.

Today it is breakfast .... then car and playground with Daddy .... then walk, library and swim with Lara .... then therapy in the afternoon.

4pm .... I arrived home this afternoon and was struck by the sight of this beautifully painted letterbox .... it looks great! Thanks Chris!

#866 Sunday 13 April

Remember the first of April and I said "April Fool joke from Japan ... they say that they're going to follow the court ruling!" ..... Well I was right .... it was indeed a Japanese joke.  Japan is going to start murdering whales again.  The battle continues.  Onya Sea Shepherd!

Kaylia has had a good day .... routine .... routine.  She's starting to get used to the idea of "holiday".  On Wednesday we will tell her that we're going to Wave Rock .... so she will have Thursday and Friday of anticipation before we go on Saturday.