#1466 Wednesday 1 February

School!!!! 
She has been so intent on the coming event that it was a serious anxiety trigger.  I used a social story and emphasised how she would sleep well .... how she would lie still and quiet ..... and it worked!  At 6:30am as I write, she is still asleep! Social stories are a wonderful tool.

A friend noticed this news article and passed it on .....

Autism assistance dogs

It's very interesting.  Their life sounds very similar to ours!! But instead of a dog, we used ourselves.  I can remember how we would have to watch her like a hawk cos she would run.  At that stage we coped by always having a physical touch. Once in a shop in Kuta, my attention wandered for a moment ..... and she was out the door and in the middle of the traffic in the street.  That incident was very scary for us and even 10 years on, we frequently talk about that moment.  Looking back it explains why Kaylia now loves to always walk either arm in arm ... or to walk in a cuddle. I get quite a few "looks" at times.

The news article is a little shallow .... the writer paints a picture of the dog making their family life normal .... but I think K was more severe than that child .... she was not as aware of things outside herself and so didn't respond to external calming factors. The medication allowed her to be aware ..... and she has learned a degree of self regulation.   The article also paints a very simplistic picture of family social interaction ..... autism doesn't really allow for any form of social life. 
Part of the problem is that a child with autism nearly always has a parent who has autism .... and an adult with autism often doesn't want any social interaction.  

It's a vicious circle. ..... and to have social interaction requires the other people to be understanding of the situation .... and our experience has been that very few people will tolerate a social situation where they are not the centre of attention!! So we quickly ran out of people to socialise with.  Another vicious circle.