Taking time to process

by Marita on May 24, 2013

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One of the things that I find hard to describe about talking to Heidi is the gaps in conversations. The pauses you have to leave so she has time to process what you have said. You can see / hear it a bit in these two videos.

Some concepts are easier than others to process. At times if there is less sensory disturbance around Heidi will absorb what you are saying much faster.

Other times what you are saying is of such huge import that it takes longer to process. When a much loved friend of ours told the girls she was pregnant, Annie responded with “Congratulations”, Heidi overwhelmed by this huge news, but knowing something was required of her, screamed joyfully “banana”… then bounced all over the place, her body language communicating her joy in the news far more effectively than her words.

Recently we had to break the devastating news to the girls that Oz The Cat had passed away. We waited until the Saturday morning to tell them, working on the premise that timing the news when we were all at our best was a good idea. Annie was broken hearted, she had a million questions and so many tears. Heidi was sad that Annie was sad, gave her sister a hug and told her “Banana”…. then wandered off to sing disco songs and dance in her bedroom.

Nothing more was heard about it from Heidi, until Tuesday of the following week. We were getting ready for school, her Dad and I helping Heidi with those pesky shoelaces. Heidi’s eyed filled with tears and she looked at us “Oz da Cat is dead”. It had finally processed :(

I suppose what I’m trying to say is that you might not always get the socially appropriate reaction, not straight away. And be careful not to overwhelm with your words, think about what you are saying and try to observe how it is being absorbed.

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A Good Week

by Marita on May 22, 2013

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What is a good week? How can it be measured, defined, quantified for student records, written down and passed on to future educators, therapists.

Sometimes the good things are slippery, hard to define and record. Emotions don’t always follow the department of educations need for ridged structure and dot point meeting minutes.

Recently we had a good week.

Heidi went to school every day.

5 days in a row.

First time all year.

That is a good week.

She let us brush her hair on 4 of those days.

That is a good week.

We were even able to get her hair up in a little pony tail for the first 3 days.

and it stayed up for the whole day on the first 2 days.

That is unheard of.

There was no sleepwalking until the fourth night.

We even managed to read her nightly reader without meltdowns.

Heidi wanted to go to school.

There was no tear storms at the end of the day.

How do you test that?

Where do we record these things?

I don’t know, but what I can say with great certainty and joy is…

We had a good week.

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Observations on the Weather

May 20, 2013
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We pulled into a train station, I don’t know the name of it, the day was starting to blur, 6.5 hours of travel and still another hour to go. A man was standing on the platform, his golf umbrella folded beside him, a spot of garish brightness against the grey. The rain had stopped he [...]

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Surfers Paradise… It really is beautiful

May 18, 2013

Annie and I were lucky enough to visit Surfers Paradise on a day the beach was closed. It was beautiful, no tourists, we had the beach to ourselves for a glorious 10 minutes. I can see why it was named Surfers Paradise. Pictures are straight off my camera, no editing, click on a picture to [...]

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Haunted by Patterns

May 17, 2013

Have you ever gone somewhere and just found patterns repeating over and over? I suspect it is intentional design choice at the Broadwater Parklands on the Gold Coast. These pictures are straight off my camera, no editing as I’m still on holidays. Click to a picture embiggen. I have a few more I really like [...]

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She doesn’t need speech therapy

May 12, 2013

It is funny the reactions we get when people hear about Annie going to speech therapy. The most common is “But she talks really well, why does she need speech therapy?” There is a misconception that speech therapy is all about verbal communication. It is so much more. Speech therapy really could be renamed communication [...]

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The Birthday Week

May 10, 2013
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It was Annie’s birthday last week. We had cake with the outlaws inlaws: Cake with our close friends (Cake by: Fernando and the Sugar Sisters):   And cake at a birthday sleepover party:   So.Much.Cake.   With an honorablue mention to Birthday Week’s Most Valuable Player: Robert the Roomba Thank you Robert. Without your assistance none of this [...]

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Batman Lives At My School

May 4, 2013
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Heidi is still very anxious at school and has been taking a transition toy to school every day. Taking a toy is not an issue but sometimes her choice of toy is not the most appropriate for school, other days there is a huge drama at home in the morning as Heidi can’t cope with [...]

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Surprisingly good Coleslaw

May 2, 2013
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It was Annie’s birthday party with all the inlaws coming over, we had ordered a bunch of pizzas but I thought it might be good to put out some salads. Annie is obsessed with Caesar Salad so that was an easy choice but what else could I make? The Aussie Farmers Direct fruit and veggie [...]

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1am

April 30, 2013

“Mama I skeered, cuddles?” We snuggle in my bed for a moment. “Mama I need to go toilet, you come wid me an turn da lights on.” We go to the toilet, I turn the lights on and leave her to it. She comes back to my bed and snuggles in. “It’s squishy mama. My [...]

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