Autism & Aspergers

A Good Week

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 [...]

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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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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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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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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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The Bookworm

April 28, 2013

11pm all is quiet.  I’m having trouble unwinding and sleep is distant, a banging noise disturbs the quiet and I get up to investigate. Annie is under her covers, ‘spy gear’ night vision goggles on her head, the LED light glowing onto her book, reading. Quiet as a mouse, we thought she was asleep. I [...]

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The Spelling Test

April 26, 2013

7pm, the girls are in their bedrooms, enjoying 30 minutes of iPad time before their quite reading time starts. I’m trying to spend some time with my husband, catching up on each others days. “Mama, how do you spell Dinner?” calls Heidi from her bedroom. “D I N N E R” calls out my husband. [...]

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The Soy Sauce Debacle

April 24, 2013

Dinner time approaches. It has been a long day and all Heidi wants to eat is two minute noodles. I decide this isn’t a battle I want to fight and get the two minute noodles for her. Disaster, we are out of chicken flavored noodles. I pick up one of the other packets and cook [...]

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Homework

April 22, 2013

Homework is an ongoing drama. I’m grateful that the new homework sheets offer choices, out of 5 options we pick 2. Every week we tick off the 2 x 20 minutes of physical activity. Thank god for swimming lessons. The second choice is harder, choices are always hard, especially when it is between 4 things [...]

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Autism, Processing and Clothing

April 20, 2013
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We’ve tried for years to help Heidi sort out her own clothing, get herself dressed in the mornings, so many things we’ve tried. If I lay her clothing out before she gets dressed then there are no problems. If we are not in a hurry and she has time to pick out what she is [...]

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