I regularly see news articles, telling us that the Autism rate may be higher than in previous years, but it’s just due to better diagnosis –  they think. There is some concern that teachers in schools are not prepared to handle the growing numbers of children with ASD in classrooms. There are training programs being offered for teachers to equip themselves to cope with the ever growing influx. Which is pretty strange really – if it’s just better diagnosis, and the numbers haven’t actually changed much, then surely the kids in the classroom would be pretty much the same now as they were 5, 10 or 20 years ago? Why the need for extra training programs?

Numbers are growing. Diagnosis may be getting better, but it’s still not being diagnosed as early is it can be. Especially in rural or regional areas, where access to services including those leading to a diagnosis, often have long waiting times, and inexperienced practitioners. Autism is here to stay. It’s growing, it numbers more children than most other serious childhood illnesses, and it’s not going away.

However, due to my disgusting flu, I can’t have any chocolate right now (even the dairy free stuff), so I’m not going to dwell on a topic that upsets me. I’m going to concentrate on the positive instead. So here it is, the latest installment from my only-slightly-insane family:

• We still have speech. Which is pretty amazing, given that every other time BuddyBoy got sick, all speech went. And took its sweet time in ever returning.
• My mum was at our place, but he wanted to go and play at her house (she lives with us in a granny flat), which he hasn’t done for ages. I told him we had to ask her first, took him to her and said, “What do we say? We say, “Omi (grandma) can I come play at your house please?” Needless to say I wasn’t expecting him to actually say anything, it’s just how I model it for him in the hopes that one day he might copy it. Which he did. “Omi, come play” came out of his mouth as pretty as you please. Well, how could she resist? So off he went to play, and she told me it was the first time that he was calm and well behaved, without trying to destroy some of her breakables (which she usually puts out of reach but didn’t this time).
• While I was resting (aka avoiding the children) in my room, BuddyBoy breaks in (he can pick the lock easily) and says, “Help me please”. I knew that my flu was pretty bad but I hadn’t realised I was delirious. Obviously I must have been to have imagined those words come out of his mouth – they just don’t form part of his vocabulary. Saying please – as if! So I asked him what I could help him with, at which point he starts climbing the shelves in my wardrobe, saying, “Puhlease, puhlease, puhlease”. Well, what do you know? He said it several times the next day, obviously enjoying the feel of it coming out of his mouth, and the reaction he was getting. Who wouldn’t, with such a magical word?
• SuperBoy was playing with BuddyBoy’s iPad (we only have the one). BuddyBoy wanted the iPad so naturally he chased SuperBoy down the hallway, with me in hot pursuit. I called out SuperBoy’s name a couple of times, and then heard a sweet little voice copy me – the first time that I’ve heard BuddyBoy say SuperBoy’s name. Brotherly love, how sweet – right before he pummeled him and dragged him to the ground. Shortly afterwards, I heard that same angelic voice say, “Fix, fix” He came to find me with the iPad – he loves moving the icons around so we have to hunt for them, but hasn’t yet remembered that he needs to push the Home button in order to stop them wiggling when he’s done. I showed him once again how to do it, and this time he actually did, “fix”.
• He’s also been asking very loudly for, “paper, paper” and yes, you guessed it, we’re still living in the land of confetti.
• We have calm. That’s all I can say about that really, it’s a big enough statement on its own.
• We’ve had a lot of extremely disgusting stuff come out of our footbaths, which I figure is due to the toxic flu we’ve all got. Twice. On the plus side, we’re getting better at keeping to a regular schedule of cleansing. We’ve also got a lot of chocolate bikkie in there as BuddyBoy keeps dropping it!
• No school news to report as BuddyBoy’s been away sick. However, on the second last day of him being there, we went a different way home (as has now become the norm LOL) and instead of the whining that usually ensues, he was just calmly looking around. He obviously knows when we are back on our usual route, and I could see him memorising the new way. Just to throw him, we then took a slight detour again, and he was still quiet!

That’s the latest installment from our chocolate free household (not really, but I have to hide it from the kids). Stay tuned for our next exciting episode, where you’ll find out if we manage to dig our way out from underneath all the shredded paper…