Managing Autism - A Personal View

I came across this quote today and thought it really should be my motto! 

Be determined to handle any challenge in a way that will make you grow.

(Les Brown)

Elissa

(Now this is a face of determination!!)

Well after having some ‘catch up’ time after the events of the past week or so, I have so much that I want to post about!

Firstly is a recent award; I feel very honoured to be the recipient of ”The Spreader Of Love Award”.  A very big and special thank you to Michelle at In The Life Of A Child for this - my first reaction to the award was actually a little tear that came to the corner of my eye… (the award came at the end of my long and challenging week)!

All our blogging friends are extremely deserving of this lately, but I am going to pass this award along to Tulip Mom, who is busy preparing for a baby and who has made me cry recently (like I wasn’t crying enough already!!!) with a couple of very heartfelt posts, and to Laura, who doesn’t officially blog, but who is a regular reader of our blog - and who has plenty of love to share!

So now on to my rambling…

I’ve had quite a busy time making phone calls, and researching, and then making even more enquiries into getting some help for us all in dealing with Jack’s aggressive moments.  I’ve had some luck and have been referred to a counsellor (through our state Autism organisation) for some assistance, and have also been directed to a whole lot of resources that will be useful as we work through these issues.  Yay!!  We’re finally seeing some light, and a way to crawl out of the tunnel - well at least we’re heading in that direction anyway!

Steve and I have been tossing up the idea lately of trying to get together some sort of ‘coffee group’ for parents of autistic children in our local area.  There is a formal autism support group some distance away from us, but we’re really looking for something local as ideally we’d like to meet other parents and families who are close by.  So we’re going to get working on this idea and hopefully get together a small group of other parents who are interested in catching up informally on a regular basis.  (And if anyone has done anything like this before and has any suggestions or ideas.. we’d love to hear, and we’ll post on this more as we go along.)

Jack had his third day at school yesterday, which was also his first ‘full’ day.  He is coping really well in the classroom - in fact much better than we could ever have imagined, but he is really struggling in the playground (and this was certainly highlighted yesterday when he had his first experience of the long ‘lunchtime’ break).  We always knew that this part of the school day was going to be his biggest challenge, but now it’s just a matter of working out the best way to manage it.  His teacher has been absolutely wonderful and totally supportive (we couldn’t ask for better), and yesterday she arranged for him to spend the second half of the lunch break (when she wasn’t in the yard to supervise him) having ‘down time’ on the computer.  She also mentioned to Steve, when he picked Jack up at the end of the day, that the staff were going to work out the best way to structure lunchtimes for him - I’m going to meet with her about this later in the week.  We just feel so blessed that Jack is in such a wonderful supportive school environment.

In my search for help and advice over the past few days a couple of people have asked me where we usually turn for help and assistance when things get tough or ‘challenging’ or when we just need to talk through stuff.  This really made me stop and think, and I started to wonder myself.  I know that I always have my mum and dad as a support mechanism, but otherwise we simply rely on the support network that we have through blogging, and an online forum that we visit…  So don’t answer me now, but I’m planning on posting soon about support - in an attempt to discover where people find it, and how people deal with the unsupportive influences in their lives (around autism!!)…

Oh, and just quickly on a different topic, I must make mention of the fact that we had a snake in our backyard yesterday afternoon.  A passerby spotted it moving across the road and into our garden (we have an empty paddock across the road from us and bushland a short distance away).  It was a brown snake about 4 feet long - common in the bushland of Australia, but their bite can be deadly!  It disappeared into hiding somewhere in the garden, and we’re praying that it has decided to move on, (but for now the kids are confined to indoor play, and I have to admit I’m a little nervous about going out to hang the washing on the clothes line… silly I know - but I really don’t like snakes)!!  I’m just grateful that firstly, someone spotted it so that we knew it was around (seeing as Jack likes to hide in under the bushes in the garden), and secondly, that Jack was at school at the time when we had about 6 men (who were working on a building site a couple of doors down and who had spotted the snake as they were driving along our street) going through our garden with shovels trying to either kill it or scare it away.  I don’t think I could have coped with his questioning and panicking - it was enough trying to explain later to him why he couldn’t go and play outside!!

So now that I’m nearly caught up…!!

Have a great day everyone,

Elissa

What a week this has been!

Casdok posted a few days ago about having “one of those weeks” and it seems in my blog travels that many of us have had similar sorts of weeks… well I know I have anyway…!!

After my recent post, “Sometimes life just feels too hard”, I sat down to respond to the many comments I received, and was quite taken aback.  I was touched by the many ’shining lights’ that were within the comments, and the thoughts that were shared.

The comments posted were so much more than supportive and inspiring… through the comments left I discovered what a truly beautiful thing people involved with ’special’ kids share… we share a strength that knows no boundaries (especially when things get tough - and boy do they get tough!!), and we share an ability to keep on keeping on… no matter how hard it gets (and despite the moments we have where we just want to give up!)…

After my post this week I felt understood - all kids are different for sure, but sometimes people have to walk in similar shoes to really understand… and I feel blessed that I have such wonderful people around me who understand what it is like to walk in ‘different’ shoes…

Jack’s first day of school was a big moment in our house this week, and as Steve posted, one that went smoothly and successfully.  His first two days of school were short days (only 3 1/2 hours each day) so this week will be the challenge - he faces full 6 1/2 hour days.  For the first few weeks of the school term the ‘Prep’ class has Wednesday at home as a rest day - Jack will really need this day, and his teacher has suggested that if we need to we can take extra ‘rest’ days or afternoons as we go.

So the tears finally eased by the end of the week… and yes, the sun is starting to poke through again.  And I truly hope that for many of my blogging friends that this week the sun will again begin to come up in your lives.

There is one thing that I’ve worked out over the last few days - the difficult and really challenging times that we face definitely make us stronger, and allow us to really appreciate the wonderful times that we have in our lives.

Much love and hugs to you all!

Elissa xx