Raising 3 boys on the autism spectrum.
In the term 3 school holidays last year we had a very bad day out. I can look back on this day now and laugh but at the time it was a shocker. The Pokèmon game was popular at this time and Kallan had been begging to go to kings park and hunt for some.… Continue reading A bad day out.
Patrick has severe autism. Also known as classic autism or Kanners syndrome. At six years old he is completely non-verbal. He has never said a word. He makes a lot of sounds and is very noisy but his sounds are mostly him stimming. He has just started using noise to communicate, in the form of… Continue reading Living with the lower end.
When I hopped on a Royal Flying Doctors plane at 1am on Sunday 11th of June I had no idea that I would not return home until the 2nd of November. Patrick would spend the next 141 days in Hospital after being born at 29weeks gestation, 11 weeks early. I myself spent three days after… Continue reading 29 weeks.
Campbell my middle child, is as stubborn as, well, me! If his mind is made up about something it is made up. Althought hard to toilet train, Kallan was sorted before he went to kindy. Campbell on the other hand had huge anxiety around anything to do with the toilet. We literally couldn't walk past… Continue reading Toilet terror.
In 2012 we decided to take the boys on a family holday to the Gold Coast, Queensland. It was here that we started to notice Kallan was behaving very differently to his usual self. He was usually a very quiet and sweet boy but he had become impulsive and extremely silly. We visited all of… Continue reading Thrills, spills and ADHD pills.
Four years is old is the general age where your child will start kindergarten. This is a huge milestone, it's the start of their education and the place they begin to form friendships. For me four was one of the hardest and loneliest ages. My kids were included and treated well by all of their… Continue reading Four is the loneliest number.
Last November we had what I call our 2 weeks from hell. It first started out on the weekend with Patrick having temperatures and being rather lethargic. For who a boy who is normally full of energy this was a bit of an issue. Giving medicine to Patrick is like trying to bathe a cat.… Continue reading November Pain.
The emotions after our diagnostic appointments were a mixture. There was sadness, that my child now had a label. There was grief, that my child may not grow into the person I had once envisioned. There was anger, why did this happen to us? There was curiosity, what happens next? What does the future for… Continue reading The aftermath.
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