SPEECH PATHOLOGY

SPEECH

For the past month, my brother has been seeing a speech pathologist. These one on one sessions with Betty, happen once a week. I have been attending these sessions 3 times now and I really do enjoy being a part of my brother's speech development.

In these sessions, there is a lot playing involved; this is because my brother learns through play. She has this things about 'stupid creativity' or something along those lines where she will give everyone else a card, but won't give my brother one, therefore he has to learn to ask for help. Betty says that my brother struggles to ask for help which makes this concept something to work on and continue.

My brother also does this thing called 'labelling' where he will point and say:" This is ...." What we are trying to help him with is also starting to using describing words to help him. 

Singing songs also helps my brother increase his length sentence. There's this particular song called: "3 green speckled frogs" that my brother really likes. This is also involves play so he really does enjoy it!

As of February, my brother is going to be joining a group session with a couple of other boys his age, as this will encourage him to interact with other children. He will also learn to take turns( which he is struggling to do) as all of this will prepare him for primary school!

Holland

HOLLAND

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland. - 

 Emily Perl Kingsley

I was first introduced to this piece of writing in year 8 by my English teacher whilst we were studying 'The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night time.' This writing is a very good anecdote to what I was thinking through the whole process of my brother's autistic diagnosis.

I had to come to the realisation, that I was now in Holland, and I wasn't going to Italy. And just like the Emily states, I would get to discover the wonderful things that Holland had to offer. And sure, my friends would talk about Italy and what a magnificent place it was, but it doesn't really matter, because I went to Holland, and I experienced the wonders and joy of Holland.

Maybe that's what this blog is really about. Maybe it was to keep you updated on what Holland is like. To share to you, those that were in Italy instead, or those that have never been, the ups and downs of Holland.

SUCCESS

SUCCESS (TOILET TRAINING)

DONG'S ACHIEVEMENTS

I believe in I have posted about Dong's introduction to the toilet a few posts ago, and this is just a really quick update on the fact that he is now going to the toilet by himself and without being reminded! I am extremely proud of him and that he has been able to take the step of development in his basic 'life skills'. I think he started just wearing underwear at Childcare and he refused to go back to nappies. He's even really hesitant to wear nappies during the night.

THOUGH. He's already becoming a slacker and he keeps forgetting to flush AND turn off the light. If I received a dollar for the amount of times that has happened, I'd be a MILLIONAIRE.

Familiar Place

Familiar Place

26-08-12

A while back, on a Sunday, my mum, Dong and I went to see a show at Melbourne Festival Hall. We received tickets from Early Intervention to see Circus Quirkus. I think the event was free and was hosted by Rotary Club of Preston.

The show was entertaining for ALL of us! It was full of laughter, gasps and clapping. It was a great day for all of us I'd say. It was one of those memories that I think I'll remember for a while.

The thing that stood out for me, was that the audience were all special in different ways. The environment in there was amazing. I'll give you an example.

While I was queuing up for the candy bar, there was a father and he's two kids (daughter and son). The daughter left to go back to her seat or something along those lines and the father and son were left to buy the food. When they went up to order, I found it strange that the son started ordering instead of the father. I realised that the father was partially deaf after he tapped his son on the shoulder and did what I recognised was sign language. I think he was disagreeing about something the son had ordered. The awesome lady that was serving them must have understood what he was signing because she signed something back and he nodded. And for some odd reason, that stayed with me for a while and will probably stay with me for a life time.

I think it was because I was in a place where there was no judgement. Everyone came from different situations. Everyone was unique. It was nice to be in that environment where I could meet people that were in a familiar situation like me. And to the two little kids that had to learn sign language just to communicate with their father, I wish you the very best of luck with your bright future ♥

I am internally grateful that I have the family and love and support that I have.

Toilet Training

TOILET TRAINING

Dong's Achievements

So recently, Dong has started to use the toilet and receive his 'toilet training'. After weeks and months or urging, he finally used the toilet for the first time.I think this is a great achievement for my brother especially now that he is 4 years old. Before then, we had regular visits from Catherine from Early Intervention Childhood who would always be giving advice and tips on what we as a family could do to help Dong improve.

This:

was given to us by her to help Dong to use the toilet. He now, in fact can go to the toilet himself without assistance from my parents which is a massive step forward. Though, he still has to be reminded to go, so for that, he still is reliant on nappie pants.

Research: Although no statistics have shown yet, but Autistic children tend to learn visually and therefore visual support would help them. Like the picture above, the pictures clearly support the instructions. Autistic children tend to struggle with knowing when it is time to go to the bathroom.

Anyway, I'm glad that Dong is starting to use the toilet. This means, more practice at his childcare as well. My mum have this phrase: "mim mim" which somehow translates into going to the toilet.

 

Change

CHANGE 

(5-08-12)

This week. we had changed Dong's toothbrushes as the other one had had its time. His previous one was a simple orange one. The one he has now, is blue with a picture of a smiley face on it. At first he was very reluctant to use the new toothbrush, but mum somehow convinced him to use this one and she'll go find the old one.

This is his  new toothbrush.

Research: Anyone on with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) will to some extent find it difficult to deal with changes, whether it be small changes (like the toothbrush) or more large, dramatic changers (a death of a relative). People with ASD would prefer to be in a familiar environment that holds structure in their life. It takes preparation from the relatives of the person with ASD to make sure he/she settles well and is not anxious when change occurs.

Although this is only a small change, I hope that with this new knowledge, I can help my brother prepare better and adapt to any new changes.

HELLO.

INTRODUCTION- HELLO.

Meet my brother

His name is Dong.
He is currently 4 years old, and attends Childcare.

In 2011, I believe around September, he was diagnosed with Autism. For those who don't know, here is a definition by Wikipedia: "Autism is a disorder of neutral development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restrictive and repetitive behaviour." For me, personally, Autism is a mental disorder that effects the development of a person's communication and social behaviour. This could lead to what others would call 'strange behaviour'.

This blog is part of a school project in which I am required to share with you about all the different encounters that my brother faces. I would love feedback and if you could, please follow. My aim for this project is to further my knowledge about Autism and use this information to help support my brother.